Co-roasting is a shared roasting model. You pay a co-roasting space for time on its commercial roasters, then roast your own coffee under your own brand. The facility owns the machines, the ventilation, the permits and the upkeep. You bring green coffee, book a shift, and roast.
Shared roasting spaces are often called coffee collectives or co-roasteries. Most also give members a cupping lab, green coffee storage, packing tools and classes. For a new roasting brand or a café ready to roast in-house, it's a practical way onto a production roaster. No roastery buildout required.
Below, we cover how co-roasting works, what to check before you join, and how to tell when it's time for a roaster of your own. Looking for a space near you? Jump to our co-roasting directory.
Picture a "Coffee Claus" who could grant a new roaster every wish. A modern production roaster. A sample roaster for dialing in new lots. A cupping lab, bean storage, a grinder and a heat sealer. A big warehouse to share with other roasters. And nobody asks you to fix the burner when it acts up.
That's co-roasting. It borrows from co-working spaces like WeWork and from sharing platforms like Airbnb. Instead of buying a roaster on day one, you rent roaster time and use the facility's professional setup.
Co-roasting spaces are a good fit for:
Think of it as "try before you buy" for roasting equipment. You learn what batch size, heat source and controls suit your coffee, and you learn it on someone else's machine.
The model is simple. You become a member, book roasting time on the schedule, and roast on the facility's equipment. Around that core, most spaces add services that make the membership more useful. Here's how a typical roasting session runs.
Members reserve set slots on specific roasters. A regular weekly shift gives you predictable production. Extra hours can usually be booked when there's an opening. You clean up after your session, and the facility looks after the machine itself.
Many co-roasteries run roasting classes, workshops and one-on-one coaching. Members also learn from each other. Swapping roast notes with the person on the next machine is one of the quiet advantages of a shared floor.
Most spaces include a cupping room and quality tools. Members use them to grade incoming lots, check roast color and refine profiles. Several facilities also give members access to roast logging software such as Cropster.
Expect green coffee storage, scales and heat sealers, and often a packing area. Many spaces add desk space for admin work, meetings and sales calls, so the facility works as a base for the whole business.
Some co-roasting groups pool green coffee orders or host importer cuppings. Members get access to a wider range of lots and a direct line to the people who source them.
Every facility sets its own model, so ask for the details in writing. The common structures are:
Rates vary by city, machine size and what's included, so compare facilities on what you actually get per roasting hour.
Access to machines is only part of the value. The facility handles maintenance, management and storage. Most also offer training, education and business advice.
As Jeff Wong, co-founder of Shared Roasting in Brooklyn, NY, explains:
"We work with all types of coffee businesses, from startups and cafes to e-commerce and wholesalers. It's a great option for anyone who doesn't want to spend money on warehouses or expensive machines. The real value comes from the training, education, and advisory support we provide."
Before you join, or if you're planning to open a co-roasting space yourself, look for these basics.
A strong facility runs more than one roaster size. A sample roaster such as an Ikawa handles lot selection. A 1 to 3 kg machine covers small production and profile work. A 12 to 35 kg roaster, such as a Loring, Diedrich or San Franciscan, handles real volume. Add grinders, scales, a destoner and sealers, and you have a working production line.
Several roasters running in one building need proper ductwork, fire safety and emission controls. Look for an afterburner or catalytic oxidizer where local air rules call for one. Clean, separate areas for cupping, packing and storage keep shared schedules running smoothly.
Co-roasting brings a lot to the table, but every facility runs differently. Check these four things before you commit.
Small-batch brands may need a 1 kg or 3 kg roaster, while growing wholesale accounts need time on a 15 kg machine or larger. Confirm the facility has the sizes you need and open slots that match your production week.
Some spaces set a minimum production quantity or a minimum monthly booking. Ask about cleaning duties, chaff and cooling tray procedures, and how the schedule is shared.
Co-roasting asks far less up front than building a roastery, but it is still a recurring cost. Add up roasting hours, storage and any add-ons, then compare that total to your expected sales.
Can you use the cupping lab and packing area outside your roasting slot? Is software included? Is there a café where your coffee can reach customers? These extras are often where one facility pulls ahead of another. Save the checklist below and bring it to every tour.
