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Roasting coffee - made easy

Roasting coffee - made easy

By: Ingo from Roast Rebels
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We at Roast Rebels have dedicated ourselves to a single theme: Simply roasting your own coffee. On the one hand, we offer the most proven small coffee roasting machines as well as high-quality green coffees, on the other hand, we want to support people who roast their own coffee with tips, knowledge, roasting profiles and tutorials to quickly achieve good roasting results. You can therefore find a lot of information and roasting profiles on our website, here in the podcast or also on our YouTube channel. Visit us for more on Coffee Roasting: https://roastrebels.com/enIngo from Roast Rebels Art Cooking Food & Wine
Episodes
  • Colombia: The Perfect Second Origin to Explore

    Colombia: The Perfect Second Origin to Explore
    Jul 21 2026
    Colombia might be the most rewarding second origin any coffee lover can explore. It combines a centuries-old washed-coffee tradition that's forgiving to roast with a fast-growing wave of experimental processing that keeps surprising even seasoned roasters. Ingo breaks down both sides in this episode.

    Coffee reached Colombia in the early 18th century, brought over by Jesuits from Venezuela. The first documented plantings date to around 1730-1740, exports began around 1830, and by the early 1900s coffee had become the country's leading export good, grown mostly on small family farms rather than large plantations. The Colombian Coffee Federation, founded in the 1930s, helped professionalize the industry, and the Juan Valdez character later turned "100% Colombian coffee" into a global quality signal.

    Colombia's coffee character shifts a lot by region. Huila (1,300-2,000m) is the country's highest-volume region, delivering sweet, balanced cups with red fruit notes. Nariño (1,800-2,100m) grows some of the highest and brightest coffees, often citrusy with subtle winey notes. Tolima (1,200-2,000m) tends toward full-bodied, chocolatey cups. Cauca (1,700-2,200m) offers vibrant, juicy, fruit-forward coffees from a strong network of smallholder cooperatives - this is also where Roast Rebels sources its San Sebastian washed coffee, known for green apple, orange and caramel notes. Antioquia (1,300-2,000m) produces mild, well-rounded, approachable coffees. And the coffee axis of Caldas, Risaralda and Quindío (1,200-2,000m) tends to be sweet and balanced with a mild acidity, with Quindío in particular known for bright, floral cups - the origin of Roast Rebels' peach co-fermented washed coffee.

    Colombia is also considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, and that biodiversity shows up on the coffee farms themselves: many producers intercrop coffee with fruits like mango or papaya, and even neighboring plots with different intercrops can taste noticeably different in the cup. Add in a wide range of regional microclimates, and Colombia becomes an origin worth exploring lot by lot, farm by farm.

    On the roasting side, Ingo shares a concrete benchmark for a classic Colombian washed coffee roasted for filter: target around 13 to 14 percent weight loss, hit yellowing around 4:45, first crack around 8:30, and a roughly 1:30 development phase for a total roast time landing near 10 minutes. On an Aillio Bullet, that translates to a start temperature around 280 degrees and a heat setting of 8 rather than 9 - enough energy without maxing out the burner.

    Beyond the classic washed profile, Colombia's new wave includes anaerobic fermentation, carbonic maceration, yeast and temperature-shock fermentations, and co-fermented lots - like the peach co-fermented coffee Roast Rebels sources from Quindío.

    Links from this episode:
    Peach co-fermented washed coffee from Quindío: https://roastrebels.com/en/colombia-washed-peach-castillo/
    San Sebastian washed coffee from Cauca: https://roastrebels.com/en/colombia-san-sebastian/
    Full range of green coffee: https://roastrebels.com/en/green-coffee/
    Aillio Bullet Masterclass (Roast Rebels Academy): https://academy.roastrebels.com/course/aillio-bullet-masterclass

    Roast Rebels is Europe's go-to platform for specialty coffee roasting, selling small-scale roasting machines including the Kaffelogic Nano 7e, Aillio Bullet, Gene Café, Behmor and Nucleus LINK, alongside curated green coffees from origins like Colombia. Service centers in Germany and Switzerland, free shipping across the EU, and the Roast Rebels Academy for in-depth roasting courses.

    Shop: https://roastrebels.com/en
    Academy: https://academy.roastrebels.com
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    19 mins
  • What It Actually Costs to Start Your Own Coffee Roastery

    What It Actually Costs to Start Your Own Coffee Roastery
    Jul 14 2026
    What does it actually cost to open your own coffee roastery? Ingo from Roast Rebels walks through every real expense involved in building a roastery from scratch — and lays out a much cheaper way to get started before you commit six figures.

