OzGreens

Some of you may have caught up with my recent roasting upgrade but I’m not the only Ozgreen member to head down that path.

Paul K. has written up his experience of privately importing a Toper 1Kg gas roaster:

My Gas Toper Cafemino – Part 1 by Paolo

I have been drinking “coffee” for most of my adult life.
I will admit to consuming instant coffee in my early adolescence but in my defence had my first drip machine over 35 years ago.

In the Winter of 2005 I made a fateful visit into a fabulous café in Rockhampton that has led me to this fabulous hobby and passion. I simply tried a house Merlo blend long black which was served by an enthusiastic and passionate waiter/barista who shared his passion of coffee with interested customers. He also answered freely my many questions. His coffee was superb but he assured me that I could also get excellent results with a Sunbeam machine.

On return to the Central Coast I purchased such a machine. I started to do internet searches and read and researched all things coffee…

To cut a long story short, I soon recognized the value in obtaining a fabulous grinder. An ECM Best was added to my arsenal….then a 2 group Futurmat. That is when the quest for fresher, more lively and balanced coffee led me to obtaining my first green beans to roast.

A brief whirl with a popcorn maker led me to an Imex roaster which I used 3-5 times a week for a year (it still performs well)….a year later this led to a Hottop. I have had the Hottop for 12 months now.

It was inevitable, I suppose that I would look further afield for a machine that would better roast the beans….and roast bigger batches than 250-300gm. I tried a breadmaker and heatgun combo. Good but not for me.
I wanted something that was robust enough to last for years and years.

Several months ago, I started to research larger roasters. I lodged some threads on various coffee websites asking fellow coffee fanciers to share their knowledge and experience with me on small commercial roasters. The Toper brand name kept surfacing. Toper is made in Turkey and has been made there for 53 years.

A Toper Cafemino (1kg roaster) owner in England was very patient with my many questions. He knew of another Cafemino owner in Ireland. Both of these machines were solely electric in operation. The Cafemino is also available in a gas (LPG) variant. I tracked down 2 electric Cafeminos and watched them roast. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to locate anyone who had used one of these smaller gas roasters.

In the end I was inspired by the falling value of the U.S.dollar and simply gritted my teeth and placed an order for a gas Cafemino directly with the manufacturer. I had not imported anything that had to be cleared through Customs before. I rang Customs and found out which forms I needed to download from their website. I filled them in as best I could lodged them by fax but had to be there in-person to sign and arrange the release. The roaster attracted import duty 5% and 10% GST.

Overall the process was easy. The hardest part was my lack of Turkish communication. I dealt with the general manager of Toper. His English is reasonably good but I soon realized that I needed to be specific with my requests and then I had to rephrase my understanding of what he said, back to him and await his reply to ensure that we were both agreeing on the same thing. This was not a foolproof system! E-mails abounded for a while there….each roaster is assembled only after the order has been placed and the leap of faith of depositing a few thousand dollars into a foreign bank account has taken place. Looking back at the importing process, it was a proverbial “piece of cake!”

I had the Cafemino air-freighted to Sydney to avoid its possible long exposure to salt air and probable rough treatment lying about on docks. I have also heard that boat unloading and dock storage can be less than kind to valuable machinery. Sea freight takes 6-8 weeks. The trip by air cargo to Sydney from Turkey took around a week.

I was in Darwin when Air Express Australia phoned to say that they had a large box with a roaster in it waiting for me. Excitement started.

The pickup from Air Express Australia (near Customs House at Sydney International Airport) was straightforward.

Photos to follow…