Quest M3 Roaster

Finally, a blissfully quiet and fully functional roaster has arrived on the home roasting and sample roasting scene! Built in Taiwan and currently only available through Coffee Shrub, the Quest M3 offers incredible functionality for only a fraction of the cost of a professional sample roaster. Is it a Burns or Probat sample roaster? Absolutely not, but unless you possess a trained palette, you would be hard pressed to differentiate between coffee roasted on the Quest and coffee from a more professional sample roaster. Price conscious roaster and savvy home roasting connoisseurs rejoice!

After all, the Quest is more or less a miniaturized production roaster (it comes with a counter-weighted door and mini sample trier!), which is why I would urge the novice user without prior understanding of roasting mechanics to use caution when using this machine.  The trade off of having complete control over airflow and temperature is that you also inherit all of the dangers of roasting on an all metal drum roaster. The metal exterior is hot enough to burn, and chaff fires are a real possibility.  I experienced this several weeks ago when a circuit breaker in our warehouse tripped as I was finishing out the roast. The coffee began smoldering in the drum as I rushed to restore power.  The Quest does have a built in safety feature in the form of an on/off timer switch that automatically shuts the roaster off in case it were to be left unattended for an extended length of time.

The real testament to the Quest’s abilities is in the results. It is possible to achieve excellent roasts with great repeatability once it gets up to operating temperature. I have been able to reproduce and arrive at my specific roasting time/temp markers within one to two degrees. While the roaster comes with an analog thermometer, I’ve found it to be far too inaccurate and would highly recommend purchasing a digital thermocouple and a vented cap screw.  Our friends at Chris King Precision Components were kind enough to convert one of the included body bolts for us. The analog thermometer still finds use during the initial warm-up as an environmental probe in the back of the drum. The base of the Quest also required a small amount of bending as it was not level out of the box. The tilt of the roaster caused the thermocouple to improperly read the bean temperature in addition to hampering the finished roast from exiting the drum.

With teaks aside, I have noticed a general muting of acidity and a slight lack of depth in the coffee.  Perhaps this is due to the slower temperature response of an electric roaster, but compared to coffee I’ve roasted on a Burns, the roast seems to lacks a slight amount of bite and can tend to accumulate a hint of smokiness. Again, this would only be noticeable to someone actively looking for it. I have also heard of the heating element and fan burning out in some machines, but we have yet to have any issues with ours.

In general, I am very impressed with both the build and roast quality of the Quest M3 and would recommend it as a high end home roaster or as a cheap and portable alternative for shop work.  The fact that it runs off of 110v is particularly appealing, but I would well research your needs before investing in either the Quest or another sample roaster.

Update:

We are on our third month of experimenting with the Quest, and will soon be posting on our new half-bag Loring Kestrel S35 roaster. We’re particularly interested in seeing if we’ll be able to reproduce production roast quality on the Quest. More to come as we start to unpack this beauty!

-Kevin Haugen