Coffee is one of the most popular drinks on the planet, with global consumption currently around 166 million bags per year. For context, that’s almost two billion cups of coffee per day.
If you’re looking for the perfect roast, be it for your espresso machine or pour-over coffee, nothing gives you more control than doing it yourself. With that in mind, here are some of the best home coffee roaster options.
Our Top Pick: The Fresh Roast SR800
- Real-Time Temperature Display
- Roast 8oz/ 226 Grams (Wet Processed)
- Roast 6oz/ 170 Grams (Dry Processed)
- US 120V
Fresh Roast’s SR800 is a little expensive, but it’s worth investing in good equipment if you care about your drinks. This particular roaster has a real-time temperature display system, processes both wet and dry beans, and has nine levels of heat adjustments.
The SR800 also has an impressively large capacity for a home roaster, which means you’ll be able to make more coffee at once.
However, one thing to emphasize here is that roasting coffee is something of a hands-on process. Rather than pressing one button and letting it run, there’s a good chance you’ll need to change it to different settings for specific amounts of time to get an excellent roast. There’s a learning curve here, but the resulting flavors are worth the time spent.
The SR800 is a relatively straightforward machine featuring a cool-down system that helps prevent over-roasting. It’s essentially a complete roasting system, but there are some different types of roasters we’ll discuss below. If you’re looking for a great all-around option, though, start with Fresh Roast’s SR800.
Pros:
- Complete, easy-to-use roasting system
- Suitable for making many different roasts
- Works with both wet-processed and dry-processed beans
Cons:
- More expensive than some other products
- Limited controls
Here are some other options if the SR800 isn’t quite what you’re looking for.
Nuvo Ceramic Coffee Roaster (Best Budget Option)
- Material: Body- Ceramic, Grip-Genuine cowhide
- Eco Ceramic Roaster: 100% ceramic
- Waffle-shaped internal structure: equal roasting
- Can enjoy a popping sound due to the rear hole
- Content: 1xCeramic Handy Roaster, Made in Korea
Some people say this doesn’t even qualify as a roaster, but we think it does. Nuvo’s ceramic roaster is a small-batch product suitable for about 30g of beans. It will work on any stovetop that you can use ceramic on, which means induction systems are out, and it makes about two to three coffee cups worth of beans.
Ceramic roasters offer precise roasting control because you can quickly remove it from the heat and dump the beans into a cooling system, stopping the roasting process.
The obvious downsides to this roaster are that it’s a little more labor-intensive, and you may need to wear a heat-resistant glove. A longer handle would make this product noticeably better, but even without that, it can produce some fantastic roasts once you get used to making your beans.
Pros:
- Significantly more affordable than other roasters
- Ideal for low-volume home roasting
- Capable of roasting to many flavor profiles
Cons:
- Requires active movement while using
- No temperature readouts
Lueur Electric Coffee Roaster (Best Regular Roaster)
- 【Premium Quality】110V and 1200W. This machine comes with non-stick chassis, and there is a stirring rod in the bowl, the beans will be stirred by this rod during the baking process. Professional thermostat automatic constant temperature heating. Can adjust the temperature freely to bake different cereals.
- 【Honeycomb Non-stick Bottom】The baked bean chassis designed with honeycomb shape and a black food grade Teflon layer that is safe, easy to clean and more uniform heating.
- 【Professionally designed】Heat-Resistant Cover, the transparent cover is heat resistant, durable, with a top four-hold ventilation system, and you could see the process and change of coffee beans easily all the time.
- 【Large Capacity】It is equipped with a big tank with 800G capacity, could hold a lot of coffee bean, you could bake a lot of coffee bean at one time, fast and convenient. The best amount of roasted coffee beans is 300g-500g.
- 【Multifunction】The machine could be used not only for roasting coffee beans, but also for baking other beans, peanuts, chestnut, barley, dried fruit, popcorn, etc. It could be used for home, a coffee shop or a restaurant. You could use it to create your unique coffee flavor to your preference.
Lueur is an excellent representative of the standard home coffee roaster. You can find many similar products on the market if you look, generally including a white plastic exterior, a nonstick interior, and a clear lid so you can look inside.
This roaster makes a maximum of 800g of beans at once, making it a better choice for people who want to roast a lot of beans every few days instead of roasting every morning. One thing that’s less obvious from the product pictures is the honeycomb bottom, which helps lift beans and let them circulate better.
