provided direction to use a heaping cup of green bean is wrong
second chaff collector is a pain to clean
Detailed Commentary
As mentioned in previous reviews here and reviews at Sweet Maria's the amount of green bean to roast is of issue. I've found a successful measure of green bean to be just below the top of the provided measuring cup. Any more the roast becomes to uneven, any less the beans become very diffucult to view because they are moving to fast. Also, with the suggested measure I gently shake or rattle the roasting unit by the cover handle every 10 seconds during the initial roasting process until the first CRACK occurs. This gentle rattle allows for even heating of the green beans which initially are heavy and don't get moved by the machine airflow. After the 1st CRACK the beans become lighter in weight and the airflow of the roasting unit does an okay job of moving the beans. However for safe measure I gently rattle the roasting unit every 30 seconds until I hear the 2nd CRACK. The 2nd CRACK isn't very loud and can be best described as a sizzle. Once the second crack or sizzle occurs I let the machine just do its thing. After the cooling period I clean out the chaff collector and send the beans through the cooling process for another minute or so. This step helps in creating more airflow in the unit and therefore extracts more chaff for the roasting chamber. I don't like drinking chaff. The suggested 24hr degas/sweating process is also very important and not to be overlooked. I found that two roast will fill a quart mason jar nicely, and the jar provides a nice airtight container.
I found 9.5 minutes will allow the suggested green coffee measure to create a nice full city roast.
