Roast Master debuts fourth-generation FAB roasters at World of Coffee San Diego

At a packed World of Coffee San Diego, Roast Master used its U.S. trade-show debut to pitch fluid-bed roasting as both a hardware upgrade and a sourcing model. The San Diego company brought its fourth-generation FAB line to the floor with the FAB 300 and FAB 1000 on display, putting a sharper, more connected face on a system it says is built for consistency, visibility and lower service needs.

The lineup now spans four capacities: 300 grams, 1 kilogram, 2.5 kilograms and 6 kilograms. Retail pricing runs from $9,500 for the FAB 300 to $33,500 for the FAB 6000. Roast Master says the roasters lift beans into a column of precisely controlled hot air inside a tempered-glass tube, making the roast fully visible while industrial-grade components and control systems handle day-to-day operation.

The updates went beyond appearance. Alex Lowe, co-founder and CEO of Roast Master USA, said the machines have “smooth curves and lines,” look more professional and are “more like an Apple product.” He pointed to a larger screen and new software package that give roasters finer real-time control, fully automated profiles and the ability to edit a roast mid-run. The company also added an automated hopper that drops green coffee into the chamber at the designated starting temperature, plus a stronger cooling-tray fan to move chaff and cool beans faster after roasting.

Roast Master is also leaning hard into the operational side of the category. The machines support central monitoring of performance and usage, with owners able to view, control and distribute profiles remotely across multiple roasters. The company said the FAB series can be supplied at no cost to cafes that sign wholesale exclusivity agreements for coffee, with profiles, training and maintenance bundled into the arrangement. That puts the machines in the middle of a larger pitch about integrated sourcing, not just equipment sales.

The booth messaging matched the company’s broader product road map. Roast Master said the FAB line works with its 110-volt electric afterburners, has a smoke-filtering solution already launched for the FAB 1000, and has a similar system planned for the FAB 2500 in the second quarter. It also unveiled a fully automatic vacuum-based weighing and feeding system for the FAB 6000, aimed at higher throughput.

Lowe’s background helps explain the fluid-bed focus. A U.S. Navy veteran and co-founder of Artís Coffee in Berkeley, California, he previously ran shops with live on-demand roasting using Java Master fluid-bed roasters and later served as director of west coast operations for Java Master before joining Swedish engineer Carl Langenskiöld to build Roast Master’s own machines. The company says its founders bring experience from high-tech manufacturing, hospitality and food service, and its roasters are already in use across the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Greece, Indonesia, Macau, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand.

The timing mattered. World of Coffee San Diego ran April 10-12 at the San Diego Convention Center, with the Specialty Coffee Association expecting more than 15,000 attendees from more than 90 countries and 600-plus exhibitors. Daily Coffee News said attendance topped 17,000, giving Roast Master a high-traffic stage for a launch that framed fluid-bed roasting as a more visible, more connected and more scalable part of coffee’s equipment conversation.