This is a great heating system, but it doesn’t include a rapid cooling function and doesn’t have a way to get rid of the chaff. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, chaff is the skin of a coffee bean that comes off when you roast it. It’s a waste product, although some preparation methods can remove it before roasting.
There are many ways to cool and process beans after roasting, but the important thing to remember here is that you’ll need to do it somehow. Lueur’s product isn’t a complete roasting system, just part of one.
Pros:
- Excellent for mid-volume home production
- Better than most similar products, of which there are many
- Easy to use and clean
Cons:
- No cooling system
- It doesn’t remove the chaff
Kaleido Sniper M2 (Best Premium Roaster)
- ☕️【Electric Heating System】Heated by carbon fiber infrared electric tube, the surface of the heating tube can instantly rise to 500°C. Meanwhile, Kaleido Sniper M2 uses independent cooling system. It can be cooled quickly in 2-3 minutes.
- ☕️【Touch Screen Operation panel】Full touch screen operation without any industrial buttons. The temperature curve will record every taste you like. It’s friendly to novice.
- ☕️【Sampler for Sync-Observation】Patented by horizontal sampler, it’s convenient to pick up beans to master the roasting effect. The optimal capacity of a single roasting is 50g-300g and the maximum is 400g.
- ☕️【Antomatic Chaff Collection System】Kaleido Sniper M2 has a patent on chaff collection. This invention can effectively avoid the accumulation of Chaff dirt clogging phenomenon, easy to clean.
- ☕️【High RPM & Low Smoke Emission】Kaleido Sniper M2 has a high speed drum and a built-in smoke extraction system to maximize the reduction of smoke emission.
Kaldi’s main roaster is a good system in its own right, but if you’re looking for serious at-home roasting power, the Kaleido Sniper M2 is easily the best option. Available in 400g and 1200g variants, this is essentially a commercial-grade system with numerous features other roasters lack.
The internal high-speed drum minimizes contact time, while an infrared heating pipe provides rapid temperature control. A smoke extraction system minimizes mess there, while a touchscreen control system helps learn your personal preferences and adjust roasting accordingly.
A large chaff collection system makes cleaning easy, while the internal fans can cool the beans in about two minutes. For better control, the sampling system lets you remove a few beans without opening the entire container.
There’s no doubt that this is the single best roaster in this guide in terms of pure quality. It even wins out in volume, with the larger option suitable for commercial purposes.
Ultimately, you get what you pay for in a coffee roaster. The emphasis here is on pay because this is by far the most expensive roaster on this list. The only real step up from this machine is bulk roasting systems, and that’s outside the context of judging the best home coffee roaster.
If you want the highest-quality home roaster and don’t care about the price, get the Kaleido Sniper M2. This is a little much for anyone who’s not drinking several cups of home roasts a day, though, and the other options on this list are both more affordable and excellent systems in their own right.
Pros:
- Commercial-quality performance
- Easy to customize to your individual preferences
- A complete system that includes chaff removal and rapid cooling
- Excellent customer service
Cons:
- Much more expensive than other home roasters
- Arguably too much for most home users
Sandbox Smart (Best Smart Roaster)
- ☕️ENJOY THE TASTE-electric heating direct fire type of home coffee roaster, make coffee with rich and aromatic flavour taste in 15 minute roasting time with 100-150 grams batch capacity.le Click: Roast coffee beans more easily and professionally! This smart coffee bean roaster will guide your step-by-step with professional instructions delivered via app.
- ☕️SIMPLE TO USE APP- roast your beans with smart coffee roaster easily and roasting record automatically stored. Just follow Sandbox Smart Coffee Roaster app instructions step by step.
- ☕️PRE LOADED CURVES --all the roasting curves provided no matter in light/medium or dark roast. Pre-programmed six curves, community sharing curves, self-created curves, and historical curves are all at your fingertips! Or join our VIP enjoy more advanced curves and extra curve storage.
- ☕️EXPERT MANUAL MODE-manual mode as an alternative profile of coffee bean roasting for advanced coffee lover. Adjustable heat/damper/fan speed to create your own coffee flavour and profile.
- ☕️EASY TO CLEAN-convenient drawer design for collecting silverskin and excellent ventilation in the cooling stray to make sure your roasting experience stays neat and tidy.
The Kaleido Sniper M2 is the best overall roaster with smart systems, but for something a little simpler, the Sandbox Smart is an interesting alternative. Built with a different philosophy, this roaster is cube-shaped and plugs straight into a wall socket for easy use.
