Home Roasting

Roasting coffee at home has become increasingly popular in recent years, and many gourmet coffee lovers are now discovering the joys of home coffee roasting.

Why Roast Your Own Coffee?

In less than 15 minutes you can roast your own coffee, and by roasting only small batches you will always be assured of always being able to enjoy the very finest, freshly roasted coffee.

Home Coffee Roasting Machines

Home coffee roasting machines (home coffee roasters) range in price from $50 to $500. If you appreciate fine, specialty coffee then this is a great investment because a good home coffee roaster will last you a long time and will surely add great enjoyment to your coffee drinking experience.

Why roast coffee beans at home? The main reason for home roasting is to ensure that the quality of the coffee you are drinking is the best that it can be.

Green Coffee Beans Preserve Flavors Until Roasting

Before they are roasted, green coffee beans don’t degrade in taste. Coffee flavors and aromas, however, do begin to degrade quickly after roasting.

Even if you could get the freshly roasted coffee rapidly shipped to you, even in the best case scenario you still would not coffee as freshly roasted as you could easily prepare at home. Home coffee roasting is the best way to make sure you are able to fully savor the finest coffee.

Fresh Roasted Coffee Daily – Flavorful and Aromatic

By roasting just what you need each day you will always have very fresh, flavorful, and aromatic coffee. If you are on a particularly low budget you can even use a popcorn popper, heat gun, oven, or charcoal fire (that is how it was done in the old days) to transform unroasted coffee beans into fresh roasted beans.

Important to note however is that the flavor of fresh roasted coffee changes over the course of a few days – in many cases, it’s best to let the coffee sit for a couple days (hours at least) to let the flavors develop.

Rudimentary Methods of Home Coffee Roasting

Home coffee roasting may be done in a frying pan or a wok as you stir the beans by hand, although these rudimentary roasting methods may not yield as high of a quality, particularly if the roastmaster is inexperienced.

It’s highly recommended that home roasting be done outdoors or with very thorough ventilation as coffee roasting has been linked to carcinogenic compounds in the fumes.

Whether you have a proper coffee roaster or are winging it, a wonderful world of discovery awaits you as you explore the joys of home roasting.

Fine Tuning Your Home Roasting Methods

As you learn more about home coffee roasting you can try out different roast types and roasting methods (see Roasting Coffee) and see how each style works with all of the different gourmet green coffee bean varieties available for purchase.

The goal of roasting coffee is to preserve and develop the beans’ finest qualities, and since tastes are subjective you can fine tune your home roasting methods to suit your own personal preference.

Delicious Premium Coffee and Gourmet Espresso Brewing Tips

For tips on brewing a wonderful cup of coffee see our section on Coffee Brewing. You can also read detailed coffee taste profiles of Gourmet Coffees and very detailed instructions on preparing amazing Espresso Drink Recipes.

For step-by-step instructions see Pulling A Perfect Espresso Shot as well as How to make a Latte.

For detailed definitions of coffee and espresso terminology see the Coffee Terms.  Then make sure to check out the World’s Best History of Coffee.