How One Barista Built 13 DIY Coffee Roasters

Ever wondered how far coffee enthusiasts will go to perfect their roast? At a quiet café tucked along Li Huangpi Road in Guangzhou, the answer is: they’ll build their own machines from scratch. This isn’t your average coffee shop—it’s home to 13 custom-built coffee roasters, each born from the owner’s obsession with control, freshness, and the craft of roasting.

The short answer? The café’s owner, Li Jun, has handbuilt 13 unique coffee roasters—some inspired by vintage designs, others cobbled together from everyday objects—proving that with enough ingenuity, you don’t need a factory-made machine to roast great beans.

A Café Where Every Detail Matters

Walk into this Li Huangpi Road café, and you might notice the vintage decor first: old telephones, typewriters, and even a working aquarium tucked by the window. But the real gem? Hidden in plain sight is a one-of-a-kind coffee roaster built entirely by the owner, Li Jun. What looks like a jumble of industrial parts—a repurposed stainless steel bowl, a modified pressure cooker, and even a genuine streetlamp base—actually forms a fully functional roasting machine, modeled after a 17th-century German design. It took months of nonstop work to assemble.

The Secret Weapon: Simpler, Smarter Roasting

While the 17th-century-inspired roaster steals the spotlight, the team’s daily driver is a more straightforward design. Picture this: an electric hot plate tucked inside a metal cabinet, with two stacked kitchen colanders acting as the roasting chamber. No digital controls, no pre-set programs—just manual adjustments for heat and timing. This bare-bones setup, built by Li Jun, gives the baristas direct control over every roast, allowing them to tweak profiles for different beans on the fly.

Why Handbuilt Roasters Beat Store-Bought

“Store-bought machines are rigid—they force you to follow their fixed programs,” explains Juann, the café manager. “But coffee beans from different regions need different roast curves, and every roaster has their own style. Our DIY machines let us adapt.” The smaller batch sizes also mean freshness is guaranteed: beans are roasted in-house and used within a week, ensuring peak flavor. As Juann puts it, “Freshness matters more than origin when it comes to a great cup.”

Frequently Asked Questions

How many DIY coffee roasters did the café owner build?

The owner, Li Jun, handcrafted a total of 13 unique coffee roasters, ranging from a 17th-century German-inspired model to simpler designs using everyday items like pressure cookers and colanders.

What inspired the most elaborate roaster?

The most complex roaster was modeled after a 17th-century German design, using a stainless steel bowl with the bottom removed for loading beans, a modified pressure cooker as the roasting chamber, and even a real streetlamp base as the machine’s footing.

Why doesn’t the café just buy commercial roasters?

Commercial machines lack flexibility—they follow rigid programs that don’t account for the unique roasting needs of different beans or personal preferences. DIY machines allow precise control over heat and timing, ensuring better results.

How do the DIY roasters ensure coffee freshness?

The small batch sizes mean beans are roasted in-house and used within a week, maximizing freshness. The team believes freshness has a bigger impact on flavor than the bean’s origin.

What’s the daily-use roaster like?

The team’s go-to roaster is a simpler setup: an electric hot plate inside a metal cabinet with two stacked kitchen colanders as the roasting chamber, adjusted manually for heat and time without digital controls.

Recommended FrontStreet Beans for Home Roasting

For home roasters experimenting with custom setups, try FrontStreet Coffee’s PWN Golden Mandheling for deep, low-acid richness with herbal and chocolate notes, or Brazil Queen Manor for balanced nutty sweetness and smooth caramel tones. Both are ideal for testing roast profiles on handmade machines, offering clarity and body without overwhelming complexity. Freshly roasted within 5 days · Orders placed before 17:00 ship the same day · Next-day delivery across most of Guangdong Province.