Out of Popper

Popper Coffee Roaster Control Knobs

It’s not easy to keep things in stock these days …

So you might have noticed the Popper coffee roaster is out of stock. We have some units in reserve to cover any issues / replacements, but don’t have any to sell.

It’s pretty easy to guess the reasons, but just to state the obvious … this big rats nest called the global manufacturing and logistics network is very hard for a small business to negotiate these days. Parts aren’t available and time lines keep changing.

We are taking this break to make any changes we need in components. The plan is really not to “upgrade” what we have, add function (which always adds cost). But instead to improve the durability and % of units that come off the line with a quality issue.

When you manufacture something the accepted rate of defect is 1.5%. That could be one of the many components, or the assembly itself. We actually came in way below that with assembly defects (and we replace any problem units promptly as our buyers will know). But we want to improve some components in terms of durability, specifically a better fan motor.

So that’s where Popper is at, and the focus of the project. Look for updates when we are in production again, which should be fairly soon.

In the meantime, Popper is 100% supported, so send any questions about operation or to report any issues!

Popper Coffee Roaster Side View
Popper Coffee Roaster Side View

Sumatra And Popper

Sumatra from Aceh area isn’t that low grown generally (1250 to 1800 meters) but can be tough to roast. It often gets a heavy, dark roast treatment that obscures the coffee to a point. Lighter roasting is more challenging.

Air roasters do a pretty good job with this. It’s hard to scorch coffee in an air roaster … provided you don’t overload it.

Currently we use a 3 barrel Probat for samples but when I have a single sample to check out, I’m using Popper lately.

Here is a 1450 meter Sumatra from Aceh (near Lake Takengon) roasted for cupping in Popper.

Lighter City roast from the popper for cupping and drinking!

Origin Story #1

We wanted to create a coffee roaster, one that was a lot like a popcorn popper from the ‘70s.  We didn’t want to think up any new design, or new roast method. We wanted to take what works, the air popcorn popper, and roll it back to the way it was 30 years ago. 

So we took an old vintage air popper machine we bought at a thrift store in the ‘90s for $4, and sent it to China. We sent it to the factory that still makes air poppers, and asked if they could make one just like that. They said they could.

West Bend Poppery, first version, 1500 watts

They sent us back a prototype machine. It looked just like the popper we sent them. Actually it was the popper we sent them, but they added 2 knobs to the front.

From then it was a long (and actually pretty boring) back and forth between Oakland and the factory.

There’s more to tell… but we are trying to drag out the story and make more “content” out of this.