Well, i finally broke down and purchased the GeneCafe coffee bean cooler, and i can honestly say that i should have made this purchase several years earlier! I've been roasting on the GeneCafe 101 for over 15 years now, and have been relying on my freezer to get a quick cooldown for my beans when roasting multiple batches. That does only OK, but the big drawback is that it causes tons of condensation crystals to form over everything else in the freezer. Pain. In. The. Butt! My first time using the new bean cooler,, i had no idea how quick the cooldown would actually be. Lo and behold, it took less than a single minute to get the beans down from a temp of 400 degrees to less than 100! Color me impressed! I also suspect that the rapid rate of cooling the beans after the roast even resulted in enhanced flavor retention of the beans, themselves! That's hard to say for sure, but my subsequent roasts have all been superior to the beans i've cooled in my freezer. My only complaint is that the volume capacity of the GeneCafe been cooler is a bit small. It does hold 1/2 pound, but just barely. I'd appreciate a cooler screen with 3/4 lb capacity to help ease the transfer of hot beans into the tray to begin with. Other than that, though, i'm thoroughly impressed with this product, and can't recommend it strongly enough.
