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How Long Does It Take to Roast Coffee Beans? How to Roast Coffee at Home Without a Roaster?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Recently, FrontStreet Coffee was reading a book about coffee roasting and noticed this sentence: "Coffee roasting can sometimes be a bit monotonous, but the appearance of first crack is always exciting." For many people, the term "first crack" may seem somewhat familiar yet actually unfamiliar. It marks the beginning of coffee beans becoming "mature"

Experiencing the First Crack: FrontStreet Coffee's Home Roasting Adventure

Not long ago, while reading a book about coffee roasting, FrontStreet Coffee noticed this sentence: "Coffee roasting can sometimes be monotonous and boring, but the appearance of the first crack is always exciting."

Perhaps for many people, the term "first crack" may seem somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar. As a signal that coffee beans begin to "mature," it frequently appears in FrontStreet Coffee's daily articles, helping us better understand the state of coffee at different roasting stages and the origin and formation of various flavors. So the question arises: what exactly does the "first crack" sound like?

To personally experience the sound of the "first crack," FrontStreet Coffee specially prepared a sufficient amount of green coffee beans, found a flat pan at home, and then used the open flame of a stove to roast in a stir-frying manner. By the way, they could also create an episode of "How to roast coffee at home without a roaster?" - truly killing two birds with one stone!

(Friendly reminder: Because this is a simple and crude home setup, there aren't many precise data points, let alone professional measuring equipment. The entire process relies on actual circumstances to determine how to adjust the heat and when to finish. Therefore, the resulting coffee beans might be under-roasted, burnt, or half-roasted. Let's wait and see.)

First Batch: Natural Process Santa Weni

For the first batch of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee chose a natural process bean, Santa Weni from Ethiopia. As a first attempt, for safety's sake, FrontStreet Coffee turned on the smallest micro-flame and immediately poured half a bowl of green beans into the heated pan, starting the timer. While observing the color change of the beans, they maintained continuous pan-tossing to ensure even heating of each particle.

At about 5-6 minutes, some green beans began to show slight yellowing; around the 7-minute mark, more than half of the green beans had significantly changed color, and the silver skin gradually fell off. After blowing away the silver skin, FrontStreet Coffee continued to maintain movement.

However, because the heat was too small, the coffee beans absorbed heat too slowly, and FrontStreet Coffee迟迟没有迎来"一爆"的声音,只好临时将火力稍稍调到小火,然后继续翻炒.大约在20分钟左右,个别生豆才开始变为棕色,直到22分钟时,第一颗咖啡豆发出了"啪"的爆裂声,随即平底锅内开始有烟冒出,并不断有"啪、啪、啪"的响声传出.

Since the beans were Ethiopian native varieties, with varying sizes, uneven heating was likely if not stirred promptly. At 24 minutes, FrontStreet Coffee observed that half of the coffee beans had passed the first crack, continuing to darken from brown, while the other half remained yellowish-brown, still not entering the first crack stage. To prevent burning, they finally chose to finish at 26 minutes. After turning off the heat, they quickly poured the coffee beans into a stainless steel container for cooling to prevent continued temperature rise.

Second Batch: Washed Kaffa Forest

For the second batch of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee switched to washed Kaffa Forest, targeting a medium roast. These beans have relatively uniform particles, making heat control easier.

Learning from the first lesson, when adjusting the heat, FrontStreet Coffee first turned on medium heat to warm the flat pan. When they could feel a wave of heat by placing their hand above the pan, they immediately poured in the green beans and then adjusted the heat to low. (Alternatively, you could drop a small drop of water inside - if it quickly boils and evaporates, it indicates the pan has reached the target temperature.)

Maintaining low heat and continuous stirring, the green beans began to turn yellow at about 4-5 minutes. At 10 minutes, individual particles turned light brown and emitted a popcorn aroma. At 12 minutes, the green beans began to enter the first crack, and FrontStreet Coffee immediately adjusted the stove to micro-flame. As the cracking sounds became concentrated and smoke gradually increased, between approximately 14-15 minutes, the coffee beans in the pan stopped making sounds and had completely turned dark brown. The roast ended at 16 minutes.

Third Batch: Medium-Dark Roast Santa Weni

As the saying goes, since we're already here, after hearing the "first crack," we naturally want to hear the sound of the "second crack" as well. Therefore, when roasting the third batch of coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee set the target at medium-dark roast, using natural process Santa Weni again.

With the experience from the second batch, FrontStreet Coffee again used medium heat to preheat the pan when adjusting the flame this time, then maintained low heat for continuous stirring after pouring in the green beans. Yellowing began at about 4-5 minutes. Around 8 minutes, as the green beans turned yellowish-brown, a large amount of silver skin fell off, and a faint nutty aroma floated from the pan. At the 9-minute mark, smaller green beans began to enter the first crack and produced smoke.

The heat was adjusted again to micro-flame, and stirring continued. Around 13-14 minutes, most particles had completed the first crack, and after 1-2 minutes of silence, fine cracking sounds could be heard, indicating the coffee beans were entering the medium-dark roast stage. After stirring for about 10 seconds, they were removed from the pan for cooling.

Comparison Results

Through comparison, it can be found that the first batch of coffee beans was in a half-roasted state, with many particles still leaning yellow, clearly under-roasted; the second batch had relatively uniform color values, approaching medium roast; the third batch of coffee was overall medium-dark, with some particles showing signs of local scorching and burning, requiring manual removal.

(Under-roasted and scorched/burnt)

Tasting Results

After several days of bean resting, FrontStreet Coffee picked out the obviously under-roasted and burnt coffee and brewed a pot of each of the three samples for tasting.

The first pot was the half-roasted Santa Weni: the ground coffee had a aroma of popcorn and roasted peanuts. The brewed coffee liquid was light in color, with only a slight berry acidity and tea sensation in the mouth. There was almost no "coffee flavor," clearly due to too many beans being under-roasted, resulting in insufficient coffee extraction.

The second pot was the "medium roast" Kaffa Forest: it smelled of sweet toasted bread and roasted nuts after grinding. The coffee liquid entered the mouth with sweet flavors of chocolate, sucrose, and hazelnuts, with a slightly intoxicating quality. As the temperature slightly decreased, citrus-like fruit acidity could be felt. The overall experience was relatively gentle with weaker flavor intensity.

The third pot was the "medium-dark roast" Santa Weni: after grinding, lemon and cream cookie aromas could be detected. The coffee liquid was darkest in color, with flavors of dried fruit, roasted hazelnuts, and caramel. The aroma was mellow and not bitter, with unobvious acidity but low body thickness and minimal aftertaste.