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PPXLROASTERS
PXL Roasters
  • History
    • Appendix to plate VII

    The manufacturers

    Who makes the machines, since when, on what principle, and what that principle does to the cup. One page per company, sorted into four families, because the word “roaster” designates three objects that do not do the same job.

    Detail of an Aug Olsen roaster from Copenhagen: wooden lever, brass fittings and a temperature dial graduated up to 350 degrees.
    The lever and thermometer of an Aug Olsen roasterVisitor7, 2014-02-11, CC BY-SA 3.0

    00Three machines called by the same name

    One word for three objects, and the confusion has been in place for so long that the catalogs themselves keep it going. Before reading the sheets, it is worth separating what does not resemble each other.

    The production roaster. The one that makes the coffee that is sold. It works from one to a thousand kilos per batch, it is set to repeat the same roast a thousand times, and its way of transmitting heat, by contact with metal or through air, decides part of the taste. It is this one we mean when we say “roaster” without specifying.

    The sampler, or trier. It is not a machine, it is a part of the machine: a hollow rod pulled out during roasting to drop a few beans into the hand and look at them. Evans's probe in 1824 and the Dakins' taster in 1848 are its ancestors, and every drum carries one. A roaster who claims no longer to use it, says the manual, “is lying, or is roasting something he does not care about.”

    The sample roaster. Here it is indeed a whole machine, but it does not do the same job. It roasts a hundred grams in eight to twelve minutes according to a fixed protocol, and its product is not meant to be sold: it is meant to be tasted in order to decide whether to buy the sixty bags. Burns patented one as early as 1883. Today Ikawa, ROEST and Kaffelogic sell forced-air ones, controlled by an app, and Probat a drum one.

    The difference is not a nuance of vocabulary, it has consequences. A sample roaster works almost solely by convection, a production drum adds a great deal of conduction: at an identical profile, the first gives a lighter, more tart cup, the second more body and sugar. This is why a curve developed on a sampler cannot be transposed as is onto the production machine, and why serious companies re-roast their buying lots on the machine that will actually roast them.

    Ukers 1922, ch. XXXIV; Scott Rao, Sample roasting; Perfect Daily Grind, Roaster basics: a guide to sample roasting (2018); ROEST, Roast profiling: from sample to production; Ikawa, Translating an IKAWA profile to production roasting; roasting protocol for tasting: SCA, 8 to 12 minutes

    01The companies, by family

    Production drums

    The machine that makes the coffee that is sold. From 1 to 1,000 kg per batch, it is set for consistency and for throughput, and it is what gives the coffee its body and its house signature.

    Industry and continuous roasting

    Beyond a few hundred kilos an hour, you leave the batch for the flow, and the question stops being taste and becomes energy, emissions and consistency over thousands of tonnes.

    Sample roasters

    A hundred grams, eight to twelve minutes, an identical protocol from one lot to the next. They are not used to make coffee to sell but to decide whether to buy a lot. It is not the same machine, nor the same trade.

    Sampling and measurement

    Here nothing is roasted. These are the instruments that sample and measure: the hollow probe pushed into a sack, the divider that splits a sample into two comparable halves, the sieve that sorts by size, the moisture meter. It is exactly what is called a sampler, and that is why it is not confused with the sample roaster of the previous family.

    Tabletop and countertop machines

    One to five kilos, often electric, for the micro-roaster, the shop that roasts in front of the customer, and the serious amateur.

    02Listed, not yet documented

    The census found more companies than it could verify. These have a name, a country, and one or two sure things; the rest is missing, and it is written that it is missing rather than guessed.

