Just a head-up for those (like me) who have been waiting...

http://www.coffeeshrub.com/shrub/content/quest

Tom said the reason for listing it at CS was because the M3 is a step above a home roaster-approaching a sample/small shop roaster. Also, it doesn't carry any electrical certifications. I suspect the latter reason is factored more heavily in to the decision. That said, I REALLY want one but I'm a bit surprised at the $1200 price tag (I was thinking more like $1000).

$1200 from $1000 is a tiny price jump; especially since neither Tom nor anyone else has a clue how many he will sell. When I ordered the Compak WBC from the factory, I paid $850; the current price, despite a much better established market for the grinder, is around $1600,

Glad to see they finally put them up for sale. I've been using mine for over a year now. Hopefully more people will jump on board and more roasting tips and mods will surface. I've been very happy with mine in terms of batch capacity, flavor, consistency, etc. But I've been doing little mods here and there to compensate for my bad roasting skills

another_jim wrote:$1200 from $1000 is a tiny price jump; especially since neither Tom nor anyone else has a clue how many he will sell. When I ordered the Compak WBC from the factory, I paid $850; the current price, despite a much better established market for the grinder, is around $1600,

I think the price for the M3 is too high, given that an individual can buy a single one directly for $1000. I haven't been back to the mfr's website in a while, but I recall that if you were willing to buy the roaster in lots of 10, the price went down A LOT. I'd bet that if you bought 50, they'd really go down. The only question would be the cost of shipping and the likely customs fees.

Now I'm not concerned about any profit that SM's might make; they are running a business, after all. But the hassle of ordering directly is extremely minimal, and wiring funds is easy. I found the Taiwanese company to be very responsive to all of my issues and questions, responding to emails in a day or less. They ship the roaster out so fast, and by such a fast service (EMS-Air) that I doubt that SM's could get your roaster to you more than a day or two faster, unless you happened to be a local customer.

I would not hesitate to buy directly from the mfr., and I'd consider the $200 savings to be worth it.

ken

another_jim wrote: When I ordered the Compak WBC from the factory, I paid $850; the current price, despite a much better established market for the grinder, is around $1600,

Not quite that bad. Advertised price is around $1400 but actual street price is $1200.

Is the M3 really limited to 200g batches or was that a mistake in Tom's listing?

JohnB. wrote:Not quite that bad. Advertised price is around $1400 but actual street price is $1200.

Is the M3 really limited to 200g batches or was that a mistake in Tom's listing?

I believe the top end is 250g, however I generally roast exactly 1/2 lb, 227g, mostly to avoid ending up with small amounts of coffee at the end of bag.

There's another issue with the Compak K10 WBC, that is not true of the M3, and that is robustness and packaging for shipping. When Jim and I received our K10s from Spain, the packaging was appalling, and mine was severely damaged. I ultimately got a replacement from Compak USA, after they had started doing business in the USA. I think this is much less likely to be an issue with the M3.

ken

Ken, afaik, you can no longer order the M3 from the manufacturer, just as you can no longer get the Compak from Compak -- import agreements usually are exclusive (IMO, an obsolete idea for boutique manufacturers -- they can just as easily sell direct, perhaps via something like Amazon Marketplace)

John, I've roasted without problems up to 300 grams; but for taste, Tom is accurate, 150 to 200 is the sweet spot for espresso or brewing roasts, and 100 to 125 for sample roasts. At this level, you get flat out better roasts than any home roaster can do, and better than almost all commercial ones.