Burgau, Bavaria — since 1985
Handcoffee
Fine Arabica, roasted by hand over an open beechwood fire — in a ball roaster that was already roasting coffee more than a century ago.
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The Story
In 1985 I saved the now historic Emmerich ball coffee roaster of a neighbouring master baker from certain destruction. Although the entirely hand-operated machine had been out of use since the early 1950s, after a professional restoration it works today just as it did in the 1900s.
After the first roasting experiments the coffee kept getting better, and the first live roasting took place at Burgau's 850th anniversary in 1997. Hundreds of thousands of turns later, a chance encounter has grown into the passion project Miller's Handkaffee.
The film by MH Studios, “The Art of Roasting Coffee”, captures it beautifully.
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Coffee made 100% by hand
Our roasting combines craft with history. Fine Arabica beans are roasted in a hand-operated machine, just as they were at the end of the 19th century.
The best part? You can experience it up close, with all your senses.
At markets, anniversaries and openings we roast live with the Van Gülpen ball roaster, answer every question and surprise our guests with fascinating coffee facts.
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The ball roaster
We roast our coffee in the historic Van Gülpen ball roaster over beechwood. The fire burns below; above it the ball holding the green coffee is turned by hand crank.
The ball roaster marked the shift from pan roasting on the kitchen stove to even, professional drum roasting.
Our machine dates from around 1900 and was professionally restored after decades of standstill. Today it turns again — by hand, exactly as it did back then.