What is a coffee roaster?

There might be two different ways to understand the term

“coffee roasters”. Most of the times it is understood as a process of turning ripe green coffee beans into the brown or black ones so they could be ground and very soon become the hot cup of coffee that you would die to have every morning. It can refer to the professionals who roast beans in large quantities until it achieves a certain type of taste, and sometimes “coffee roaster” can also mean a number of different machines consumers use at home to create their own coffee bean roasts in smaller batches.

Why is it better to roast coffee at home?

Why is the roasting also as important as the other parts like grinding and brewing? During this process, the natural sugars, fats and aroma lied inside the beans are released as exposed to high temperatures. Home roasting is also a way to make sure you have freshest coffee beans in the house and it gives you the ability to customize the coffee to your liking, not to mention the different roasting methods that could help determine the flavor of your cup of coffee. It is also often cheaper than buying roasted coffee. This is why you just cannot take this for granted.

Many professionals consider roasting process as an art form, especially when it is done on a large scale. In order to achieve a nice roasting performance, a supply of coffee beans in good quality and large roasting machine are must have items. Different “roasts” will be created and depending on various purposes, they will be shipped to customers in form of beans or ground and brewed into delicious cup of coffee. However, there are coffee lovers who would like to roast their own beans at home in a classic way, prefer to have their own coffee roaster. These people can easily find a machine that suits their own need, from simple to complex, available in variety of price ranges. Some fancy coffee roaster may cost over hundred of dollars while some basic ones are only around $40 USD. There is a trick to roast coffee beans with your oven so you don’t have to spend any money on new equipment but of course it won’t produce a good result as you wish to have with professional machines.

Roasting tips

If you are a beginner in coffee roasting, be careful with small details like origin, age of the beans, and even moisture content since a minor mistake can ruin the whole stuff. Moreover, the consistency in size, shape of the beans, temperature and timing should also be taken into consideration. Pay close attention to the process, especially toward the end where the exact “degree of roast” is determined: City (medium), Full City, Vienna, French, or you may burn it all! You need to check the beans every few seconds to make sure they reach the desired color, texture and size and never leave the room while you are roasting even when you have an automatic machine. Sometimes you just have to set the roaster at highest number and manually stop the machine when you smell, hear and see the perfect roast to your preference. Plus, all home roasters need some time to cool before roasting the next batch, which also improves consistency. Therefore, wait at least 20 minutes before you go on with another batch. Well, we have to admit that it doesn’t sound easy but think about the freshly roasted coffee smell. It is extremely rewarding!

What to keep in mind before buying a coffee roaster?

So, if you have just finished reading all the above and still want to buy a coffee roaster for home use, here are some other factors to consider before making a purchasing decision:

First, decide where you want to roast since it is quite smoky especially when it comes to dark roasters. The modern electrical roaster normally has filter to catch the chaff and automatically cleans the smoke so it won’t cause a big trouble! However, the simpler equipment may require outdoor access due to the chaff and smoke it produces during the roasting process. The roaster will reach its ideal temperature more quickly if the air is warmer outside than inside, this obviously means that the roasting environment also influences how your machine works.

Noise from these machines can also be very annoying to those who haven’t got familiar with it. If you don’t tend to roast much, the normal machine may make an okay choice. Otherwise, you should invest around 100$ for one like Behmor 1600 as it is not very loud.

Different home coffee roasters offer different functions and varying capacities. Normally four ounces of green beans may produce 26 to 42 cups of coffee depending on how strong you would like it to be. Experts advise that you should not roast more than 3 days worth of beans in order to keep them fresh. Besides, you need to learn that different roasters can give various flavors. Maintenance is also an essential part if you want use the machine as long as possible. In this case, look for a roaster that is easy to clean without accidentally ruining it.

Things are a bit different if you own a coffee house business and look for a commercial coffee roaster, firstly think about the volume of coffee beans you want to roast per day. Why? Most commercial coffee roasters operate in a similar way and will be differentiated mainly by the volume of beans that can be processed at one time and the speed with which this can be achieved. Plus, you need to check if you meet the roasters’ requirement of electricity, gas… then, request catalogs from different coffee roaster manufacturers and see what deal they are offering.

Types of coffee roaster

The two most popular coffee roasters are air roaster and drum roaster. Knowing basic information about these two will help you make a wise choice. Air roasters produce brighter flavor in the beans and take you less time to roast (10 minutes), it also roasts quite evenly and make a better choice for small amounts of coffee without scorching. Drum roasters focus on developing the body of the beans for stronger taste. A typical drum roaster can roast a larger batch size and requires more attention and generate more smoke. In terms of operations, the air roasters are based on the air popcorn popper design for the most part and used hot air to roast and move the coffee while the drum roasters use a rotating drum to move the beans around. It may take you up to 14 minutes to finish roasting with the drum roasters.

Roasters can have controls for temperature, time and fan speed. The more controls you have, the greater your ability is to customize your roast. You can also look for digital controls for greater ease of use. Some roasters have pre-programmed files functions or different roast options to automatically achieve the kind of roast you wish for. It depends on how much you want to invest on your equipment. One of the top coffee roasters available on the market at the moment could be named as Nesco Professional Home Coffee Roaster (70$), i-Roast 2 (199$), Gene Cafe Drum Roaster (495$), and Hot Top Drum Roaster (580$).

Any of the coffee roaster models available can roast about a half pound to pound of coffee at one time, and each type may require greater or lesser observation. Some experimentation might be required to get the most favorable roast depending on your bean quality and your machine. This is why people should consider carefully and do some thorough shopping to find the highest quality coffee beans and the machines that fit their needs the most.