Hot air poppers

Hot air popcorn poppers swirl very hot air around the kernels until they pop and fly out of the popping chamber, through a duct and into a waiting bowl. You can use a hot air popper to roast coffee. Coffee will obviously stay in the chamber until it is roasted to the desired degree. The "swirling hot air" method of cooking is called fluid-bed roasting.

One important criterion for a hot air roaster is that the roasting chamber has a solid bottom with air vent holes in the chamber walls. Some roasters have holes in the bottom and will burn the coffee beans, apparently:


So, when you are searching for a roaster, find one that looks like that above. The typical hot air popper is 1000-1500 watts.