Mmmm... Coffee....

☕️ Coffee Roaster arrived today! Despite us having owned a cafe for 4 years (would've been longer without COVID), this solo game has confirmed two things:

Why I love drinking coffee...

Why I was in charge of the music entertainment in our cafe...

Because I apparently SUCK at roasting coffee!! 🤣

Kind of like playing Viticulture: Essential Edition with a nice glass of wine, playing Coffee Roaster with my morning coffee is something I'm going to quite enjoy I'm sure. 😀

I knew this game was going to be a "puzzly" one. But wow it's going to offer plenty of plays and challenge for quite some time, let me tell ya! There's the puzzly aspect for sure, but there's also the "push your luck" element to it that's very present;

When to keep roasting vs when to stop and give your cup a taste test. 😮 Tough choices.

I love the insert that comes with the game. No need for a storage organizer of any kind for the components. This truly is, "grab your cup of coffee, do a minimal setup and away you go". The pic (right) shows the empty tray. You know exactly where everything goes as you punch out the components during the unboxing.

As you play and beans are roasted, you're swapping out some beans for more roasted ones, but it's all right there for you right out of the box. I love it.

The game comes with 22 varieties of coffee beans to play (i.e. various difficulty levels). Each bean has a different setup, scoring/bonuses AND on the back side there's a world map and facts about each specific type of bean. Love it!! Great reading with the morning coffee as well. Create and learn!

Here's the board setup with all you need. Thermometer on top, along with roasting chart. Your roasting board with "immediate effects" and "cup" effects, your cardboard trays and your cup itself for when you're ready to test out your roast.

I've played two games so far with Sao Paulo (Brazil) bean, and one with the Sierra Maestra bean from Cuba. The rulebook says, if you get a score of 9 or less, stick with a beginner card for your next game.... 🤔 Ya, that's not really an issue for me. I scored 9, 6 and 6 in my first three games. So I have a long way to go to become a better coffee roaster. 🤣

It's great though! Games are quick. It's thinky. And even can be a little stressful at times... or is that just the coffee jitters??? 🤣