I would agree with that sentiment completely. Ultimately its about the operator and what he/she can do with the bean with whatever gear. But when people hear they can buy one of these glorified hair dryers that are on the market and get the same results as a Stumptown I have to scratch my head.

I have yet to cup a home roasted coffee that could hold up to a coffee roasted well on dedicated gear – whether its a 90kilo vintage german roaster or a 2 barrel jabez burns sample roaster from the 30′s. I don’t feel qualified to speak too much on the physics of it and I’m hoping to someday be proven wrong if I’m just missing something, but it seems like you can do things with gas and iron/steel that can’t easily be reproduced on typical electrical devices or thin drums.

I think its probably easier to make a perfect soufle at home than passable roast of coffee and as such its another slippery slope that people should be cautioned about diving into unless they’re really going to put in the effort.

I’ve had some good dialogues with home roasters over the last couple years and have greatly softened my initial skepticism of it – and I believe that home roasters (largely thanks to guys like Tom Owen) are on the vanguard of appreciating great origin coffees. But I think we’re still in the bronze age as far as the available (affordable) roasting tools go.

As a guy who roasts coffee on serious heavy-duty commercial roasters, I tend towards skepticism that great results can be achieved with a converted popcorn popper or countertop electric roaster. After all, you can’t expect to reproduce Pizza Bianco at home on an EZ Bake oven.

placing the emphasis on machinery seems wrong. to me, roasting is about patience and practice and paying attention to details. heat is heat, but knowing how to use it is the important part. i’ll take the homeroaster that cares and pays attention to their roasts any day over a pro that just flips the switch, no matter how heavy-duty and serious that switch is.

yes, i’m a hit-dog homeroaster.

I also agree that the coffee blog is looking a little tired at the moment, and I think everyone who writes a coffee blog is becoming aware of it which is probably causing more people to try and find something to write about – most of which ends up, as you correctly identified, is “geeky thinking-out-loud, preaching to the choir, or shadowboxing with strawmen”.

Oh – and I love my Chemex!