Roast Your Own Coffee

If you are a true coffee aficionado you may choose to roast your own coffee. What does this entail? Can you get good at it? What do you have to buy? We looked on the internet for a list of coffee roasters and found a few suggestions and brands. Here is some info if you want to start to roast your own green coffee beans.

Roasting Devices

You can roast your own coffee in something as simple as a popcorn popper or with a programmed coffee roaster in the $1,000 range. We will start with the popcorn popper approach.

West Bend 82416 Air Crazy Hot Air Popcorn Popper

This is a popcorn popper for 4 quarts of popcorn. It uses hot air and no oil. This device lists on the West Bend site for $29.99. If you are going to use this approach you will need to experiment with small quantities. People who have tried this approach say that it is all too easy to go from a light roast to a charred dark roast in 30 seconds of excessive roasting. But the price is right! Just remember that this is a popcorn popper.

    • No oil required! Pops up to 4 quarts of healthy and delicious popcorn.
    • Popcorn pops using hot air in 3 minutes for a super speedy snack.
    • Includes ½ cup measuring cup that doubles as a convenient butter melter.
    • Popper base is only 5.5 inches in diameter; this slim appliance can fit in any spot on your countertop, rec room, or studio.
    • Quick, clean, and easy. Popcorn on demand!
    • 1040 watts

Whirly Pop

This is another popcorn popper. The stovetop whirley pop is $24.99 online at the Whirley Pop website. Just remember that this device is made to pop popcorn and experiment a lot. Again, the price is right.

Did you know that hand-cranked stove top popcorn poppers are the best way to make movie theater style popcorn at home? It’s true! The Whirley Pop Popcorn Maker is a favorite for families and popcorn lovers alike who adore the taste of hot, fresh popcorn straight from the cinema – without having to leave the kitchen!

Nesco and Fresh Roast

These are real coffee roasters in the $100 to $200 price range, Nesco Home Coffee Roaster and Fresh Roast SR 500. With these devices you can more accurately aim for a light, medium or dark roast with the assurance that you will come close to what you want.

The Fresh Roast SR500 has the same capacity ( 4 scoops , 120 gm) and features of the SR300 – plus three temperature settings that can be adjusted any time during the roasting process. High temp. = 490 degrees Medium temp. = 455 degrees Low temp. = 390 degrees A Fan Speed Control has been added that allows the finest tuning of the roast.

Behmor, Gene Café or HotTop

The Behmor 1600, Gene Café Drum Roaster and HotTop KN8828-Basic fall in the $300 to $800 range with added bells and whistles for each increase in price. Each of these companies offers a range of products devoted coffee roasting.

TopHot KN8828-Programmable

This Top Hot product goes for around $1,000. Like all of the other high end roasters it is more likely to give you exactly the degree of roast that you want once to get the hand of it. And like all of the high end roasters it is more time consuming and tedious to clean.

The point of this quick review is that if you want to roast your own healthy organic coffee there are a range of options, each with its advantages and drawbacks.




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