18 Jan 2021

Introducing the Pro100

We’re very proud to introduce our latest sample roaster, the IKAWA Pro100. 

The IKAWA Pro100 Sample Roaster has a batch capacity of 120g, and all the benefits of being an IKAWA Sample Roaster. It’s extremely consistent, repeatable, easy to use, and hands-free. It saves time, improves quality, and connects you to a global network of roast profiles. 

If you’ve used an IKAWA Sample Roaster then you’ll find this roaster extremely familiar and intuitive. Using it is the same simple experience as roasting on the IKAWA ProV3: it connects through the IKAWA Pro App, shows inlet temperature, exhaust temperature and rate of rise. You can even use the same IKAWA roast profiles. 

The Pro100 has specifically been designed for coffee professionals who would like up to 100g of roasted coffee per batch, whether that’s to put 5 bowls on the table or so they can brew their samples, as well as cup them.

IKAWA has proven that for the vast majority of coffee businesses, the 50g batch size of the ProV3 is not just suitable, but ideal for sample evaluation and profiling, allowing users to roast samples in multiple ways, and still cup 3 bowls of each roast.

However, we know there are people and businesses in the industry who value a larger batch capacity.

IKAWA has developed the Pro100 roaster for these coffee professionals.

Why It’s Important

From the  beginning in 2009, IKAWA saw that there was a need for better sample roasting. The quality and consistency of sample roasting globally was poor, and there were many people that should be sample roasting that weren’t, either because they didn’t have the resources to learn or the equipment was prohibitive. 

Wanting to address this, and knowing how important sample roasting is, we have summed up this in our mission: to Improve Coffee.

We say ‘improve coffee’ because that moment when a sample is roasted unlocks a number of next steps: purchasing conversations, menu planning, roast profile discussions, conversations about how to improve the quality on the farm, and many more. 

If a sample can’t be roasted, or it isn’t roasted well, those conversations are either not possible or not accurate. And they need to be. 

With the invention of the first IKAWA Sample Roaster, we believe we created a revolutionary tool which brought consistency and repeatability where there traditionally wasn’t much. 

We’re also proud to see that it’s increased the accessibility of sample roasting – there is a significant percentage of our customers that hadn’t roasted before, and are now roasting their coffees well because of their IKAWA.

ProV3 and the Pro100

It was important to us that if we were to introduce a new sample roaster that it continues with our goal to Improve Coffee, both in the quality of roasting but also the accessibility and the community that’s developed around IKAWA. 

The Pro100 therefore feels very much like an IKAWA Sample Roaster in look, feel, and use. It connects to your IKAWA Pro App, uses the same profiles, and even has the same custom Pelican IKAWA Travel Case.

Whether you’re a producer, trader, roaster, or coffee competitor (or another coffee business!), there is now an IKAWA that fits your needs.

From our product testers:

“We had always seen the value of the IKAWA sample roasters, but our company procedures rely on a 5 bowl cupping, so the previous IKAWA models were too small.

Using the Pro100 roaster, we’re thrilled. I used to have to sit at the Probat sample roaster for 4 or 5 hours a day sometimes, watching, adjusting, waiting. Now, testing this, I continued with emails, labelling, scheduling production, and waited for the notification on my watch to tell me that my roast was done. And my roasts were more consistent. That’s massive value.”

George Kokkalis, Head of Coffee at Cafe Direct Handroasted

“I used the same profile I normally use on my ProV3 to roast 2 different coffees on the Pro100 prototype. On the ProV3, the ColorTrak showed 51.4 and 51.4 for the two coffees, respectively. On the Pro100, without any adjustments to the profile, the colours were 49.2 and 50.2, respectively.”

Cole Torode, Rosso Coffee

“I was happy to see that there was still more than enough power to create the roasts that I needed. I was expecting a larger roaster to have less ‘umph’ but this performed just like the ProV3.”

Tom Flawith, Head of Coffee, Square Mile, UK

If you have any further questions, please reach out to our sales team sales@ikawacoffee.com 

author-img By Geoff Woodley