Roasting coffee at home is not for everyone, but it is by far the most inexpensive way to drink the highest quality, freshest coffee. It is relatively easy and with a minimal investment anyone can begin to roast.
The best way to get started is to buy the right kind of hot air popcorn popper. Only models with a certain design work and some of those work better than others (see below). You can stalk your city’s thrift stores for one of the recommended models or buy one new. I ended up purchasing my first popcorn popper at CVS on clearance for $10. Recently I came across the coveted West Bend Poppery II at a local thrift store for $4.99 (and it’s amazing). A minimal investment can yield tremendous results when it comes to roasting your own coffee.
A popper with the recommended design for coffee roasting will have a flat metal bottom in the roasting chamber with vents along the side of the chamber that blow the coffee in a rotating motion. The rotating motion allows for an even roast and keeps the coffee from scorching.
Home roasters have found that the following models work for roasting coffee (see the forum at Sweet Marias for updated information):
- The West Bend Poppery (most highly recommended)
- The West Bend Poppery II ( recommended)
- Kitchen Gourmet (Walgreens)
- The Popcorn Pumper
- Popaire 2 by Hamilton Beach
- Toastess TCP-388 Hot Air Corn Popper
and more…. the important thing is that the popper should have the design features mentioned above.
Have you roasted using a popcorn popper? Whether it’s one of the models listed here or a different one, leave a comment describing your experience including tips, suggestions and warnings. Thanks -Tom
Can you recommend a popper that is currently being sold?
My husband started out using a Poppery 2, which worked fine, but the original Poppery is faster. I found a Poppery to sell, but I let him have it on condition that he’d hang up some towel rods for me. We were both happy! I sell lots of popcorn poppers, and I think practically everyone is buying them for roasting coffee.
I picked up this Nostalgia model from Amazon for $12:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EB8KRDC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I thought I’d share my endorsement of this popper. I’ve roasted in it about 10 times and it has held up fine. I am TOTALLY NEW, so I am not pretending to know what the results “should be.” That said, it roasts coffee and the coffee tastes great. I do de-gas for about 12 hours before packing and I leave it packed for 1-3 days before grinding.
Notes:
– Has a popping chamber with a flat metal bottom (not a screen!) and air vents that keep beans moving throughout the process.
– I use the top butter melter as my scoop for coffee. One level scoop works fine, but I leave the melting cap off and give it a few stirs with a bamboo spoon until the beans lose some moisture and chaff and start to move a bit.
– With comfortable outdoor temps ranging from 70-80 degrees and preheating for about four minutes, I hit first crack around 5 minutes.
– Second crack seems to start hitting around 7:30. When second crack hits, I eyeball my coffee and decide whether or not to continue. Depending on outside temp, wind, etc., I turn off roaster sometime between 7:30 and 9:00.
– Unit controls chaff pretty well. I use a colander with some damp/wet paper towels in it and it catches a good percentage of the chaff. When I am ready to call it quits, I wipe out the colander with the wet paper towel and dump the beans straight in to the same colander.
– Times can wildly fluctuate if you use less coffee. Using 4 tbsp of beans I hit C1 at 3:15, C2 at 5:00. I would not use more that the butter melting scoop lid holds or less than 4 tbsp of beans.
Again, newbie, but I hear the first crack of the first beans as early as 3 minutes; it’s usually a bit before I get a steady crack. Then there’s that long pause. When the second round of cracks starts, I usually call it quits, but I may let it go until I get a richer brown color (city roast-ish, but not as dark as espresso). Anyway, living and learning and loving coffee roasting with this cheap popper.
So there it is… roasted beans in (including gathering up items, plugging in, setting up the colander, starting the timer and cool down) about 15 minutes. Makes enough for about 6 cups.