How home roasting has changed a cup of joe for the obsessed

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

When Eric Lundblad first started roasting his own coffee, his friends didn't want to hear a word about it.

"It was too insane. They'd say why would you roast coffee when you live in the Bay Area where there are all these great roasters?" says Lundblad, a software engineer who lives in Oakland.

Now, three years later, Lundblad has to buy many more pounds of green coffee beans than he needs because these same friends stop by so often for a home-roasted cup from his French press.

"I slowly won each one of them over with my coffee," he says. "I have friends who don't drink coffee except mine."

Lundblad is part of a tiny, slow-growing underground of coffee drinkers who treat their daily brew with the same respect many people give wine. Home roasting allows them to buy premium beans at bargain prices, choose from many varieties of coffee and vary the roasting level from light to dark.

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