How to Choose the Coffee Roaster?

Nowadays coffee roasting devices are available in all shapes and sizes. Their prices fall between a couple of dozen to nearly a thousand dollars. As with any manufactured product, price is not necessarily in correlation with quality. In addition to picking a roaster by a reliable brand, here are a some tips about what to look for. Before buyinbg a roaster you need to specify what your goals and needs are.

First thing to ask is yourself is how involve do you want to be in the process?

There are people who have a little chemist in them who likes to mix, stir, whir and measure. Roasters vary along this dimension. The most basic stove top models are simply a sauce pan with a tight lid and a special handle.

The handle contains a crank that allows the roaster to stir up the beans during the process. Stirring is essential to keep the beans from burning on the bottom as well as to keep the hot air inside circulating evenly.

Even in this simple set up, be sure to pick the one that has a thermometer in the lid. Temperature control is necessary for good roasting.

On the other end of the spectrum are roasters that do it all for you. Pop in a pre-determined volume of green beans from a bag, close the lid and wait for a few minutes.

These deluxe models have inbuilt thermometers, thermostatically controlled heating mechanisms, clever air-flow control geometry with rotating canisters and a timer to automatically shut off the device at the right time.

At the upper end of the price range, these high tech roasters can do everything except eliminating the smoke that invariably accompanies the process.

How effective are they at heating and circulating air?

The most common type are air roasters that work pretty similar to the popcorn machine. Hot air circulates throughout the mixture, while the beans are agitated. This gives a uniform roast and some models can even filter out the chaff produced as the skins burst from the expansion of the bean.

Most of them have a glass exterior that allows you to watch the process, so you can judge the degree of desired roast. Often they have pre-set amounts on the dial ranging from light to dark.

The ability to circulate air evenly and heat uniformly is critical and designs vary in the degree to which they meet these goals. For example, a roaster with a heating source only at the bottom and constricted air flow is going to provide an uneven roast.

Drum roasters help overcome this problem, by providing a rotating drum that uses gravity to move the beans around, rather than relying solely on a stirrer at the bottom.

However, many of them don’t have windows for observing the roasting process – which is a must if you like to experiment and fine-tune the roast. And of course with the greater quantity of beans comes a larger volume of smoke, so be prepared to ventilate well.

Features that were once was confined only to professional use, are now readily available in home devices and have the added benefit of being able to roast larger quantities. Helpful for those large dinner parties where you want to provide your guests the freshest possible coffee.

Some examples of coffee roasters:

Fresh Roast Plus 8 Home Coffee Roaster

This is a good place to start when you are new to roasting. It is made to roast about 3 ounces of beans at a time, which makes approximately 12-16 cups of drip coffee. Click here for more information.

Gene Cafe Home Coffee Roaster cbr101A

This roaster has larger capacity and is able to produce up to half-pound of roasted beans. It has clear roast chamber, that allows easily to view the process. Analog dials allow to control time, temperature and system status and you can make adjustments on the fly. Click here for more information.

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