Home Coffee Roasters to Make Your Life Interesting or Easy

I've created this hubpage to help you if you're looking into inexpensive home coffee roasters - or if you're just starting out on the journey of roasting your own coffee. Personally, I spent way too long in the "thinking about it" stage. When I finally made the leap into home coffee roasting, I couldn't believe how simple it was.

So how do YOU get started with Home Coffee Roasters?

Firstly, decide on your level of commitment (or insanity!)...

Are you a "hands-on" coffee enthusiast or would you rather be a totally "hands-off" coffee bean roaster?

PART ONE: THE 'HANDS-ON' APPROACH

If you are a hands-on person, then I'd recommend exactly as I did. Go out and get yourself a cheap popcorn popper. There is plenty of free information and articles on the internet about how you can roast with a popcorn popper.

A popper is the ultimate in hands-on, DIY coffee roasting equipment. As such, you will need to know a fair bit about the roasting process. I suggest you do the following:

Educate yourself about the coffee roasting process.Learn about the different degrees and styles of roast - from light cinnamon to dark French.Find a good green beans supplier.Buy a cheap popcorn popper.Make a START!

Popcorn Popper WARNINGS

There may be a bit of trial and error involved for you to find the perfect roast to suit you. And you should also be aware that - with popcorn poppers - the roasting process changes often. It is especially affected by the weather - temperature and humidity.There will be mess! Chaff will fly everywhere... and beans may spill.There will be smoke. The smoke smells. It starts out smelling good - but it lingers and turns stale.

Moral of the story - use your popcorn popper in your garage. :-)

PART TWO: THE RELAXED, PUSH-BUTTON APPROACH

Now, if you'd like something a little more sophisticated - and can afford to spend a little money, then I'd recommend buying a dedicated, purpose-built home coffee roaster, such as the Hearthware IRoast2.

These machines are small enough for the home and flexible enough to suit everyone from the total greenhorn to the experienced roaster. It can be as simple as pressing the preset button, or as complex as programming your own roasting profiles. In that sense, these machines grow with you.

Other big advantages of purpose-built home coffee roasters over the popcorn popper:

No mess. Excellent little chaff collectors mean it's safe for you to roast indoors.The lovely fresh-roasted aroma, without the smoke... so no lingering stale smell 2 weeks later!Perfectly sized for a few days' portion.

The main disadvantage of these machines then, is price. That said, when you consider how much you'll save by roasting your own beans, the machine will pay for itself. Depending on how much coffee you drink, it could pay for itself in as little as six months.

GET STARTED

So what are you waiting for? Popcorn popper, or yuppy home coffee roaster... it's all terrific fun... get started today!