Much has happened since my last visit to Cormorant towers. Johan has moved his workshop to a static mobile home - offering up more space and the addition of a powder coating area. The CR600 has also had a raft of improvements including a thicker front and back plate increasing from 2 to 2.5mm, larger chaff collector, improved diffuser and many others to boot.

Johan is committed to making the CR600 as good as it can be, to that end he sees it as very much an evolving animal, he is always keen to take on customer feedback and suggestions which might be implemented in future versions. The core characteristics remain the same, small foot print, high quality drum, very efficient burner, easy chaff collection and a unique and effective airflow.



The desire to continually refine and develop this roaster speaks volumes to me about Johan's passion for his product and end goal of becoming the "de facto" roaster in its class. Talking to Johan about some of his ideas - I'm in no doubt that this is something he is well on the way to achieving, the name Cormorant is already gaining momentum on many of the forums.




Looking around Johan's workshop, I'm reminded about his care for the environment - he believes strongly in recycling and there is evidence of this wherever you look. I love the bespoke soldering iron fashioned from a diesel injector, I believe. Elsewhere Johan shows me a compressor from an old fridge which has been repurposed into an airline.




A mocha pot sits on a stove in the kitchenette of the workshop, along with a vintage hand grinder. There is an espresso machine in the pub and Johan tells me he is eyeing up Lelit's new Bianca, the one with the paddle :




Johan performs test roasts on all his machines before sending them out, below the bench sit a fair number of bags with greens from a variety of origins - though I know he is partial to a Guatemalan.




Moving into his new space has allowed Johan to build a dedicated powder coating area complete with oven. Colour options are now virtually limitless. This also houses a variety of lathes, bench drills, sheet rollers etc.



As Johan fast approaches his 100th unit (probably already achieved by the time you read this) one thing is for certain he's adamant about maintaining the same exacting standards - he won't cut corners in order to speed up production - each one of his machines is one of his babies - handcrafted with love. As with any "parent" his knowledge and understanding grows and what he learns he passes on to the next generation. But like any product made with care it takes time, which inevitably means, that with a growing demand, a degree of patience is needed when ordering - one however that is truly worth waiting for.