Most roasters treat co-roasting as a stage, not a destination. Here's how the two compare.
| Factor | Co-Roasting Space | Your Own Roaster |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront commitment | Membership or hourly booking | Roaster, site, ventilation and installation |
| Schedule control | Shared calendar, booked slots | Roast whenever orders call for it |
| Maintenance | Handled by the facility | Your responsibility, with service records to keep |
| Equipment choice | Several machines to test | One machine matched to your profiles |
| Permits and air rules | Covered by the facility | Your site, your permits |
| Community and education | Built in | Up to you to find |
| Best fit | New brands, cafés testing roasting, equipment testing | Steady, growing production and full schedule control |
Co-roasting works best while your volume fits the shared calendar. As sales grow, the schedule starts to set your limits. That's usually the moment to plan your own roaster. If you're still weighing shared roasting against outsourcing, our guide to white label, toll roasting or your own roaster compares all five routes side by side.
Volume is the clearest signal. Jeff Wong of Shared Roasting has said shared facilities suit businesses roasting under about 5,000 pounds a week. At that level, a brand needs roughly 19 hours a week on a 35 kg roaster, as he explained to RoasterTools. Most roasters move out well before that point, once the calendar gets tight.
Enter your weekly volume and the batch size you book below to see how many roaster hours that takes, and whether shared roasting still fits.
Co-roasting planner
Enter your weekly volume, the batch size you book and the hours you can get on the schedule.
About 3.1 roaster hours a week
Fits shared roasting
Selling a roaster you've outgrown or no longer need? List it with CoffeeTec.
How we calculate: about 3.5 batches per roaster hour, including charge, roast and cool, and about 15% weight loss in roasting. Real cycle times vary by machine and profile, so treat this as a planning guide.
Co-roasting gives you something most first-time buyers don't have: hours of real production data. Use it. Look at your weekly volume, your batch count per session and how much of each shift you actually used. Our guide on what size coffee roaster you need walks through that math.
Many members buy the same brand they learned on, so their profiles carry over with less retuning. The machines in co-roasting spaces line up closely with what roasters buy for their first shop. At the small end, that means Mill City, Diedrich, US Roaster Corp, Stronghold and Buckeye. Further up, San Franciscan, Loring and Probat. CoffeeTec's small-batch coffee roasters (1 to 4 kg) cover that starting range in new and used condition. To compare specific models first, see our best coffee roaster machines for small business.
Growth moves equipment in both directions. Members who bought a small roaster early often sell it when they step up. Co-roasting facilities also upgrade, selling a roaster to make room for a bigger one. If you're on the selling side, our guide on how to sell a used coffee roaster covers prep, pricing and freight step by step.
Co-roasting doesn't just help individual roasters. It widens the whole market.
Small cafés that couldn't roast in-house used to buy from large roasters. With access to shared equipment, they can buy green coffee directly from smaller farms and importers. More small brands means more buyers for distinctive lots.
Co-roasting facilities are usually large warehouses with staggered schedules and spaced-out machines. That layout has helped them keep production running for members through difficult periods.
Searching for a co-roasting space near you? Here are the shared roasting facilities we know of in the United States. Canada has its own, such as KW Coffee Collective in Kitchener, Ontario. Europe and Australia have them too, such as Communal Coffee in Berlin.
Equipment lists and services change, so confirm the details with each facility before you visit.
Location: 2322 Fifth St, Berkeley, CA 94710, United States
What they offer: Co-roasting membership, classes and education, packaging, and an on-site coffee room.
Roasters on site: Mill City 1 kg, Loring S35 Kestrel, Loring S15 Falcon, Probat Probatone 5, Probat BRZ 2, San Franciscan SF-1
Location: 1105 SE Main Street, Portland, OR 97214, United States
What they offer: Shared roastery membership, equipment booking and roasting classes.
Roasters on site: Proaster 10 kg, Proaster 1.5 kg, San Franciscan 25 lb, Loring Falcon (15 kg), plus a sample roaster
Location: 1024 9th Ave, Oakland, CA 94606, United States
What they offer: Roasting services for brands, co-packing, order fulfillment, logistics support, subscriptions, and workshops and classes.
Location: 1320 Grand Ave #12, San Marcos, CA 92078, United States
What they offer: Membership, education, cold brew production, green coffee receiving, and roasting services for brands.
Roasters on site: Ikawa Pro V3 and Roest L100 Plus sample roasters, San Franciscan SF1 (0.5 kg), SF6 (3 kg), SF25 (12 kg) and an SF25 "Red" with Cropster gas replay, Loring S35 (35 kg)
Location: 39-26 24th St, Astoria, NY 11101, United States
What they offer: A roasting collective where you rent time on production roasters, plus classes and event space. Formerly known as Regalia.
Roasters on site: Three production roasters, with Cropster access
Location: 1606 W Stassney Ln #2, Austin, TX 78745, United States
What they offer: Co-roasting, roast-to-order, cold brew, and a roaster school with education programs.
