I live in a flat with no extractor over the hob and a neighbour who shares a landing, which I suspect is the real constraint rather than money. Currently buying roasted beans from a local shop and I like them, so this is curiosity plus a vague hope of saving money. If you roast at home, what did you start on and did you keep it.
Popper reality check from three years of using one. Batch size is small, so at 500g a week you are roasting a couple of times a week rather than once a month. You get very little control, essentially you are managing time and ambient temperature, so batch to batch consistency is poor and you will throw some away while learning. Chaff goes everywhere and I mean everywhere, so do it near a sink or outside.
Your ventilation constraint is the whole decision and everyone in this thread is answering a different question. A drum roaster running a full batch produces a genuinely large amount of smoke in the last couple of minutes, and in a flat with no extraction it will set off your alarm and annoy the landing. I roast on a balcony for that exact reason. If you cannot roast outdoors or under real extraction, buy an electric roaster with a smoke suppression system or stay with the popper and small batches.
No balcony, shared landing, and an alarm in the hallway. That probably settles it before the money question even comes up.
Popper first, always. If you are still roasting weekly a year later, buy the drum and you will know exactly what you want from it.
I bought a drum first because I wanted to do it properly, and I used it about eleven times. The roasting was fine, the problem was that every session was a forty minute commitment including cool down and cleaning, and I have a job. The person I sold it to roasts every Sunday for the month and loves it. Be honest about which of those two people you are.
@query_quinn · 2mo ago · 3 replies
Do the green bean maths before the gear maths. Green coffee costs meaningfully less per kilo than roasted specialty, and you lose somewhere around fifteen to eighteen percent of the weight as water during the roast, so your effective saving per kilo is smaller than the sticker difference suggests. At 500g a week that saving is real but slow, and it will not pay off a drum roaster in any sensible timeframe. It pays off a popper in a few months, which is why almost everyone should start there.
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@monitor_riser_mo · 2mo ago
So the popper is the actual answer and the drum is a hobby purchase. That is roughly what I suspected and did not want to hear.
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@invoice_chaser · 2mo ago
It is a hobby purchase that makes better coffee, which is a perfectly good reason. Just do not put it in a spreadsheet and pretend it is an investment.
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