Drive Thru / Kiosk: Is roasting own beans cost worthy?

[Jay_Raz]

Greetings,

I am in the research phase for opening my own Kiosk or Drive-Thru. I haven't been able to come across information regarding the cost benefits of roasting your own beans for use in drinks and wholesale.

I am interested in learning the roasting process and the fine techniques to it. I have found a few 5-day roasting courses, mostly on the west coast and one located in Vermont.

Trying to figure out if roasting my own beans, is a path that I would like to add to this journey. Any input on how to research this further would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Jason

 

[Coffee Guy]

Jay_Raz although it sounds like a good idea to roast your own beans in a drive thru, you may find that it's not such a good idea once you run the numbers and see what kind of work goes into doing it. There are 1-pound hot air roasters that some have tried in there stands and found that it was too much trouble to maintain. Then later gave them up. If you were in a cafe type setting at least you can put a small roaster like maybe a 2.5k-12k roaster and make it pay off for you. Anything smaller and you may find it difficult to save any money. In fact with the green bean prices going the way they are it might be difficult to find greens at a good price. Just my two cents.

 

[Jay_Raz]

Guy, thank you for the input. I'm still curious as to the profit margin for roasting your own beans, if anyone out there could enlighten me. Roasting might have to be a side project during this time, and then possibly a means to a profit later down the road. I do love the thought of roasting my own beans and being able to serve and sell them. But since this being a first time endeavor in the coffee world, i can see it something that isn't a priority right away.

 

[TonyDiCorpo]

until you bought and paid off (or recouped) the investment in a roaster, it is quite labor-intensive to roast for your shop. You also have to look at the spce you have to work with, and the maintenance of the roaster. An ideal shop roaster would be 5 kilos (about 11lbs) capacity. Good for a small shop but if you grow you'll wish you had a bigger one. New, a 5k will cost you about $10k. Used, maybe $5k or so. Then you have to consider your cost for beans, 2 yrs ago they were high: Colombian was high at $1.99/lb. Today they are about $4/lb so roasting to save $$ in not the angle here; roasting for the passion of the bean has to outweigh the cost factor.

 

[Jay_Raz]

Tony, thanks for some of the numbers. I had a feeling that Roasting wasn't going to be a part of my start-up. I am going to begin practicing just for the fun and love of it.

 

[Coffee Guy]

Good reply Tony. I didn't want to casue any sticker shock...LoL. But true, the way the market is going today, a lot of us are wondering if and when things are going to correct themselves. Additionally the diffirentials also play a factor when looking at costs.