    • Alfred Nolte Reinbek, GermanyFounded in 1945, fluidized-bed and belt roasters for the food industry; presence in coffee not confirmed.
    • Bauermeister Norderstedt, GermanyFounded in 1882, a Probat subsidiary since 1985: mills and classifiers, no roasters. Out of scope.
    • Bottoni Ferrara, ItalyDaniele Bottoni, who joined Officine Vittoria in 1983, founded his own workshop twenty years later: the human thread between the Bologna company and today's industry. Principle and ranges not published.
    • Chan Chao TaiwanNot a manufacturer: organizes the Taiwan International Coffee Show. Removed from the census.
    • Coffee Consulate Mannheim, GermanyTraining and research institute founded in 2005 by Steffen Schwarz. Resells tools, manufactures nothing.
    • Coffee Pro (Hong Kong) Hong KongDistributor, notably of Proaster. Not a manufacturer.
    • Coffee Pro Direct (Eurasia) Sofia and Ho Chi Minh City“German standards, made in Vietnam”; 1 to 120 kg; founding not verified.
    • Cropster AustriaThe most widespread roast-monitoring software in specialty coffee; makes only software. No Austrian roaster manufacturer has been identified.
    • Daiwa Tekkosho, Tokyo Sanki Kogyo JapanCited in Japanese lists of manufacturers; nothing verified.
    • Devigne-Janin & Cie FranceBrand attested by machines still in service (GR5, GR15, GR40, a coal-fired example from 1905), but neither city, founding, disappearance nor principle established. The link with SAMIAC suggested on a forum is supported by nothing.
    • Efor Kuruyemiş Makina Denizli, TurkeySpotted in a listing for a roasting machine; not investigated.
    • FEMAG Industries Mudaison (Hérault), FranceFood-processing systems integrator created in 1999; a 400 kg indirect-heating drum roaster, capped at 160 °C and intended for peanuts. Not a manufacturer of coffee roasters.
    • Genio South Africa?Reputed to be South African, websites unreachable; not confirmed.
    • Hamburg Dresdner (Probat Dresden) Dresden, GermanyIn the Probat group since 2013: cocoa and chocolate, no coffee roasters.
    • Has Garanti Kemalpaşa (Izmir), TurkeyFamily business since 1954, distinct from Garanti Roasters; HSR and HGS series from 0.5 to 60 kg and a wood-fired roaster. Heating principle not published: the technical sheets come back empty.
    • Hoff, Novoroaster, GOB Xilouris, Coffeosi GermanyListed as manufacturers by directories; no trace beyond that.
    • Imex (Cafe Rosto) Seoul, South KoreaFounded on May 1, 1980 according to a trade directory; circulating hot air; Smart 2500 model.
    • IMS-Ritter Rees, GermanyFounded in 2004, announced as a drum manufacturer by two directories; websites inaccessible, no model verified.
    • Kafeko Nordic SwedenProbat distributor for the Nordic countries, which claims eight cups out of ten roasted on Probat in the region. No Danish or Finnish manufacturer identified.
    • Marshall Fowler Coimbatore, IndiaGeneral-purpose maker for tea, coffee, corn; 1 to 20 kg; 2003 according to a directory, “more than 25 years” according to the company.
    • Massol France?Brand that appeared in used-equipment listings (2.5 and 5 kg); no company of that name in the register. Identity and nationality to be established.
    • Mikafi SwitzerlandManufacturer bought by Thermoplan in August 2025 according to Daily Coffee News, single source. City, founding, models, principle: everything remains to be documented.
    • Panasonic “The Roast” JapanConnected home roaster; current commercial status unknown.
    • Pratter IndonesiaRoasters since 2018; machines in service as far as Oman; principle not verified.
    • Quantik Armenia, ColombiaThe only coffee Quantik is Colombian, Industrias Quantik SAS; the Spanish domains of the same name are a quoting software and a food broker.
    • RCE Coffee Piła, PolandRenovates and automates used roasters, makes peripherals; no new machines.
    • Rovira, Marzoli Spain, ItalyNot verified; Marzoli corresponds a priori to a manufacturer of textile machinery.
    • Royal Duyvis Wiener (Probat B.V.) Koog aan de Zaan, NetherlandsFounded in 1885, bought by Probat on March 5, 2024 to enter cocoa. No coffee roasters.
    • Sekio Kafe Málaga, SpainModels Excellence SK2, SK5 and Aroma 500 in listings; no accessible website. Manufacturer or reseller, to be established.
    • Spalla, Profitech, Tecmes, Malservisi, Pro.Ve.Ma, Air Tec System, Asm, NTE Process, Alfatest, Mia Food Tech ItalyListed in the roasting category of the Beverfood directory, which mixes manufacturers and suppliers of peripherals; for each one, it remains to be verified whether it actually builds a roaster.
    • TTQ Vietnam Vietnam2 to 120 kg per batch; nothing verified beyond that.
    • Twino / Ozstar ?Present in the Artisan index, sheet in error; nationality not verified.
    • Vina Nha Trang Nha Trang, VietnamFounded in 1997; the whole chain from green coffee to instant coffee, the roaster is only one link.
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