by bonnyaclyde
This was my second play of this game.I had not read the rules and one rule was missed in teaching the game.
We missed the rule that you can only purge the roaster after popular opinion.
So the first thing I did before taking my first bean was to purge my roaster and then I took 2 black beans with the +1 bean. Next I used research to increase production to +2 beans putting me in last place.
The next round I took 3 black beans and produced a blend of 5 black beans. This put me in an early lead so I had the best blend for 3 rounds because I luckily got the card to keep my blend from degrading.
Being last to choose in each round after that I would either force research and get more cards or I would brew and produce a high scoring blend because I nearly always had only one color in my bag.
I managed to have all 3 of my counters on blends for 2 turns in a row and the other players declared they were all playing for second.
I can see after this play that the roaster purge should only be given to beginners as it seems too powerful otherwise but not as bad if you cannot use it in the first grow phase.