What Should You Look For When Purchasing A Coffee Roaster For Your Kitchen?

Are you ready to become the best barista in the world? Here’s all you need to know about roasting coffee beans at home.

What are the benefits of using a coffee roaster?

Coffee roasters are pricey, but they will save you money in the long term on coffee beans. Green, unroasted beans are substantially less expensive than roasted beans (typically half the price or less). Many people roast their popcorn in an oven, frying pan, or even a popcorn maker, but because the procedure may be difficult, you can’t guarantee even results — therefore a roaster is preferable for consistency.

How do coffee roasters operate?

Roast with a light touch

The color and scent of the beans vary throughout roasting, resulting in diverse flavors and two cracking noises that signify different phases of the process. As the moisture in the beans evaporates, you’ll hear the first crack. The sugars begin to caramelize at this stage, and your coffee is roasted — but only to the lightest degree.

A darker roast is available.

As the beans continue to roast, the oils in the beans escape, adding to the flavor, and you’ll hear a second crack. Your coffee will be fairly black after you hear this, and any extra roasting will result in a harsher, perhaps bitter cup of coffee.

Allowing the beans to cool

Because allowing the beans to cool is the final step, you must utilize either a pre-programmed cycle on your roaster or manually turn it to cool. If the beans remain hot, they will continue to roast, and the fire department will be called because your house will be filled with burned coffee smoke!

Home coffee roasting tips

So, you’ve decided to get the best home coffee roaster. What happens now, though? Anee Sampath, master roaster of Samson Coffee House and Beancraft, shares his advice (and pitfalls):

What are some of the most common mistakes individuals make when they first begin roasting?

Over-roast or flash-roast is the most prevalent blunder. This might also be related to the widespread belief that strong coffee equals a darker roast, which is a frequent misunderstanding. Coffee is stronger when you brew it with more ground coffee or when the coffee has distinct flavor qualities due to its cultivar, climate, or processing technique.

Another typical blunder is overcrowding their home roasters, making it hard to get a balanced result.

Most first-timers should buy lower-quality beans to try out and taste until they get the hang of it.

What are some of your best bean-roasting tips?

• Coffee requires a steady speed, not too fast (flash roasting) or too slow (slow roasting). Make these mistakes during your experiments, but cup them so you can see the changes. If roasted too slowly, for example, the outcome might be ‘baked,’ tasting flat and lacking in flavor.

• If your roaster’s specifications specify a batch size, don’t exceed it. It’s a good idea to roast at around 85% of the stipulated size. This will yield far superior outcomes.

• Store roasted beans in an airtight container with one-way degas valves in a cold, dark location away from the fridge or freezer. Storage containers such as VacuVin or Friis Coffee will come in useful.

• Grind on demand before brewing your favorite cup of coffee.

• Although there is a lot of disagreement about this, wait 48–72 hours after roasting before eating.

For many years, Peter Horvath was CHOICE’s resident coffee expert. His roasting advice includes the following:

• During the roasting process, listen for the beans to crack. To avoid a harsh or bitter coffee, turn off the roasting cycle manually no later than the beginning of the second crack.

• Using the measuring scales, correctly measure the number of green beans.

• Although the instructions do not advocate using it outside, owing to the amount of smoke created, roasting it in the garage or shed with the door open is definitely a better alternative than roasting it in the kitchen.

• Never leave the roaster alone while it’s roasting; two of the models we tested had a built-in safety mechanism that starts the cooling cycle if a button isn’t hit quickly enough.

• Because some surfaces, such as the roasting chamber and chaff collector, get hot when in use, keep your hands, children, and pets away from them.