The Minnesota Roasters Pioneering Electric Coffee Roasting – CoffeeTalk

Zach Whitney, a former barista from Minnesota, started experimenting with electric coffee roasting during the COVID-19 lockdown. Small electric appliances have long been an entry point for at-home coffee roasting, which saw an uptick during the pandemic. However, most commercial roasting today happens in gas-powered machines, which tend to come with more scale and precision — and greenhouse gas emissions — compared to electric options. A trend toward electric coffee roasting has been percolating for years, and COVID-era coffee tinkerers like Whitney are helping to pique interest in electric roasting technology. Manufacturers are betting on an electric future, rolling out larger and smarter electric roasting machines aimed at competing with gas on quality, convenience, and providing climate benefits.

Whitney and his partner Nicole Bolea founded Coffeewomple in 2022, roasting small batches of beans at home to sell at farmers markets. They soon outgrew their tiny countertop setup, which allowed them to roast roughly two 1-pound bags of coffee per batch. They spent months searching for a commercial-scale upgrade that would get them closer to 30 bags per batch. Most electric roasters were not even half that size.

After a flurry of searches and cold emails, they connected with a Dutch manufacturer called Giesen Roasting Solutions, which had just announced the largest commercially available electric coffee roaster. After a few months before the event, Bolea and Whitney signed a deal to buy the machine after it was displayed at the expo, saving some on shipping costs and significantly shrinking the typical lead time to receive a new commercial roaster.

The couple has no regrets about going electric for the environmental benefits, as the roasting process itself has been almost identical to gas.

The coffee industry’s climate impact is primarily due to the planting, harvesting, and on-farm processing stages. The roasting step accounts for between 5% and 15% of the beverage’s emissions profile. Giesen, a company that produces electric coffee roasters, has been the first U.S. customer for its large electric roaster, which can churn out about 33 pounds of coffee per batch. The demand for electric roasters is driven by places where access to natural gas is limited, either by infrastructure or policy, as well as areas with government incentives to switch to electric equipment.

Bellows Berkeley Coffee, Mill City Roasters in Minneapolis, and other companies are also betting on an electric coffee roasting future. Bellwether Coffee has introduced a touchscreen-equipped electric coffee-roasting kiosk designed to automate the process for cafes and restaurants. Mill City Roasters is working with an engineer to design a larger, higher-performing electric roaster.

The challenge is to build a system that is precisely controllable enough to get something better out of the machine. The move toward electric coffee roasting is part of a broader push to reduce emissions from food and beverage processing and manufacturing, which is the fourth largest source of U.S. industrial heat emissions. Almost all of the fossil-fueled heat needed to make food and drinks could be replaced with existing solar thermal or electrification technologies.

In states like Minnesota, where natural gas remains relatively cheap, many of the conversions to electric process heat are driven by concerns about climate change. State incentives are also helping to move the needle, such as a climate-smart food systems grant program in Minnesota that includes $60 million for industrial innovation that reduces emissions.

At their roasting facility in Southeast Minneapolis, Whitney and Bolea continue to look for ways to reduce their environmental impact while expanding their reach. They pay a premium for compostable packaging and use reusable buckets for larger customers.

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