Web Geek / Bakery Owner turned Aspiring Roaster

[dmoney2]

Hi Everyone!

I am located in Massachusetts. I am an ex-web geek turned bakery owner.

We make a lot of desserts, pastries, breakfast items, and muffins from scratch, mostly for seasonal folks in our area.
We are a family business (mom, brother, wife, kids, etc work there).

I love coffee, and I thought roasting it was too complicated - until recently.


We have a brand we like that seems to be out of stock too often (Wicked Joes - Jamaican Me Crazy at the top of the list)
I want to create our own brand. I have some local wholesalers on board.

I am looking forward to start reading the forums, and learning as much as I can about roasting! Such as a good starting roaster, how to flavor the roasted beans, and where I can buy reasonable price unroasted beans.

Thank you,
DMoney (this is a nickname my friends gave me in college - not sure why but it has stuck.)

 

[PinkRose]

Hi "DMoney"

Welcome to the Coffee Forums!

As you search through the forum topics, you will soon discover that we have a lot of information about roasting coffee.

Please post your questions and join in the conversations when you're ready!

Rose

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

[EspressoErb]

This is a huge topic and one that I am also researching. I'm interested to hear what people have to say. However, in the interest of passing on some knowledge here is the one thing I learned from a production roaster I talked with this summer.

"Don't disparage the popcorn popper!"

You will spend a minimum of $7500 on a very small commercial roaster as of today. Use anything you can to learn if roasting is right for you before you have to drop that much money into your business. The same roast master showed me just how small the margin is in the roasting business until you can get higher volume going. So if it takes a popcorn maker or something marketed at the home roaster, make sure you really want to make that investment before you jump.

All that said, I literally retired my $8 garage sale popper today and replaced it with a Quest M3 sample roaster. At the very least I am hooked on really fresh coffee at home! We'll see about getting that 5k or 12k roaster next!