Shopping Guide: Starter Kits
If you've never roasted coffee but want to give it the old college try, our Starter Kits are a great place to start. We put these kits together to serve as a toolbox for anyone new to the hobby (and to save you another trip to the store).
Every Starter Kit comes with the following:
- A Home Coffe Roaster, of course
- Roasted Coffee Color Card, to guide you with roast levels and weight loss
- Roast Log, to record information and changes to your roast
- Tin-Tie Bags, to store your roasted coffee in
- Free green coffee, with amounts varying on the set
- More accessories... depending on which set you choose!
Popper Starter Kit
Humans have roasted coffee with hot air popcorn poppers for decades! They're accessible, affordable and able to produce great results. Our Popper is a Coffee Roaster was designed to give you the experience of roasting with a popcorn popper, but with controls over time, temperature and air flow. This roaster is ideal for light to medium roasts and roasts 85 g in 7–8 minutes.
Air Roasting Starter Kit – Fresh Roast
The Fresh Roast is a fluid bed air roaster made by Home Roasting Supplies. Just like Popper, it uses hot air to roast coffee; unlike it, it uses a glass roasting chamber that allows for greater visibility of how the coffee is moving and roasting. It also has an effective chaff collector that makes cleaning up easy. This roaster is ideal for light to medium roasts and roasts up to 140g (SR540) in 8–10 minutes / 255g (SR800) in 12–14 minutes.
For those who are looking for an upgrade or a step up to the popcorn popper, consider the Fresh Roast. Check out our introductory video on Fresh Roast.
Drum Roasting Starter Kit – Behmor
Behmor is a beloved a drum-like roaster with a large and dedicated community behind it. It's a mainstay and top seller at Sweet Maria's for a reason. Once you get used to how the button control panel works—shifting between automatic and manual modes—operating it is a breeze. It has an afterburner installed for smoke suppression to eliminate some (not all!) smoke before it gets the chance to set off your alarm at home. (Still, you'll want to ventilate throughout.) A little TLC will make it last for years; some owners have installed upgrades and modded the machine, theirs still working 15+ years on. This roaster is ideal for medium roasts and roasts up to 1 lb in 13–20 minutes.
If you're looking to roast dark on a regular basis, there are better options (Gene Cafe, Hottop, etc). Check out our introductory video on the Behmor.
Stovetop Roasting Starter Kit – StovePop by VKP
Stovepop popcorn poppers are the tried and true, do-it-yourself, cowboy-style method of home coffee roasting. Roasting on the stove is a great exercise in training your senses to recognize the different stages of the roast, from yellowing to browning, to first crack. This roaster is ideal for all roast levels and roasts up to 1 lb in 13–20 minutes.
