Back to back; Roast to roast

If you want to go with the i-Roast, you have two options: the i-Roast or the i-Roast 2. There isn't a lot of info about both out there on the web, other than the standard specs on the Hearthware website, so I decided to put them side to side and see what I found. The i-Roast 2 is improved in that it has more memory settings (ten different settings, as opposed to one with the standard i-Roast). One bad side to this is that as soon as you unplug your roaster, all roast curves in either machine are erased. The i-Roast 2 also has 5 different roast segments, as opposed to only 3 for the standard i-Roast. This gives you a greater degree of control over the roast by allowing you tighter control over the times and temperatures (but only marginally so). The i-Roast 2 also has an improved chaff collector, which took me a while to find and understand why it was better (it's pretty slight).


Physical design issues

The i-Roast 2 (see below) has a grooved slot for the chaff screen, which prevents a little less chaff from passing through and into the second exit screen on the very top of the roaster (which blocks airflow if it gets clogged with chaff). I've heard that this modification makes for a more even roast, but as you can see below, a roast in each unit with the same lot of Colombian yielded an identically consistent roast. Although the i-Roast 2 does allow less chaff through to the final screen, it's my opinion that it doesn't make all that much of a difference.

Different temperatures - but why?

Once difference I do notice is that the i-Roast 2 consistently reads a higher temperature for a roast with the same settings than the i-Roast 1. The max my i-Roast 1 ever reads is about 365F, whereas the i-Roast 2 can read up to a little over 400F. Keep in mind though that this isn't internal bean mass temperature, which can be quite higher. However, when I insert my thermocoupler into the bean mass, I get something quite a bit different. It seems that my i-Roast 1 actually roasts slightly hotter even though it's reading a lower temperature. I roasted the same Colombian bean on both roasters and the results were virtually identical with slightly different first and second crack times. Roasting times and temperatures will be different from model to model, but the difference in the cup will most likely be slight.




But how does it taste?

I cupped the dark roasted Colombian you see in the photos below and there was virtually no difference whatsoever. I wouldn't normally cup something roasted so darkly, but even so, I should still be able to discern any big differences - of which there were none. I purposely chose Colombian for this sample because it is famous for its consistency in the cup, making the roaster the only variable. The i-Roast 1 and 2 are virtually identical from the chaff collector down with minor tweaks to the computer.