Hand net roasting generally refers to roasting coffee by holding a net bag in the hand and controlling the turning and heating of green beans above the heat source. As a way to get started with roasting, hand-net roasting allows us to enjoy the fun of roasting beans at home. It is said that in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, hand-roasting is a “compulsory course” for baristas, and even Japanese coffee roasters like to play hand-roasting at home.
Compared with specially designed coffee roaster machines, most of the hand mesh devices are relatively “rudimentary”, without a sealed drum for heat preservation, and there is no temperature detection feedback… Therefore, the temperature stability of hand mesh roasting is poor, and temperature detection needs to be done manually. And the accuracy is uncertain, which is more difficult to control the development of coffee flavor. And the more primitive things are, the more knowledge, technology, and experience are actually tested if you want to do them well. Compared with relying on the feedback of machine data to judge, those who can accurately distinguish the roasting status manually are all veteran players of roasting.
However, the hand net also has the advantage of making the automatic coffee roaster machine “envious” – the open container is more convenient for us to observe the changes in the overall color and shape of the beans during the roasting process, and adjust the firepower in due course. During this period, the silver skin and smoke generated by the coffee beans due to heating can be removed in a timely manner, reducing the adverse effects on the coffee flavor. But at the same time, it will also produce a scattered smoked smell and flying silver skin, and it will be more troublesome to clean up later.
For hand net roasting, we also need to prepare a heat source (gas fire or electric ceramic stove), cooling equipment (hair dryer or fan), temperature measuring equipment (temperature probe or temperature gun), timer, and heat-insulating gloves, Of course, green coffee beans are indispensable. In addition to the more “original” version of the hand net, there are also some styles that can measure temperature, are convenient to manually stabilize, or are made of different materials.