The Sandbox Smart roaster uses direct, even heating to different roasts, with an ideal level of 100g to 150g of beans at a time. That’s lower than many other home roasters, but it supports back-to-back roasting cycles, so it’s not a huge issue. The Sandbox Smart also has a rapid cooling system, which is a must at this price point.
All motorized roasters produce some noise, but the Sandbox Smart is comparatively quiet at less than 70 decibels (making it quieter than a vacuum and closer to normal conversation volumes). If noise is an issue, the only truly quiet roaster on this list is Nuvo’s ceramic roaster, which doesn’t have a motor.
As a smart roaster, the Sandbox Smart can set and use advanced flavor profiles to change the temperatures and roasting styles. An app system lets you input roasting times and cracking to help further control the exact flavor of your drinks.
Like most data-using systems, the Sandbox Smart won’t be at its full potential the first time you use it. It takes some time to get to know the system and get enough information to perfect the results, so you will need a little patience. It’s also worth noting that this closed system has exceptionally good smoke and chaff control.
Pros:
- Advanced software provides precise control of the roasting
- Capable of more complex roasting patterns than other systems
- Especially good for medium-to-dark roasts
Cons:
- Quite expensive for a home roaster
- May require subscription service to unlock more controls
Kaldi Mini (Best Small Batch)
- KALDI Mini Size (200~250g) Home Coffee Roaster
- Including Thermometer
- Sampler & Hopper is Optional
- Direct Heating Roasting
- Gas Burner Required
Kaldi’s primary roaster is a great option for homes with gas burners, but if you’re looking for something smaller and more affordable, the Kaldi Mini offers similar performance for small batches.
Like most small roasters, there’s a bit of a learning curve, especially because this doesn’t come with the same temperatures or controls as other systems. That means it’s much harder to produce the same flavor drink after drink, even if you’re starting with the same beans.
However, this roaster comes with high-quality components that will last a long time, and it’s particularly good if you’re okay relying on smell and sight to adjust the process. Like other Kaldi systems, it requires a gas burner, but that’s probably a good thing here because it gives better temperature control.
Realistically, you can expect to throw away your first few batches from this machine. Once you develop the skills to use it, however, it’s an ideal small-batch system for people who want maximum control over the roasting process.
Pros:
- A high-quality system with long-lasting components
- Great for precision control of the roasting
- Excellent packaging
Cons:
- Fewer sensors and components than most other roasters
- More labor-intensive than some people want
- Limited ability to replicate a specific flavor
What To Look For In Your Home Coffee Roaster
Here are some things to consider when you’re looking for the best home coffee roaster.
Type of Roaster
Coffee roasters come in several styles, but most people ultimately settle on one of two choices.
The most common choice for most homeowners is a drum roaster. These are similar to washing machines in that they have a cylindrical area that tumbles and moves the beans throughout the roasting process, and there’s quite a lot of engineering involved.
Drum roasters help minimize the time any bean spends in contact with a hot surface, providing an even roast. Tumbling the beans this way also helps rub off the chaff, making it easy to separate that when removing the beans later on.
A less-common style for home roasters is the fluid bed roaster. Despite the name, this doesn’t involve water. Instead, these push a lot of hot air up through a screen, lifting the beans and letting them tumble around. They act like they’re sitting on liquid, so it’s easy for them to tumble.
More recently, some people use vertical drum roasting. These products, including Lueur’s roaster above, have a vertical drum instead of a horizontal one and use a central tool to move the coffee beans around. These systems are good for heating beans in bulk, but may not produce quite the same even roasting as other systems.
Capacity
The next factor to consider is how many beans you want to roast at a time. Most coffee roasters measure things in grams, although users may occasionally cite other metrics instead. The easiest way to understand these measurements is by how many cups of coffee you can get out of them.
A typical six-ounce cup of coffee uses about 10 grams of roasted beans by American standards. Depending on the exact type of coffee you’re making, this can vary significantly, but 10 grams is a good baseline measurement.
Many home roasting systems can process 200-300 grams of coffee beans at a time. While systems can theoretically go higher, most don’t work as well if you add too many beans. That means you can get 20-30 cups of coffee from a single roasting session.
