Roasting your own coffee not only allows you to save money, but it also gives you the very freshest coffee you can possibly get while giving you complete control over the roast profile, quality of the beans, and mix of the beans. The easiest and most consistent way to roast coffee beans is with an electrical home coffee roaster like the Behmor 1600+, which actually also roasts cacao beans for chocolate making.
When looking for a home coffee roaster, you should look for the following: ease of use, capacity, smoke control, and noise. Let’s review these features and then we will show you our recommendations for best coffee bean rosters.
Home Coffee Bean Roaster Features
Coffee bean roaster ease of use
Whether you are just starting out in roasting coffee beans or if you are an experienced roaster, having good easy-to-use controls is important. Some machines will have digital controls allowing you precise settings for excellent control while some will be very simple. For example, the Gene Café CBR-101 Roaster has only 2 knobs for time and temperature control. The key is to know what your preference and experience. If you are just a beginner, some pre-set digital controls will be very useful.
Coffee bean roaster capacity
Since coffee begins to lose its flavor after about 2 weeks, you ideally want to only roast enough coffee for a few days. Therefore, you don’t need a large capacity. A 1 lb. capacity is considered to be very large. But, if you drink a fair amount of coffee every day, you may want to be able to roast enough for a number of days so that you aren’t constantly roasting coffee beans. Therefore, calculate how much coffee you use in a week and you can figure out a proper capacity.
Coffee bean roaster smoke control
Roasting coffee beans can get very smoky, especially if you are looking for a dark roast. Many machines will use some type of technology to reduce smoke and odor. In our best coffee bean roasters list, you will find that all of the machines that do an excellent job to control smoke.
Coffee bean roaster noise
Electric coffee roasters will make noise. Some people don’t mind noise, but we prefer machines to be quiet as possible. During the roasting process, there can be fans, turning drums, and rotating agitators that will all contribute to letting everyone in the house know what you are doing. Naturally, no company will announce that it is noisy. So, read the reviews on the machines to get a good idea.