Just a conjecture on my part - he may have consulted with a company that makes fluid-bed roasters earlier this year.

ira wrote:I'm going to say this with some reservations. I think Scott only says positive things about things he actually thinks are good.

I don't think anyone is accusing him of lying (though maybe some are). The issue is that if he's involved with it then he's not objective. Some people will be more positive about something because they involved with it and some people will overcompensate while trying to be objective and be more negative. People need to identify their relationship with a product when they're commenting on it because no matter how much we try to be objective we aren't.

That's why the golden standard of testing is the double-blind. No one knows what it is that's being tested so that unconscious bias doesn't creep in.

mathof wrote:For me, filter coffee pales by comparison with espresso; for Rao, I believe, it's the other way round. I go on reading him out of interest, but I disregard his taste recommendations.

Or he just "prefers" whatever coffee he thinks the Decent can do better than any other machine?