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David Jeong, coffee division manager atKorea’s Genesis Co., Ltd. (Gene Café) Credit: Genesis Co., Ltd.
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The Gene Café CBR-101.Credit: Genesis Co., Ltd.
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Ryan Flanagan handles marketing at Sweet Maria's. Credit: Sweet Maria’s Coffee Inc.
By Thomas Schmid
Roasting green beans at home has been a rising trend for some time. But the current pandemic has promoted home roaster sales in the United States at an even faster pace.
Creating a personal blend, experimenting with different roasting profiles and, ultimately, knowing what’s in the cup can be a rewarding experience for coffee lovers. Compact, easy-to-operate, small-batch roasters make the task a breeze. More and more of these ingenious devices have found their place in kitchens across North America.
“I think home coffee roasting is part of a DIY trend, where people are rediscovering how to make things at home for themselves, especially in the kitchen,” said Maria Troy, co-owner of California-based Sweet Maria’s Inc., an online store retailing specialty coffees and brewing equipment. “Home roasting also connects [consumers] to the places where [their] foods are grown, and it also fits in with a move away from heavily processed foods.”
Sales “going viral’
Another factor has seen sales of home roasting equipment skyrocket over the past months, at least in the United States: Covid-19.
“My guess is that with home isolation and restriction of movement people suddenly found more time for their hobbies and ‘foodie’ interests,” Troy surmised. Overall, she estimated that between March and September her company’s turnover of home roaster models across all brands was 40% higher than during the same time period in 2019.
Ryan Flanagan, Sweet Maria’s merchandise manager, likewise confirmed that the company had “seen an increase in sales for roasters across the board this year, particular since the onset of the pandemic this spring.” According to her, sales of Fresh Roast home roasters “nearly doubled this year, being up 83% compared to the same period in 2019.” She attributed that jump in part to the brand’s newest model, the SR800, which was rolled out only late last year. She added that StovePop sales clocked an 85% sales increase as well.
Asian and domestic brands both doing great
Nostalgia roasters fared even better. “They more than doubled, sales being up 132%,” Flanagan said. Meanwhile, South Korean brand Gene Café still was able to sell 47% more of its roaster models through Sweet Maria’s than in 2019.
“In fact, we noticed an increase in US order volumes of our CBR-101 model as of April, when it became clear that the pandemic would drag on for much longer than everybody had hoped,” confirmed David Jeong, coffee division manager at Genesis Co., Ltd., manufacturer of Gene Café. “It was a big relief for us because we had actually anticipated sales to drop due to Covid-19.”
Another winner was Nevada-based Behmor Inc. So much so that, according to Flanagan, Behmor roasters “were out of stock for a full three months as we awaited a consignment of [the firm’s] new 2000AB model.” This particular circumstance was independently corroborated by Behmor Inc’s president, Joseph Behm, who told STiR: “We saw a sales spike of approximately 50% [during the virus crisis], which led to all our inventory being sold out.”
Ease-of-use is key
So… with the average aficionado not generally being a coffee roasting expert, what are the basic prerequisites for a home roaster in terms of functionality and operability? Troy opined that it should “allow some degree of control over the roasting process in terms of time, heat, and air flow. People may not be experts, but they do know what they like in a cup of coffee [concerning aroma and taste].”
Behm concurred that ease-of-use – together with a home roaster’s retail prices – was a major factor. But he also pointed out that home roasting is still a new concept to many. “It is a growing market, but a market with few if any tutorials for the general public on why [and how] to home roast,” he explained. “People do show an interest but are not sure where to begin. It is a long process incumbent on word-of-mouth to promote the concept of home roasting.”
A pioneer of home roasting equipment
Behm’s company is regarded as one of the pioneers of home roasting equipment in North America, with currently 95% of annual turnover being sold there. “I started this journey in the hope of bringing more people the opportunity to enjoy what few were enjoying at the time: freshly roasted coffee at home,” Behm recalled.
And as the company’s original flagship model, Behmor 1600, has come of age, Behm has only very recently rolled out the latest, greatly improved product generation. It comes in two versions: the 2000AB for 120-volt current, and the 2020SR, which runs on 220 volts. He said that, as a manufacturer, he was particularly keen on integrating universal PCBs (printed circuit boards) in these latest models.
“Apart from great build consistency they also allow for future design expandability, are faster and permit re-programmability.” But end consumers benefit, too. “Thanks to the new PCBS component, users can expand feature sets by simply upgrading their existing hardware. It’s an aspect that is discussed very rarely, yet is a huge advantage,” elaborated Behm.
Asian invasion
Quite a number of Asian companies likewise have jumped on the home roaster bandwagon, with brands like Hot Top (Taiwan) and Gene Café (South Korea) being among the best-known in North America. Korean consumer appliances company Genesis Co., Ltd. initially launched its Gene Café CBR-101 roaster model only domestically, but soon began vigorously concentrating on exports. Turnover figures for the CBR-101 for the time period of October 2019 until September 2020 show that exports accounted for 87% of all CBR-101 sales.
According to Jeong, the company exports its home roaster to more than 60 countries worldwide. Unsurprisingly, the United States is by far the largest market for the CBR-101, trailed by the European Union (EU) and then, still farther off, East Asia and the Middle East. “Our growth was very obvious in North America and the EU, while sales in East Asia increased only slightly. Other markets either stayed the same or even decreased a little,” Jeong explained.
He attributed the CBR-101’s success to its simple operation that requires no advanced skills. “It is as easy as using a microwave oven. The user sets roasting time and roasting temperature, that’s it. Time and temperature even can be adjusted during the roasting process to achieve the perfect result. This is helpful when experimenting with different green coffees,” he added.
The learning curve with the CBR-101 is practically flat. “Once you have operated the CBR-101 a few times, you’ll quickly get the knack of the optimal roasting profile.”
What’s in store post-Covid?
The question of course is whether the home roaster sales bonanza will persist once the Covid-19 crisis abates. But Troy was rather optimistic. “Home roasting has been mostly recession-proof in the past…it doesn’t have to be a very expensive hobby and the results are immediately enjoyable,” she said. “So, ‘yes’, there may be a dip in demand [after the pandemic], but, ‘no’, I don’t think it’s going to be huge.”
Behm was even more enthusiastic, as his company has only just begun taking the first steps to also launch its home roasters in Europe. “If I were to forecast our future, I believe our greatest growth will be [in] the EU. They are extremely strict on safety [regulations], but we have spent thousands of hours and untold money on re-designing our products to meet their requirements — and even have incorporated them into our US and Canada 120-volt products.”