BackgroundAs discussed in
1-lb Sample Roaster Options, I’ll document my experience, the purchasing of KapoK K500 gas coffee roaster from Taiwan, for the reference of our group members.
KapoK? Many coffee roasters are made in Taiwan (e.g. HotTop, Quest M3, Aillio, Huky, BellaTW/Yang-Chia, and KapoK) and they occupy diverse market segments. For the three 1-pound gas roasters, Huky 500 (~$1400) is an economical home roaster, whiles both BellaTW (Mini-500plus, ~$3400) and KapoK (KapoK K500, ~$6000) are more oriented toward commercial setting. KapoK continuously sponsored regional coffee roasting competition, and gained most of its popularity after Yu-Chuan (Jacky) Lai got the World Coffee Roasting Championship in 2014 - Jacky owns three coffee roasting shops and uses KapoK 1-kg and 5-kg roasters. Since Jacky operated BellaTW roasters in the Taiwan regional competition and eventually got his title by the using of a Giesen W6, it should be fair to say that both BellaTW and KapoK are capable commercial roasters.
HearsaySome hearsay while I was researching KapoK. It is said that KapoK made and exported wood heating stoves or something to Germany, and thus KapoK had better safety features/build quality. I have never confirmed this with the owner, because it could be merely marketing strategies and I didn’t base my buying decision on it.
Some people claim that, KapoK use a computer-based aerodynamics simulation to design their fan/air flow, whiles most other roster makers still go with the old-school, trial-and-error approaches. It is interesting to know other roasters with solid/perforated drum options for distinct air flow control and roasting profiles. However, I’m no expert to know which roaster has superior internal air flow/minimized turbulence design.
CommunicationsI emailed several companies in Taiwan regarding detail specs/pricing discounts of their roasters. Among these companies, KapoK was the slowest responding one. For example, Mr. Jet Huang, the sales manager of BellaTW, almost always responded my inquiries within couple of days. On the other hand, Mr. Frank Lin, the owner of KapoK, could have delayed answering my questions for up to two months, to a point that I almost forget the existent of our “conversationâ€. In the bright side, Frank did address most of my question or even some of my harsh critics. In my opinion, the slow responding was due to his pondering of answer, and he wouldn’t reply if he doesn’t have the answer yet. During the evaluation phase, the communication was not good, but adequate. After I decided to purchase KapoK, there was about 50-days of build time without exchanging e-mails between us.
I got notice when they were performing the final testing of the roaster, received the UPS tracking number, and the communication had greatly improved since then. Frank asked me to inspect the outlook of the package for potential shipping damage, and answered my installation questions immediately. He also gave me his personal Line and Skype contacts even with the 12-hours time zone difference. I did not bother to call him though, because I did not encounter any installation issue. The user’s manual was concise with several typos; the illustrative pictures explained virtually everything.
PricingRecently the US dollars are gaining strength in exchange of a basket of Asian currencies. It was around 1:30 (USD: New Taiwan Dollars) last year and now reaching 1:31.8. My price quote was in US dollar though. If you really want to buy a KapoK roaster, ask Frank nicely and try to negotiate some discounts even without a group-buy. YMMV.
DeliveryI checked several shipping companies including UPS in Taiwan. Since I did not have the actual size of the package at the time, I only had estimated quotes from these companies. Basically KapoK chose UPS air freight delivering to my door, and prepared all necessary documents. I got tracking number, signed the package, received statement from UPS for US customs duties (2.7%) & brokerage charges ($7), and made my payment to UPS by phone. I think the package had been inspected when imported. Shipping took about 10 days, and there was no damage occurred.
SetupThe assembly of the machine was easy: electricity (wall socket to roaster, roaster to cyclone), gas (propane), and vent. The body of the roaster was heavy though; need two people lifting it from the ground. I sent KapoK a standard Low Pressure Propane Regulator Assembly (
http://gashosesandregulators.com/lowpressureregulators.html) for the fitting test. Plug-in-and-Play.
