Home roasting is how all coffee roasting started with manual agitation of beans over an open flame. As recently as 50 years ago it was commonplace for a family to roast beans for their own consumption. With a desire to reduce manual effort in the home, commercial suppliers now dominate the roasted coffee market and sales.

These days home roasters have a variety of equipment available that is either specifically made for home roasting or can be reused for the purpose. The most commonly used DIY options are popcorn poppers, heat/hot air guns and barbecue roasting with home made steel drums suspended and rotated over burners.

The two most common types of coffee roasting equipment are the drum type machines and the hot air roasters.

The drum machines roast the coffee as it is tumbled in a rotating drum.

The hot air machines, also known as fluid bed roasters, roasts the coffee as it tumbles on a current of hot air. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes and the results are more than satisfactory.

Electric hot air popcorn machines use the same principle as fluid-bed roasters. Some people use these machines to roast coffee.

Both machines keep the coffee moving to maintain a consistent and even roast.

The main drawbacks with many home roasting appliances are their relatively small batch size, with some roasters capable of handling only 75 grams of green coffee.