    Building a full setup around a 10–15 kg roasting machine lands most people somewhere between €80,000 and €100,000. The roasting machine itself, plus its add-ons, typically accounts for €60,000 to €70,000 of that — with the machine alone running around €30,000. On top of that come smoke and chimney solutions (€8,000 to roughly €18,000 combined), a destoner (€3,000–€8,000), and a loader for handling green coffee (€4,000–€7,000).

    Then there's everything around the machine: a sample roaster such as the Nucleus LINK or Kaffelogic Nano 7 for about €1,000–€2,000, a cupping and lab setup — including a grinder like the Mahlkönig EK43 and measuring tools such as the DiFluid CoffMeter A1/M1 or DiFluid OMIX Plus — for roughly €700 to €3,000, plus warehouse, office and legal costs that each add a few thousand euros.

    But you don't need €100,000 to start roasting professionally. Ingo breaks down a much lower-risk path using the Aillio Bullet, a machine Roast Rebels sells across Europe. More than 17,000 Aillio Bullets are in use worldwide, and roughly 8,000 of them belong to people who started their own coffee business with one. It roasts up to 1.2 kg per batch in about 8 minutes — enough for around 5 tons a year on your own, or up to 10 tons with two machines. At a margin of about €10 per kilo, that's €50,000–€100,000 in potential revenue before ever touching a larger machine. Co-roasting and contract roasting come up too, as ways to test the market with close to zero investment.

    Links mentioned in this episode:
    Shop: roastrebels.com/en
    Aillio Bullet R2 Pro: roastrebels.com/en/aillio-bullet-r2-pro
    Roastery Founder Kit: roastrebels.com/en/roastery-starter-set
    Full tools checklist (blog): roastrebels.com/en/starting-a-roastery
    Academy: academy.roastrebels.com

    Roast Rebels is Europe's platform for specialty coffee roasting, selling small-scale roasting machines — including the Aillio Bullet, Kaffelogic Nano 7 and Nucleus LINK — alongside curated green coffee sourced from around the world. Service centers in Germany and Switzerland mean local support anywhere in the EU, with free EU-wide shipping. The Roast Rebels Academy (academy.roastrebels.com) offers in-depth roasting courses, including the Aillio Bullet Masterclass — 11 chapters, 30 videos, 4+ hours — for €249, free with a hardware purchase from Roast Rebels.
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    39 mins
  • World Brewers Cup 2026: Breaking Down Sierra's Routine

    World Brewers Cup 2026: Breaking Down Sierra's Routine
    Jul 9 2026

    Fresh back from Brussels: Sierra just competed at the World Brewers Cup 2026, and in this episode she sits down with Ingo to watch her own routine together — pausing along the way to unpack the details behind every pour.

    From a brand-new vacuum degassing tool to a strict 10-minute clock that punishes every second over the limit, this is a behind-the-scenes look at what it actually takes to compete on coffee's biggest stage.In this conversation:🔥 Sierra's full World Brewers Cup performance, rewatched and broken down together🔥 How the score sheet works: bottom boxes, accuracy, and quality scoring explained🔥 A massive European heat wave and how it forced last-minute changes to coffee storage🔥 TIMEMORE's new vacuum tool, built to hit the "Goldilocks zone" between CO2 and oxidation🔥 Two kettles, two pour styles — why Sierra switches mid-routine🔥 What sensory judges, shadow judges, and head judges are each actually scoring🔥 Brewing three coffees in parallel under serious time pressure🔥 The dripper, booster, and server setup behind her cup🔥 A fresh 2026 harvest natural Geisha from Mt. Totumas, Panama🔥 Why a strong team behind the scenes makes or breaks a competition run🔥 Sierra's honest answer: should you compete in a Brewers Cup yourself?

    Sierra represented Switzerland at the World Brewers Cup 2026 after winning the Swiss Brewers Cup. 46 countries competed this year. Competitors get 10 minutes to brew 3 coffees, losing 0.5 points for every second over — Sierra finished at 9 minutes 44 seconds, in a year so tight that 6th and 7th place ended up tied. Judges score across 6 attributes: aroma, flavor, acidity, sweetness, aftertaste, and mouthfeel. A new grinder rule this year limited the entire grind-to-brew window to 18 minutes total.

    ☕ About Roast RebelsRoast Rebels is Europe's go-to platform for specialty coffee roasting — small-scale roasting machines, high-quality green coffee, and courses for home roasters and professionals. Service centers in Germany and Switzerland, free shipping across the EU.

    Sierra, featured in this episode, is Roast Rebels' content manager and green coffee buyer, and the 2026 Swiss Brewers Cup Champion.Shop: https://roastrebels.com/en
    Academy: https://academy.roastrebels.com
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
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