New Home Coffee Roaster Is Controlled by a Smartphone

It can roast green coffee beans in three to 10 minutes.

It's now possible to roast coffee beans at home with a few taps on a smartphone.  According to the device's Kickstarter page, the Ikawa is "the world's first digital micro-roaster." It's controlled with an app that works with both Android and iOS. All users have to do is drop green coffee beans into the Ikawa, select a "roast recipe" — or presets for things like air flow and temperature that are determined by the type of bean used — and watch them roast in three to 10 minutes. The beans can then be used in any brewing method of choice.

The device, which can be acquired for a £450 ($705 USD) donation to the campaign, works with any raw coffee bean. Ikawa also sells its own beans that it purchases directly from the producer. While there are pre-set "roast recipes" in the app, users can also create their own recipes from scratch if they prefer different settings.

Perks for donating to the campaign include the Ikawa and a supply of coffee. A £550 ($856 USD) pledge gets customers an Ikawa home roaster plus a one year supply of green coffee beans. A £2,500 ($3,889) donation gives backers the chance to create and name a roast recipe that will be pre-loaded on the app in addition to a machine and a one year coffee supply. The campaign is already fully funded — it has raised $187,796 of its $122,709 goal — with ten days left to go.

Coffee technology has come a long way, turning traditionally time consuming methods into quick and easy processes. In April, news broke that New York-based start-up Quirky invented a smartphone controlled pour-over coffee machine. The Poppy Pour-Over does everything from grind the beans to reorder coffee from Amazon when it senses supplies are low. Last year, Chemex — the makers of one of the most popular pour-over brewers on the market — announced it created the Chemex Ottomatic, a machine that streamlines the labor intensive pour-over process. The Chemex Ottomatic pours perfectly heated water over coffee grounds and keeps brewed coffee at an optimal temperature.

Check out a video about the Ikawa roaster below:

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