Recently, my Tonino coffee roast color meter, developed by the same team that develops the Artisan roasting software, began malfunctioning. Maybe you don’t know what a coffee roast color meter is and what its purpose is. Let me explain.
A coffee roast color meter gives insights into the roast color, and hence, the roast level of the coffee. This color is linked to the coffee’s flavor, fragrance, and mouthfeel. The color is useful in determining if the coffee has been roasted to the desired level, such as a light color for a delicate filter coffee or a darker color for a more chocolaty coffee with a rich body. A color meter is also a helpful tool for quality control once you’ve decided on your preferred roast level. The preferred roast level is subjective and depends on both the potential of the coffee bean and personal taste. So, a color meter is definitely helpful.
The Tonino is supposed to express roast levels numerically, for instance, 60, 92, and 116, corresponding to dark, medium, and light roasts respectively. However, a few days back, something weird happened. Irrespective of the roast color, the meter persistently displayed -127. This could not be right because anything I tried to measure, like white paper, black plastic, every time the Tonino gave the same reading (-127). Despite attempts to recalibrate the meter, the problem persisted.
The Tonino was clearly broken. What could I do? Well, I like to make and fix things. So why not try to repair it?
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