Percentage of forum members who roast

#1: Post by **Tetra** » January 11th, 2020, 6:48 pm

This is a totally useless question without an easily obtained answer. And one perhaps already discussed although I did not find an obvious thread via searching. But it's one that has percolated (sorry for that) around in the back of my head for a while. Is there any guesstimate on the number of members of this forum who roast their own coffee?

I started roasting my own coffee perhaps 15 years ago and realized it was a game changer in terms of quality espresso. I'm thinking I must be wrong, but it seems that the percentage is relatively low and that is puzzling if true. If it is a low percentage, part of the explanation might be due to easy availability of quality beans roasted nearby. 15 years ago in my part of the world that was an issue for me and forced my hand. But now it isn't that difficult to get good roasted beans even in Idaho. In spite of easy availability, the home roasted coffee is still almost certainly of better quality and fresher (my own very subjective opinion).

So I suppose my real question is: why doesn't every coffee geek roast their own beans? Some possibilities include cost, availability of green beans, time investment, knowledge, roast quality, availability of space to actually roast without burning down the building.

And if I were a moderator, I would delete this question. Just musing by the fireside on a Sunday afternoon.

#2: Post by **TenLayers** » January 11th, 2020, 7:13 pm

Well, I roast and you roast so far that's 100%!

#3: Post by **johnX** » January 11th, 2020, 7:16 pm

Plus 1

#4: Post by **mkane** » January 11th, 2020, 7:17 pm

And we roast here also. With all the other hobbies we've had in the last 40 years, we didn't even think about roasting our own.

#5: Post by **Jasper_8137** » January 11th, 2020, 7:19 pm

I actually started with roasting, then got into espresso. I will try beans from local roasters here in Denver, but always prefer my own.

#6: Post by **thuegli** » January 11th, 2020, 7:29 pm

I think with the dramatic increase of available quality beans, many people don't need to roast and the desire isn't there to make the investment of time and money.

I have some of the best beans in the world near me (Portland) IMO, but I still roast.

Like you, roasting has been a game changer. And everyone I give beans to can't believe coffee could taste that good. And I'm not a great roaster....

#7: Post by **Randy G.** » January 11th, 2020, 11:10 pm

Been roasting for 20 years with a one-year hiatus recently. Will be back at it again soon.. I hope.

#8: Post by **TomC** » January 12th, 2020, 1:37 am

Tetra wrote:This is a totally useless question without an easily obtained answer.

If you can come up with the questions for a poll, any moderator can create one for you. It would have to run a very long time though, to get anything remotely valid. Best guess from what I've seen, somewhere around 15% or just below that, of the total active forum body.

#9: Post by **jevenator** » January 12th, 2020, 2:23 am

I refrained from not roasting because I did not like popcorn popper method when I first tried it and thought it'd be very hard and messy to get good coffee. After getting lots of positive feedback and encouragement from my thread I decided to get a small roaster in which I am happy to have.

#10: Post by **John_Doe** » January 12th, 2020, 4:17 am

thuegli wrote:I think with the dramatic increase of available quality beans, many people don't need to roast and the desire isn't there to make the investment of time and money.

I have some of the best beans in the world near me (Portland) IMO, but I still roast.

Like you, roasting has been a game changer. And everyone I give beans to can't believe coffee could taste that good. And I'm not a great roaster....

I can definitely see your point(s), but along with the quality level comes the price as well. I started roasting to save money, roast to the level/flavor profile(s) I want and have it fresh/consistent based on my consumption. There are LOTS of great green offerings available year-round and with time/effort and of course the initial roaster investment I find it awesome and wonder why I didn't jump on doing it years before I actually did.