mmm… almost the perfect cup
Ok so after reading about Randy Bohlender’s experience with home roasting coffee beans, I had to give it a go.
You see, you can get an old hot air popcorn popper and use it to roast your own coffee beans. I have been to every thrift store in the area with no luck at all. Yard sales… no luck. There just haven’t been any old hot air popcorn poppers in this area. So I decided to go ahead and purchase some green coffee beans. Not really knowing what beans I would like best, I decided to order some beans from Columbia, Guatemala and Kenya. Of course I was believing I would run across a good popper by the time they arrived.
Needless to say… no luck still. So now I have three pounds of green beans sitting on the kitchen table beckoning me to roast them. So I have no other choice… I’m now off in search of a suitable NEW pop corn popper. After researching the web I discover there are certain types that work and some that are fire hazards. Not wanting my house to catch fire, I set out looking for the former.
Wal-mart had a popper. But it was the wrong type. Kmart…. no poppers at all… Wal-mart in the next town… wrong kind. Bed, Bath and beyond… wrong kind… FINALLY Target. They have one that is the right type of blower BUT its only 1200 watts. The “experts” on the web suggested 1400 watts. But the beans were calling me and hey, it was only 15 bucks.
So last night I get home with the new popper. The kids are like… wooo hooo you’re making popcorn… “Nope, sorry, roasting some coffee!” I say with excitement… to which they reply, “oh” and go back to doing what they were doing. Well, my daughter was interested later.
I decided to go with the Guatemalan coffee first. Drop in 1/2 cup of green beans, turn on the oven exhaust fan (I read they really smoke and it was too cold to do it outside) IN about 3 minutes, the first crack, then at about 4.5 minutes, the second crack, I watch as they begin to turn the right color and start getting that shiny coat… mmm they look good… one more minute… dumped em out at 6 minutes… and ummm… well… that was about a minute too long. :)
So I do a second batch, this time taking them out at 5 minutes. I also read you are suppose to let them sit for like 24 hours before the first cup. So I waited until this morning.  
This morning, I removed the lid from the cup I had them in and suddenly the best aroma filled the air… mmmm freshly roasted coffee beans!!! Ground em up, stuck them in the drip coffee maker. I was running a bit late so I had to skip making a breve.
Oh my, it was a wonderful cup of coffee. Great flavor and wonderful smell… so why ALMOST perfect you might ask????
Well, they had a slight bitter taste. Not all that uncommon in gourmet coffee’s. But I prefer the none bitter coffee better. I’m thinking it must be where they are grown. I’m gonna do a batch of Columbian and Kenyan tonight so I can a taste of the different types of beans.
Don’t get me wrong. The bitter was only slight. Sort of like a dark chocolate taste and I happen to be a white chocolate lover so its not my favorite. BUT it was still an almost perfect cup!!!
Oh yeah, those are the actual beans. I took that last night.
