When it comes to flavor, there’s nothing quite like freshly roasted coffee beans. To get the freshest coffee, you may want to take the extra step of roasting your beans at home. Luckily, this is easy to do using an old-fashioned stovetop popcorn popper.
Keep reading to learn how to perfectly roast coffee beans in a popcorn popper, and stick around for the FAQ at the end if you still have questions. You’ll be roasting delicious, aromatic beans in no time!
How to Roast Coffee Beans in a Popcorn Popper:
- Stovetop popcorn popper
- Stove
- Metal colander
- Good ventilation
- Thermometer (optional)
This process will produce quite a bit of smoke. Before you start, you may want to turn on a stovetop fan or hood, open a kitchen window, or temporarily disable your kitchen smoke detector. If you have a stovetop outside, even better! You can also do this over a campfire or on a camp stove.
For this guide, we used the side burner on an outdoor grill. If you don’t have a popcorn popper yet, you can find our guide to the best popcorn poppers for coffee roasting here. Remember that using a popcorn popper to roast coffee will void its warranty.
1. Preheat
Preheat your stovetop popper over medium-low to medium heat. This works best on a gas or propane stove because you can quickly adjust the temperature, but it will also work with an electric coil stove. If you’re using a thermometer, wait until the temperature stabilizes at about 450°F.
2. Add the beans
Pour in about eight ounces of green coffee beans. Shake or stir the pot to spread your beans evenly across the bottom. After you pour in the beans, the interior temperature will drop below 300°F.
3. Start roasting
Close the lid and begin turning the crank. You don’t need to go too quickly, but you’ll want to keep up an even pace throughout the roasting process so your beans don’t burn. The more you stir, the more even your roast will be. Avoid opening the lid very often, as this will allow heat to escape.
4. First browning
A few minutes in, your beans should start turning brown and letting off a grassy smell. If you’re using a thermometer, this will happen when they pass 300°F.
5. First crack
After about five to seven minutes, you’ll start seeing smoke from the beans and smelling a chocolatey, toasting aroma. Listen for the first crack, which will sound just like popcorn popping. At this point, your beans will be between 350 and 370°F. Let your beans crack for a few seconds. When the frequency of cracks slows down and stops, your beans have passed the first crack and will be at a light roast level. If that’s where you want to stop, turn the heat off and skip to step eight.
6. Medium roast
7. Second crack
If you’d like a darker roast, keep roasting for another couple of minutes, seven to nine minutes. Listen carefully for the second crack, which has a lighter sound, similar to an electrical spark. This will happen around 450°F. Turn off the heat and remove your pot from the stove as the second crack winds down. Your beans will continue to roast a little even after you remove them from the heat, so you may want to remove them slightly before the roast color you’re looking for.
8. Cooling
If you’ve been roasting inside, you may want to go outside for this step. Open your pot’s lid, considering that quite a bit of smoke may emerge, so you’ll probably want to keep your face and hands away from the opening to prevent burning. Pour your beans into a metal colander to cool them. If you have another colander or metal bowl, you may want to pour the beans back and forth between them to speed up the cooling process. The chaff, the outer layer of coffee bean skin, will have fallen off the beans at this point, so separate it by pouring the beans back and forth or blowing on them.
9. Enjoy your coffee!
Enjoy your fresh, aromatic beans! Because freshly roasted beans have such a wonderful aroma, you may be tempted to brew them immediately, but your beans will have the best flavor between 12 and 24 hours after roasting. Store them in an airtight container away from sunlight, but leave the lid off for the first day to allow the beans to off-gas.
Roasting Coffee Beans at Home: FAQ
What are the benefits of home roasting?
While still green, coffee beans can be stored for months without losing flavor. As soon as you roast them, though, they lose flavor through contact with oxygen. For the strongest, most exciting flavor, you’ll probably want to brew your beans within one to two weeks of roasting.
If you roast coffee beans at home, you can be sure they’ve recently been roasted. But be warned: once you’ve tasted freshly roasted beans, you may have difficulty returning to the store-bought variety. Beans roasted in a popcorn popper have a smooth, full flavor and low acidity. Plus, you’ll be amazed at the size of the bloom!
Roasting your beans at home can also be cheaper because you do some of the work yourself. You can buy green coffee beans in bulk at a lower cost, and with some practice, you can produce gourmet, well-roasted beans at a fraction of the cost.
Finally, if you’re a hands-on home brewer, roasting your beans will allow you to control every brewing process step. You can choose your variety of green beans and roast them to the desired level.
