Picked this up cheap in a small store selling various coffee related equipment in Japan, it was mainly cups and pots, but they had a couple of second hand small simple home made roasters that seemed to be designed to place over a gas stove and then turned by hand, also they had a used Gene. And then lots of these.

The shop keeper had very limited/no English - anybody who can help explain how this is intend to be used?

It might be for cooling beans after a roast or alternatively I figure you could probably roast small portions of beans by holding over a gas stove or heat with a heat gun and shake it to agitate (it's basically a sieve that is flat bottomed and with a lid that closes) probably best done outside or in a well ventilated area. It came in three sizes and was the only roasting related item that seemed to be packed like regular mass produced kitchenware.



Any input appreciated - if I am lucky maybe somebody can translate the Japanese.

Thanks
Jacob

It may be designed for the much more direct and higher BTU gas burners designed for Woks. Can't see an open mesh design like that being very fast even over the large 15,000 BTU burners on a regular gas range.

Jiffy-Pop for coffee beans! Looks like a simple roaster by the lower diagram with the 2 arrows for agitation back and forth. With some kind of a collar around a burner like a cake ring to contain/direct the heat better it would kinda work.

I used this item and tried over charcoal, portable butane cooker, and regular gas kitchen range.

Charcoal Roasting

Yes, this method can roast decent coffee, but the reproducibility and small amount makes it more difficult. All the roasting stages can be observed. Cooling and chaff removal is excellent.

Place enough beans to just one layer in the mesh. Roast over flame with frequent shaking, at frequency of 1/second to avoid tipping. Roast to yellow (drying) over 6 minutes, and arrive at first crack at about 10-12 minutes. Shake more frequently at 2/sec when first crack occurs. Remove from flame 2 minutes after first crack starts and just swing the whole apparatus in cool air for rapid cool down.

This is as close and as inexpensive to the "direct flame" method, aka perforated drum, and the benefit of "infrared" roasting.

This item can also be used to roast other nuts, like almond, walnut, etc. A smaller version is used to roast sesame.

Due to space constraints, this is very often the first method Asian coffee hobbyists start, before sinking into the rabbit hole.

I use something similar to this for campfire coffee roasting on camping trips, an Androck mesh popcorn popper.

Thanks a lot for your replies, I will give it a try when I get back home.