Roasters on site: Diedrich CR-25 (25 kg), Mill City MCR-10 (10 kg), Arc 800 (800 g), Arc S (200 g), Kaffelogic Nano 7 (180 g), Ikawa Pro (50 g), plus a destoner and floor scales
Location: 1900 S Quince St, Denver, CO 80231, United States
What they offer: Membership, roaster rental, roaster training, green coffee and a cupping lab.
Roasters on site: Diedrich IR-5, Joper BSR 15 and a Joper two-barrel sample roaster
Location: 1302 29th Street NW, Auburn, WA 98001, United States
What they offer: Shared roasting membership, classes, co-packing and a cupping lab.
Roasters on site: Arc 800, a 4.5 kg fully automated Besca, and a 12 kg Diedrich IR
Locations: 43 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205 and 919 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (United States)
What they offer: Roasting membership, education and advisory, and roasting services for brands.
Roasters on site: Loring S35 Kestrel and S15 Falcon at Washington Ave; Loring Peregrine and Kestrel at Flushing Ave
Location: 1001 N North Branch St #301, Chicago, IL 60642, United States
What they offer: Co-roastery membership, classes, cupping room rental and equipment access.
Roasters on site: Diedrich CR-20 (20 kg), Buckeye 25 (12 kg), Buckeye 3.5 (1.5 kg), Stronghold S7 (850 g), Arc 800 (800 g), Kaffelogic Nano 7 (200 g) and Ikawa Pro 50 (50 g)
Locations: 4808 Fairview Ave, St. Louis, MO 63116; 5355 E 38th Ave Unit A, Denver, CO 80207; 1436 E 31st St, Cleveland, OH 44114 (United States)
What they offer: Co-roasting and roasting services for brands.
Roasters on site: Proaster, Bühler, Roaster Dynamics and Typhoon
Locations: 175 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY 11231; 2451 Peralta St, Oakland, CA 94607; 3821 S Santa Fe Ave, Vernon, CA 90058 (United States)
What they offer: Membership and access to roasters, education and classes.
Location: 542 Barretto St, Bronx, NY 10474, United States
What they offer: Co-roasting, education and classes, and roasting services for brands.
Roasters on site: Two Loring Kestrel S35 machines
CoffeeTec has served the coffee industry since 1972, and co-roasting spaces sit on both sides of our marketplace. Facilities buy roasters to add capacity. They sell roasters when they upgrade. Their members eventually shop for a first roaster of their own.
We've seen each stage up close. We helped Shared Roasting in Brooklyn sell one of its roasters to make room for a larger machine that could handle more production. We've supplied equipment to co-roasting spaces including the California Roasting Collective. And we've supported members of other facilities who went on to open their own roasteries.
Planning that next step? CoffeeTec's roaster consulting helps with equipment choice, layout and production design, and our coffee industry education resources cover the rest of the roastery. You can also look into financing through the Roaster's Choice Lending Program.
Running a co-roasting space and need more capacity, or ready to move a machine on? Contact the CoffeeTec team and we'll help you find the right roaster or the right buyer.
Yes. Co-roasting, shared roasting, coffee collective and co-roastery all describe the same model. Several coffee businesses book time on one facility’s commercial roasters and roast under their own brands.
Start with our co-roasting directory above, then ask your green coffee importer and local roasters, who usually know the nearest shared facility. Tour two or three before you join.
You share the schedule, so busy weeks can leave you short of slots. Some spaces set production minimums, and you can only roast on the machines they have. Most roasters treat these limits as the signal to plan a roaster of their own.
Yes. Many co-roasting spaces offer hourly roaster rental alongside monthly memberships. Hourly booking suits small or irregular production, while a monthly membership usually includes a set weekly shift.
It works best for people who already know the basics and want to start producing. Many spaces offer classes for newer roasters, but production slots are busy, so take a roasting course first if you're starting from zero.
Most run a mix of sample roasters, small production roasters and at least one larger machine. Common brands include Loring, Diedrich, San Franciscan, Probat, Mill City and Ikawa. Grinders, scales, sealers and a cupping lab are standard.
Start planning when you can't book enough slots to meet orders, your weekly roasting hours keep climbing, or you need a machine or schedule the facility can't offer. Your co-roasting records make sizing your own roaster much easier.
It often makes sense. Your roast profiles were built on that machine, so the same brand and a similar size means less retuning. Check batch size against your current volume before you buy.
Yes. Roasters move into co-roasting spaces when they downsize or change direction, and facilities sell machines when they upgrade. A coffee-specific marketplace like CoffeeTec puts your roaster in front of buyers who already know its value.
When Business Expansion Might Just Require Equipment Reduction If you’re running a small coffee roastery or cafe and find yourself looking to expand to keep up with business, well, that’s...
Leave a comment