You can start roasting coffee beans at home for less than $10. On the other hand, you could spend thousands of dollars setting up a full roasting studio. If you are looking into coffee roasting as a hobby, you may be wondering whether roasting coffee at home actually saves money.
Roasting your own coffee beans at home requires a higher initial outlay of money for equipment than buying coffee from the store. You’ll need a roaster, a grinder, and some green coffee beans. But over time, roasting at home will save money. I’ve included some detailed calculations in this article to show just how much you could save. How much money you’ll actually save depends on what equipment you already have and your current coffee buying habits.
Cost to Get Started
The Beans
Green, unroasted coffee beans cost less than roasted beans. Green beans can also be stored longer, so you can buy in bulk and achieve even more savings. Buying coffee beans, either roasted or roasted, is a variable cost. The amount of money you spend depends on the quantity of beans you buy.
The Gear
Roasting coffee requires equipment. In economic terms, this is known as a fixed cost. Once you buy the equipment, you own it and can roast as much or as little as you like.
If you already own a frying pan or a popcorn popper and a grinder, your equipment cost can be $0. You can get started roasting beans with this gear.
If you’ve decided to buy a dedicated coffee roaster, you can find one for less than $200. A drum roaster will cost around $400.
Potential Cost Savings
So here’s where it gets mathmetical. It’s hard to compare two options when one includes fixed costs and the other doesn’t unless you create a case study. So that’s what I’ve done below. You can use this to get a sense of potential savings, to convince a reluctant spouse to let you buy gear, or just as an example. I’ve calculated the cost for roasting coffee using three different methods and compared the annual cost to buying roasted beans. Obviously for the purpose of this example a few assumptions are necessary.
- Consumption. I assumed consumption of 1 pound of coffee per week, roasted or unroasted.
- Cost of Roasted coffee = $10.67 per pound ($8 for 12 oz). This is typical for specialty coffee from national brands.
- Cost of Unroasted coffee = $6.25 per pound. Green beans range from $5-$8 per pound.
- No grinder needed. In this example, you already own a coffee grinder. Obviously buying a grinder would change the calculations.
Properly cared for, all of these roasters will last for years so I included total savings calculations for 2-3 years.
| Method | Green bean | Roasted bean | Break even point | 1 year savings | 2 year savings | 3 year savings |
| Frying pan | $345 | $555 | 5 weeks | $197 | $440 | $670 |
| Air Roaster | $514 | $555 | 43 weeks | $41 | $271 | $501 |
| Drum Roaster | $724 | $555 | 91 weeks | -$169 | $61 | $291 |
Using a frying pan is a quick and easy way to start, but it takes some practice to do it well and you won’t get a consistent roast from batch to batch. On the other hand, you’ll break even in 5 weeks (less if you already own a frying pan). For a detailed description of how to roast beans using a frying pan or cast iron skillet, click here.
An air roaster is probably the best choice if you know you want to roast beans but don’t want to pay for a drum roaster. You’ll recoup your costs in the first year. Air roasters provide a consistent roast and very good value.
Drum roasters are a significant commitment. It will take almost two years for the savings of roasting at home to make up for the expense of the roaster. But drum roasters provide the greatest level of control and the best roasting experience.
Factoring in Electricity
None of these calculations take into consideration the electricity required to run a roaster. If you really want to get nerdy with your calculations you can include electricity, but it won’t make much of a difference.
Even though roasters use lots of energy, it’s only for a short amount of time. In my case, energy consumption is around 0.3 kWh per roast. My electric company charges $0.11 per kWh. So I guess I should add $0.04 to the cost calculation for each roast (1/2 pound), or $0.08/pound extra. That would add around $4/year to the cost of roasting. Electricity rates vary across the country, so I didn’t include it in the calculation. I also didn’t include the cost of electricity for grinders, because in my example you’d be grinding your own beans either way.
Factoring in Your Time
Your time might be a bigger factor in your calculation. Most roasters require supervision while in use. Due to the high heat involved and the chance of fire, roasters are not set-and-forget machines. Then again, to have a fair comparison we’d have to calculate the time you’d spend driving to the store to buy the roasted beans. We can make detailed calculations or wild guesses, but everyone’s mileage on cost savings will vary. Even with a roaster, I still occasionally end up buying roasted coffee because I forget to roast and run out of beans. So the savings calculation is just a rough estimate to give you an idea.
So roasting at home will save money, but we’re not talking buy-a-new-house money. We’re not even talking buy-a-used-car money. But we said this is a hobby, right? You’re doing it for fun, for better tasting coffee, for the chance to learn a new skill. I’m not going to put a price on that. For a complete guide on how to start roasting at home, click here.