How Much Does It Really Cost To Roast Coffee?

A Surprisingly Honest Look Through The Rubasse Lens

There’s a funny myth that electric roasting is some wild luxury that sends your electric bill into orbit. Most people imagine the roaster drawing power like a Tesla on fast-charge. Then you actually sit down, run the numbers properly, and realise the maths is calmer than a barista on their first lunch break, especially when a Rubasse is your roasting weapon of choice.

We pulled the power specs straight from the Rubasse brochure, the one that lists everything from NIR heaters to moisture sensors, just so no one can accuse us of guesswork. The machines we focused on are the Hyper 1.2 kg and the Micro 3 kg, both sitting proudly on page four of the brochure, FYI

Pair that with the highest DEWA tariff of around 44 fils per kWh, and you end up with a cost per kilo that is, honestly, a bit laughable in the best possible way.

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The Real Numbers: Not As Scary As You Think

Rubasse Hyper 1.2 kg

Power requirement: 2700 W
Batch size in the real world: about 1 kg

To produce 40 kg a day, you roast 40 batches. A typical batch draws about 0.6 kWh, which still makes roasting one of the cheapest things you can do in a commercial kitchen.

Daily power used: 24 kWh
DEWA cost at top slab: AED 10.56
With VAT: AED 11.09
Cost per kilo: about 27 fils

If you tried to spend that amount at a café, they’d have to pay you to leave.

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Rubasse Micro 3 kg

Power requirement: 5350 W
Practical batch: 3 kg

To hit 90 kg a day, you run 30 batches, using between 0.9 and 1.1 kWh per batch depending on profile and airflow.

Daily power used: 27 to 33 kWh
DEWA cost: AED 11.88 to 14.52
With VAT: AED 12.47 to 15.25
Cost per kilo: 14 to 17 fils

That’s cheaper than the little mint they leave on your pillow at a hotel.

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Why Are These Roasters So Efficient?

Rubasse doesn’t heat the air and hope everything works out. They use Near Infrared Radiation, a fancy phrase that really means the heat goes straight into the beans instead of wandering off into the room like steam from a long black.

(The brochure breaks this down nicely, FYI again)

What actually makes the difference:

• NIR heaters that hit the beans directly
• A heat resonator that reflects energy back into the roast chamber
• Sensors measuring drum, air, bean, moisture, and pressure
• A control system that adjusts everything in real time
• A response rate of one second, which is unheard of for electric systems

You end up with a machine that does not waste energy trying to fix mistakes created by slow heating. It simply hits the target and stays there.

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What It Means For A Roastery In The UAE

Your real cost levers sit somewhere else entirely. Labour, green coffee, wastage, utilisation. Power barely makes the list. In fact, when you break it down, roasting on a Rubasse costs about the same as running a small kettle for an afternoon.

For cafés wanting to roast in-house, or roasteries looking to scale without adding unnecessary overheads, this becomes a genuine advantage.

You get:
• predictable roasting costs
• cleaner flavour development
• better consistency
• a cooler, more comfortable workspace
• no gas approvals, no flame permits, no headaches

And everything fits into a standard power setup. That alone will make your future self very grateful.

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The Simple Truth

Roasting on the Hyper 1.2 kg costs about 27 fils per kilo.
Roasting on the Micro 3 kg costs about 14 to 17 fils per kilo.

Even at the highest DEWA tariff, you are still paying less than what many cafés spend on takeaway lids each day.

So the next time someone says electric roasting is too expensive, you can smile politely, nod, and know deep down that your spreadsheet tells a very different story.