Above is a photo of my roasting set up. Mostly I use the Hottop.  The Hearthware Gourmet lives on in semi-retirement.  The Hottop is the roaster of choice due to quality and consistency of roast as well as the fact that it can roast batches of up to 10 oz at a time. The Hearthware Gourmet is limited to about 3.5oz at a time. Still is is good for blends where you wish to control the roast for each type of bean separately.  I also use it occasionally for small batches of decaf. I am not much of a decaf drinker so in order to keep the decaf fresh I prefer to roast very small quantities at a time.

The Hottop is sold by Coffee Bean Corral, Sweet Marias, and Hottop USA.

The Variac on the right side of the photo is used to adjust the voltage to each device. It can be adjusted above or below the incoming AC line voltage allowing more control over the roast time and profile.  Typically I increase the voltage above line voltage to the Hottop for larger batches of beans to ensure it doesn't time out and eject the beans before they are done. With the Hearthware Gourmet is used the variac is more typically used to slow the roasts which otherwise complete very quickly.

I could not post information on the Hottop here than could possible touch what is already available on Randy Glass' Espresso My Espresso site. If you wish to jump directly to the Hottop pages check out:

•  Hottop Reviews
•  Hottop FAQs

While you are checking out the site above, you're insane if you don't download and try the Biscotti recipe. Happy roasting, drinking, AND eating!

Here's the new kid on the block, the RK Roasting Drum. The first batch of 1.25lb of Columbian looks beautiful. I anticipate great taste. I'll let you know more on actual taste success later. See photo below for most creative use of a snowbank. Yes, the white areas with no detail is snow.