# Roasting and selling coffee, small scale.



## Robbo

Hi,

I am looking for advice on buying green beans, learning to roast and eventually sell on coffee beans with my own label. When i say small scale im thinking starting with a 1kg roaster, selling about 10-20kg a week in 250g bags. Selling locally and occasional stalls. (Once i am happy i have a decent product)

Could this be profitable as a part time, on the side, business with potential to grow in the long term?

At the moment I have no experience of roasting but i am willing to take my time and learn. Plus i would have the obvious benifits of enjoying my own roasted coffee!

I have done something similar in the past, making organic homemade dog treats. Selling on stalls and advertising on facebook. This was popular but not very profitable due to short shelf life and i was using expensive ingredients and packaging.

For now i just need an idea of what equipment i would need and suppliers for beans, bags, etc. Plus any advice you can offer.


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## Dylan

I can't offer much advice, but maybe a question to ask yourself...

How much do you like coffee? You obviously like it, as your considering roasting, but are you a sit with an espresso picking out the particular tasting notes kinda guy?

Basically are you going to be able to do multiple small roasts, tasting each and honing the roast to match the bean.


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## Missy

If you found the short shelf life an issue you may again here, look around the forum at people's preferred "drunk by" date. The strong preference is for receiving within a few days of roasting to rest at home, then drinking after 7-10days, and all being gone within 3-4 weeks post roast.


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## DavecUK

Robbo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am looking for advice on buying green beans, learning to roast and eventually sell on coffee beans with my own label. When i say small scale im thinking starting with a 1kg roaster, selling about 10-20kg a week in 250g bags. Selling locally and occasional stalls. (Once i am happy i have a decent product)


It's a BIG subject and it takes a long time to learn. I think there are new roasters starting every day with little or no experience. Some will be good, some not so good, even after many years. This is because you can make the same years mistakes, over and over again.



Robbo said:


> Could this be profitable as a part time, on the side, business with potential to grow in the long term?


Initially not so much, as you will be learning, but if you are good at it, maintain very high standards of roast and stick to speciality roasting....yes. A 1 kg roaster will allow you to roast around 4kg per hour. You could roast up to 60kg per week in a 1kg roaster if you roast 5 days @ 3 hours or so per day. If your demand grew and was consistent, the next move would be a 5kg (or even 10kg roaster). You would keep the 1kg for small orders and blend components.



Robbo said:


> At the moment I have no experience of roasting but i am willing to take my time and learn. Plus i would have the obvious benefits of enjoying my own roasted coffee!
> 
> I have done something similar in the past, making organic home-made dog treats. Selling on stalls and advertising on facebook. This was popular but not very profitable due to short shelf life and i was using expensive ingredients and packaging.


Well many roasters start without knowing much and without necessarily drinking much coffee....so that doesn't seem to be a barrier to entry? It does take a while to learn to roast really well, although you can produce decent roasts fairly quickly with the right guidance and equipment. You should, however, use expensive beans and good packaging, if you want to make any profit with small volumes.



Robbo said:


> For now i just need an idea of what equipment i would need and suppliers for beans, bags, etc. Plus any advice you can offer.



Wholesale Green Coffee - Mercanta, Wakefield, Interamerican (to name a few)

Coffee Pouches - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=green+coffee+suppliers+uk#safe=active&q=coffee+pouch+suppliers+uk I have used the Bag Broker Before

Commercial Scales - Kern etc..

Impulse heat sealer (300mm) approx £20 ebay, only for certain Ziplock type coffee pouches

For the thicker Bags - Hair straighteners (cheapo ceramic type)

1kg commercial Roasters - Bella Barista and you get my superb mini book and user guide covering many aspects of roasting! https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/bellabarista-dalian-amazon-1-kg-roaster.html


Also Read some of this: http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/home-roastingd:home-roastingd


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## Jason1wood

That Dalian roaster is a beauty.


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## Robbo

@DavecUK thanks, thats just what i was after. Great info!

I totally get it that i wont be a master roaster right away. Initially i would be relying on research and learning from others experiences.

Im hoping it wont be too difficult, with the right equipment, to make a consistently drinkable product that i can sell. I would definitely be sticking to the high quality beans and using good packaging as i would need to offer something that cant be bought in the local supermarkets. We dont have any suppliers around here so i think it could be popular.

Its just an idea that i hope to make work when i have the time and space which will be in around 3 or 4 years time. In the meantime i will aim to do as much learning as possible and maybe get a smaller cheaper roaster for personal use.


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## johnealey

Hi Robbo

you might want to try a quick google search to scope out any local roasters ( there is definately one in Kineton, poss not too far from you, edgehill? plus monsoon estates out near alderminster? ) just to be aware of the local competition already in the market

There's also a forum member @froggystyle just north of Coventry at Hoar park farm nr Nuneaton who has taken the plunge and started up a full time venture plus other commercial roasters like Rave at Cirencester and Bella Barista little bit further away at Wellingborough.

None of the above to put you off and @DavecUK advice is bang on the money: good beans, good bags, quality consistent product for a unique sp (his guide that comes with the Dalian is full of additional advice ref setting up so not just about the roaster itself.9

I bought a 1kg Dalian Amazon with very similar thoughts to yourself, having roasted on a gene cafe 101 for a couple of years; I am still learning to control it enough for anything less than med dark







(see the home roasters thread "it's that time of year...")

Might want to book yourself on a roasting course or try out a gene or other small roaster in the meantime to see if you really catch the bug to roast and can enjoy the fruits of your experimentation whilst you doing it. We drink a lot of coffee in this house and even we can't drink more than 3 x 1kilo roast a week which are averaging about 840g roast weight per batch, thats with friends and family popping round so someone to drink your output whilst you learning on a kilo roaster is also important. Fortuneately the standing joke with parents / siblings is "med>med dark>dark>ealey dark, result!" (bless 'em they all like the very darker side of life, not burnt though)

Hope it all goes well

John

The


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## Dylan

To be fair on a very small scale, if you know enough people who will buy your coffee then the skill barrier is much lower, your coffee just has to be enjoyable. The same is true if your business chops are good and you can set up a shop with good enough footfall. When you want to sell online you are competing with a lot of other roasters... reputation, marketing and quality are then the only reasons to choose you over any other roaster online and there are already a lot of other roasters out there who have a good combination of those things.


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## Coffeejon

You Can't go to wrong with Dave's advice. I agree with Dylan as well, as make sure you like (love?) coffee, as this in the end is what drives us to get that perfect cup, as roasting takes along time to learn and I'd also say actually making the most of your coffee with some good barista skills will make sure people come back for more, as they want to know how to get the best from your beans, and you need to tell them!


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## SmithStCoffeeRoasters

http://www.scottrao.com/Coffee-Roasters-Companion.pdf buy this pal


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## Thorsten

When I started it helped me to 'recreate' or copy (like an art student copying an old master) a roast I know.

So normally ordered roasted and as green beans and then compared as good as possible, although I know that there are still some variants it helped me a great deal


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## JakeyB

@RobboI know this thread is literally from 3 years ago, but how did you get on with this?

I am thinking of almost the exact same thing, so would be great to get an insight to how you did things (if you did).

Cheers


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