Anything below 200 grams of coffee beans is a low-volume roaster. Nuvo’s ceramic roaster falls into this category, as it’s only suitable for 1-2 cups of coffee at a time. The Sandbox Smart roaster is also a low-volume system, although since it can handle about 15 cups worth of beans at a time, you may not notice it as much.
Higher-quality systems can roast more at a time. The Fresh Roast SR800 is a little low, handling either 170 grams of dry-processed beans or 226 grams of wet-processed beans, but the Lueur can handle as many as 800 grams if you push it to its max. The manufacturer recommends closer to 500 grams, which is still more than most competitors.
While some people enjoy roasting every day, doing it about once a week is more efficient. That means the best way to evaluate capacity is by counting how many grams of beans you need, including adjusting for the amount you put in each drink.
Americans drink about three cups a day, which is roughly 30 grams of beans. Multiplying that by seven to account for a week, we can see that most people will want to buy a coffee roaster capable of handling at least 210 grams of beans at a time.
Easy to Clean
Some coffee roasters are significantly easier to clean than others. It’s important to clean your roaster after each use so you don’t end up with debris clogging systems or spoiling flavors.
Higher-quality systems tend to be easier to clean. The Kaleido Sniper M2 is particularly good here because it’s made for higher-volume, frequent roasting and comes designed to minimize debris buildup.
Specific cleaning methods vary by the roaster. Some are easy to clean with a rinse, but others may require disassembly so you can avoid motors and other systems.
The Nuvo ceramic roaster is particularly good in this regard, as a simple wash with water when it’s cool will get the job done. It doesn’t get dirty very fast, either, so regular care will help prevent any material buildup.
Don’t be afraid to contact manufacturers before buying and asking about their cleaning processes. Many stores don’t include this information on their pages, and it’s much better to know what you can expect before you order a product. The earlier you have that information, the better.
Available Settings
Many coffee roasters come with additional settings and controls that can help you get a more precise roast.
On the complex end, smart systems like the Kaleido Sniper M2 and Sandbox Smart have advanced electronic controls that offer precise roasting times, fan control settings, and other features. These can take some time to master but offer incredible control over the roasting process. They also make it easier to replicate flavors you like.
Simpler systems like the Fresh Roast SR800 and Lueur electric roaster usually have a dial to change the temperature and a thermometer readout. Getting a great roast may require adjusting the temperature throughout the process, so this is more complicated than finding one setting you like and leaving it there forever.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the number of options on some systems. Rather than constantly adjusting every feature, it’s often better to change them one at a time until you master them. Having more settings is better as a rule, but not necessary to get a great roast at home.
Conclusion
The Fresh Roast SR800 is the best home coffee roaster. It has a solid balance of capacity, price, and performance that make it a solid option for most people in most situations.
Although it’s not the single best roaster in pure performance, anything better is usually going to be at least two or three times its price, and many people don’t want that.
FAQs
Here are some common questions people have about roasting coffee.
What are the different roasts of coffee?
There are many different types of coffee drinks, and several different roasts of coffee, but most people recognize four main categories. Serious roasters may divide the categories further for specific drinks.
The initial category is unroasted. Although overlooked initially, some people prefer this route because it can produce green coffee. Green coffee has less caffeine than regular coffee, and some people think the chlorogenic acid it contains has health benefits. Research is still ongoing for that, though.
The next category is a light roast, which starts with the first crack in a coffee bean. Light roasts tend to be more acidic and may have grain or grassy flavors. These have the strongest highlights for a bean’s characteristics.
Medium roasts go about ten degrees hotter. These mute the acidity somewhat and maintain the flavor of a bean’s origin, but the roasting flavor is also noticeably more prominent.
Dark roasts have much less acidity but tend to lose most of their characteristics in favor of the burnt taste from the roasting process.
Are shiny coffee beans better?
No. Shininess on a coffee bean comes mainly from the oils which come out during the roasting process. Beans that roast longer release more oils, so they’re naturally shinier than lighter roasts. Shininess doesn’t indicate quality, especially on beans you’ve roasted recently.
How should I store coffee beans?
The best way to store coffee beans is in an airtight container at room temperature. Opaque is better than transparent, as this will stop light from reaching the beans and affecting their flavor.
Most coffee beans taste their best a few days after roasting, so proper storage will help ensure you can enjoy their unique flavors.
How long does it take to roast coffee?
The time it takes to roast coffee beans depends on the roast level and the tools you’re using. Most high-quality systems take 10-20 minutes to roast a batch, though they may need a few minutes to warm up first.