• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

I Need Coffee

By Coffee Fans, For Coffee Fans!

  • Coffee Brewing Guide
  • Support
  • About INeedCoffee
You are here: Home / Roasting Coffee / Hearthware Gourmet Coffee Roaster

Hearthware Gourmet Coffee Roaster

August 1, 2001 by Michael Allen Smith

Hearthware Gourmet Coffee Roaster

Before Hearthware developed the popular Precision Roaster, they created the Gourmet Roaster. Like the Precision, the Gourmet is an indoor coffee roaster that can roast 1/2 cup of green coffee beans at a time. It is also a very easy roaster to operate and is capable of making excellent tasting coffee with minimal effort.

Hearthware Gourmet
The Hearthware Gourmet

Differences

The Gourmet roasts slightly faster than the Precision and it a bit louder. If you need a quiet roaster, then this is NOT the roaster for you. The Gourmet has a manual dial to initiate roasting and the cooling cycle.

Hearthware Gourmet Dial
The Gourmet Dial

Setup

Owners of the Hearthware Gourmet won’t need any help operating this equipment. For those that are considering a purchase, let’s walk through a roasting cycle. The first step is to lock the glass roasting pot onto the power-base. The pot has 4 tabs which glide into grooves on the power-base.

roaster base
The base of the Hearthware Gourmet Coffee Roaster

Pour 1/2 cup of green coffee beans into the roasting pot. Don’t over fill the pot or the beans could roast unevenly or burn.

pour green beans into roaster
Pour green coffee beans into coffee roaster.

Once you have the lid securely on top of the roasting chamber you are ready to roast. Turn the knob to your desired roast. Note they label Medium as 10. To me this yields a very dark roast. Most roasts will do better in the 6 to 9 range. However, one shouldn’t merely trust your initial knob setting. Once the roast hits your desired sweet spot, you can and should force the cool down. The knob isn’t clear on exactly what number initiates the cool-down. It is just below the number 3. When the beans are perfect, turn the knob to just under the 3 setting.

Roasting

roast 1
Start of coffee roast.

roast 2
Coffee roast moves from yellow to brown.

roast 3
Coffee roast is getting darker.

roast 4
Coffee roast is now completed.

Finish and Cleanup

Once the cool-down has completed, you can collect your coffee. For tips on coffee storage read Coffee Storage by Ryan Jacobs. After the coffee is safely stored, the next step is cleaning the equipment. Between each roast, you will need to remove the chaff. Open the lid on the chaff collector and dump out the chaff. Using the small toothbrush attached to the back of the power-base brush out any chaff that is clinging to the inside.

chaff collector
After it has cooled down, clean out the chaff collector prior to the next roast.

Conclusion

At the time of this writing (August 2001), Hearthware is having a close out sale on this model. What used to sell for $120 is now going for $45. This deal will not last forever. I encourage anyone interested in home roasting coffee to take advantage of this sale. You will not find a better a coffee roaster at this price.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Michael Allen Smith
Michael Allen Smith
Michael Allen Smith is both a coffee fanatic and a web developer. In April 1999, he combined these two interests and started the coffee website INeedCoffee.com. His personal blog, which covers a wide range of topics, is Critical MAS.
Michael Allen Smith
Latest posts by Michael Allen Smith (see all)
  • Troubleshooting French Press Coffee - November 19, 2020
  • Exploring the Best Coffee Roasters in America - November 2, 2020
  • Making Cold Brew Coffee in a French Press - October 24, 2020

Filed Under: Roasting Coffee

About Michael Allen Smith

Michael Allen Smith is both a coffee fanatic and a web developer. In April 1999, he combined these two interests and started the coffee website INeedCoffee.com. His personal blog, which covers a wide range of topics, is Critical MAS.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Essential Coffee Gear


Essential Coffee Gear

Our guide to some of our favorite coffee gear.

French Press Guide

AeroPress Brewing Guide

Iced Coffee Tutorial

Connect

  • RSS
  • Twitter

Newsletter

Sign up here to receive our newsletter delivered by Feedburner.

Recent Posts

  • Life is Coffee Comics #35
  • Life is Coffee Comics #34
  • Coffee Pancakes
  • Interesting Facts about Kombucha You May Not Know Yet
  • Troubleshooting French Press Coffee

Categories

  • Brewing Coffee
  • Cafe Culture
  • Coffee and Health
  • Coffee Business
  • Coffee Comics
  • Coffee History
  • Coffee People
  • Espresso
  • General
  • Grinding Coffee
  • Recipes
  • Roasting Coffee
  • Tea
Copyright © 1999-2021 INeedCoffee is a project by coffee fanatic Michael Allen Smith. User Sitemap | Privacy Policy