Curtis Scheelke

I have been roasting for 3 years as a hobby and many of my family members and friends have suggested that I should start to sell my coffee. Within the second year of sales, my first roaster could not keep up with the overwhelming demand of Tom’s Best Coffee. I have since upgraded to the premium RK Drum Roaster, which allows me to produce my product more efficiently. My customers can tell a big difference in the quality of my roast. I not only recommend this roaster but I give a A+ to Shane for his customer service.

Tom Haigler

Lexington, NC (Jan 2009)

 Hello, Ron:
 
 Just to let you know that I finally got my cooling stand put together, burned in the drum and did my first roast this evening on the patio. I was concerned about being able to hear the cracks (coming from using an iRoast2 that was an issue for me). I had my wife standing by to make sure I didn't miss the sounds. I needn't have worried. The sounds of First Crack were loud enough to be heard on the other side of the back yard. I backed the temp off a bit and let her coast. The first time trying to control the temperature is kind of like trying to back up an 18-wheeler but we managed just fine. I was going to pull at the first sign of 2nd crack and I overshot a few seconds but oh, well. The cooling stand worked great and for the maiden voyage of my RK Drum, I am very pleased. The rest will come with experience.
 Thank you, Ron. We're off and running. Now if I could only find someplace I could lay my hands on some more of that Brazil Fazenda Ipanema "Dulce" that Tom and Maria had!! A number of my friends just rave about that one and I have only a small amount left. I'll know better next time to lay in a good supply when I find a great bean like that one. Of course, SM has many great beans.
 
 George Steinert
 Sacramento, CA

Hey Shane-- just did my 50th roast last night.  I am really excited about the outcome.  The 1 and 2 lb roasts go a little fast, since my grill puts out a lot of heat.  But the 5 pounds are going about 15-17 minutes and the flavor is fantastic.  Great product.

The coffee roasting is going good and really I've been selling quite a bit. A little tribute to how good a job that roaster can do is that when I had a friend from Ethiopia taste my Ethiopian coffee {he owns about a half acre of Mich Harrar in Ethiopia and currently runs an African cafe here in London, Ontario, were he roasts   a variety of East African coffee every morning with an electric TOPER to serve fresh to  customers} he told me that my coffee was done perfect. He asked me what type of a roaster I was using and when I told him about my drum setup he became pretty excited about the concept. -Jason

Thanks to all who steered me right after my poor experience with the Ronco 4000. A genuine RK drum arrived in the mail today. It's a beefy rig---no joke! I headed out to the local welder's supply store for a pair of good gloves, then returned home to test the drum out. I fired up the BBQ, burned off the oils etc. from the drum for 15 minutes, and let it cool. Once it was safe to touch, I got the grill back up to heat, added a pound of the Zambia AA to the drum, and was off. A bit farther off than I'd hoped, as it turned out...took 22 minutes to get to second crack, but the emptying & cooling went E-Z. And man, those beans taste great! Thanks, Ron!
 
 --Paul