So your serious about coffee huh?? Part II

So after returning home from a wonderful 5th Anniversary, I poured out a 1/2 pound of the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and fired up the oven to around 350 and let them bake. After about 20 mins I checked. Nothing, just some hot green beans. So I upped the temp to 400. 20 mins go by and I check. They are changing color to a toasty brown. Yes I am on my way. After about 10 more mins I check and as I am opening the over I notice that out of the vent there is a little smoke. I open the door and billowing black smoke is pumping out. I think the roast is done. Come to find out I have burnt one side of the bean and the other is still green. Attempt 1 -FAILURE!!

So next I thought I would try the stove top method. Got a frying pan med hot and poured in the beans. After a couple mins the beans started to pop, color was changing and once again there was billowing smoke.

Now, I didn't mention this before but all the smoke alarms are going off and the smell is intense. I can deal with a little bit but this is thick, and it doesn't go away for a few hours.

So, because the beans are only changing on one side I figure that I need to move them around a little. So I start to stir. And that quickly moves to shaking for the next 5 mins or so. The haze in the house is now at about head level and Marjorie is not pleased. So I take the stuff outside and figure that I will let it cool down and examine the beans. Cool bean exam reveals burnt one side and brown the other. So I figure that this is worth a attempt at brewing. Grind it up and brew. Attempt 2-FAILURE!!

This goes on for some time. Attempt 3,4,5,6 all-FAILURE!!

So the beans are siting the cabinet for the next couple years. I tell myself and Marjorie that I am going to figure this out one day. But it never happened.

Then about 4 years later and after picking up another bad habit, I was surfing the cigar forum I just joined and they have a whole thing on home roasting. Yes!!

So a little reading and some question asking and I found out that this can be done. You just need the right stuff.

In the meantime I had one of the forum members send me a sample of her home roasted coffee and was blown away. I had no idea that coffee could get so much better.

Now you can go out and buy a roaster that will make things pretty easy, but I choose the cheap route to find out if I was going to follow through with this home roasting thing. So I went to ebay and bought a Westbend Poppery II hot air popcorn popper for 3 bucks. Ordered up a couple pounds of green beans, wishing I still had my old JBM, and went to work. After about 8 mins of roasting and 12 hrs of resting, BAM, I had fresh roasted coffee. I was hooked.

To be continued...

(roasting basics)