Now is the best time for all of us to learn to roast our own coffee at home since most of the world’s population is practicing social distancing. We are learning to do things differently and coffee is not the exception.

Roasting your own coffee at home will broaden your appreciation for coffee and what is needed to make the perfect cup. Home roasting ensures that your coffee is as freshly roasted as it can be, and you can do it as light or as dark as you choose to.

We’ve been roasting coffee at home for a while now and it is amazing! Anyone can do it.

Let’s get started…

There are 3 preferred methods to roast coffee from the comfort of your own home

 

1. In a pan or a grill
2. In a popcorn popper
3. Home roasting machine

 

Doing it in a pan is the cheapest way to do coffee roasting at home. But, from our own experimentation, we have realised that a popcorn machine or a purpose-built coffee roaster are best for their simplicity and consistency.

 

You can find cheap popcorn machines in the market, they won't give you the same flavor as a home-roasting machine, but they will be one of the fastest ways to get you started.

 

 

1. Roasting in a pan or grill 

It is a very popular and easy method.
Remember, DO NOT use a non-stick pan for roasting as it has a negative impact on the flavor of the coffee. We recommend a thick pan, such as a cast iron, steel pan or an uncoated pan.

How to:

1. Maximize the ventilation in your kitchen. Turn on the exhaust fan and open the windows, it will get smokey and smelly (lovely coffee smell, but still) If you can, do this outside.

2. Place the pan on medium heat (around 450F or 232C)

3. After the pan is hot add a shallow layer of green coffee beans to the pan, enough so that it can be easily stirred,

4. Keep stirring, do not let the beans rest.

5. Listen for the first crack after 4 or 5 minutes. The beans are now lightly roasted.

6. After you heard the first crack, wait in between 1 or 1 and a half minute (depends how light or dark you like your roasted beans) and take of the heat.

7. Put the beans in a colander. Stir and shake them to cool them ASAP. Do this in the sink or in a placer that can get messy.

8. Leave the beans exposed for 12 hours to de-gas and then put them away in. Tight seal container.

 

2. Popcorn machine.

 

Please keep in mind that:

1. Popcorn machines are made with popcorn in mind, not coffee. Therefore, it may void your warranty and shorten the life expectancy of your machine. On top of this, not every popcorn machine is suitable for roasting coffee beans.

2. Make sure that the heat from the popcorn machine comes from the sides and not the bottom. If the heat comes from the bottom do not use this machine to roast coffee because the roast will be weak, uneven and the collection of chaff could cause a house fire.

3. Always clean out the chaff between roasts.

 

3. Home roasting machine.

If you have one of those machines at home, I don’t need to tell you what to do, it means you might just exactly like us, coffee nerds, people that love so much coffee that you have your own coffee roaster at home, it also means that you are our target because you want to taste and try as much specialty and funky coffees, special in those extreme weird times of our lives