So who roasts their own coffee?

[fecaleagle]

Lately I've developed yet another obsession (surely a short-lasting one) with buying green coffee beans and roasting them myself. It gives a whole new meaning to fresh coffee. And you can enjoy premium coffee for the same price as store-bought mediocre! Just curious if any of you do the same, and if so what are your favorite types of beans to roast, what do you roast them with, and to what level of roastedness?

 

[rav3n]

No but I've been thinking about it! Do tell how you do it and is this a dark roast you're doing?

 

[Stanton Moore]

that's really cool!
I worked with a woman from Eritria who said that it was her family's tradition to roast their own coffee every Saturday morning. She said they did it in a frying pan, and the less you roast it, the stronger it is!

So where do you get the beans?

 

[fecaleagle]

I use an old-school West Bend Poppery 2 popcorn popper. It's a very popular and cheap way to do it!

You just have to find an online retailer selling "green" coffee beans. coffeebeancorral.com and coffeebeansdirect.com are good

I've tried different types. My first roast was organic Bali Blue Moon which I roasted to French Roast. Pretty bitter, but very flavorful compared to store-bought Charbucks French Roast Great for iced coffee!

I really like medium roasted Kenyan. Has a very subtle fruity and spicy taste to it. I'm still letting my light roasted Yemen sit around to reach peak flavor.

Roasting is all about listening to the sounds rather than looking at the color. A "medium" type roast looks much lighter than you would expect.

Lighter roasts are sweeter and a "weaker" tasting to me, while french roast is a tad too bitter. So I go for medium or slightly above medium

The hardest part is waiting for the beans to sit around for a couple of days while gaining flavor!

 

[rav3n]

Thanks! Love Charbucks French and Italian roasts. I'm going to try your suggestions, especially since it doesn't include messing up my oven, even though it's self-cleaning.

 

[Stanton Moore]

How do you know when you have reached the desired amount of roasting?

 

[fecaleagle]

Thanks! Love Charbucks French and Italian roasts. I'm going to try your suggestions, especially since it doesn't include messing up my oven, even though it's self-cleaning.

No problem! You can usually find a used popper on ebay for cheap...mine came with 1lb free beans

How do you know when you have reached the desired amount of roasting?

Well...I've found that timing is unreliable unless you are in a stable environment. Since you have to do it outside because pieces of skin fly everywhere and the smell isn't great, temp and wind affect the roasting.

You start roasting and pretty soon the skin starts coming off and the beans get darker...after a few mins you start hearing the first loud popping sounds. This goes on for a while until every bean has a chance to do it's first pop. Then you listen for a period of silence which tells you they are all done with their first popping phase. Then you wait for a second, but quieter, series of pops. I let this continue for a maximum of 30 seconds before pouring the beans out. Around this point the beans are pretty time sensitive. So after 30 seconds for me, is a tad bit over medium which I like. After I pour em out i blow on them and move them around to cool them since they will continue to roast since they are so hot.

It's easy once you do it a few times

 

[Stanton Moore]

^^
thanks! I'll give it a try.