Then roast your own. This is my annual thread on how to roast your own coffee. It is very, very easy and you can make wonderful coffee.
What you will need:
1. A hot air popcorn popper. It must be dedicated to coffee roasting, since you can never pop popcorn with it again (at least, not without a distinct coffee taste to the popcorn.
You must get the type of popper that has the air vents in the side of the tube, NOT located at the very bottom, in the tubes base.
For a picture of what you need: http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpopdesign.html
I highly recommend this website, Sweet Marias. Not only does she explain how to roast your own coffee using the popcorn popper (as well as other roasters), she also sells a great variety of green coffee beans.
2. Two metal colanders.
3. Oven mitt.
4. Large bowl.
5. Green coffee beans.
6. Access to a freezer.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You will want to do your roasting outside, since the process produces some smoke. I do mine in the garage, with the garage door open. I also happen to have a freezer in the garage, which is useful.
Step one: Place popcorn popper on your table, and place the Large Bowl under the chute (where the popped popcorn would come out; however, the purpose of the bowl is simply to catch the skin of the coffee beans during roasting). Turn on popper and let it warm up a couple of minutes.
Step two: pour in about half a cup of green coffee beans (about the same amount of popcorn you would put in). Be sure to put the popcorn popper lid on.
Step three: Roast coffee (more below).
Step four: turn off popper, pour roasted beans into a metal colander, and stop the roasting process and cool the beans by pouring from one colander into the other. NOTE: while the coffee is roasting I have the colanders inside the freezer, and then pull them out when the beans are about ready.
After the coffee beans have stopped cooking (no more popping) go ahead and place them in the freezer for a few minutes to let them cool down some more.
That, in a nutshell, is it. Grind the beans to your specifications (I use a French Press, so I do the coarse grind).
How long do roast?
Roasting just takes a few minutes (around five minutes, depending on the weather; more in colder weather). However, in roasting there are two processes going on:
1. As the green coffee beans heat up they will first reach the boiling point of water; the water inside the beans will cause the beans to crack. This is known as the first crack. Anytime you roast, you will always want to achieve first crack. At this point the beans will be a very light brown color.
2. I, however, prefer my coffee to be more roasted. I always wait for the second crack. The second crack is caused by the OIL in the beans reached boiling point. This is when the popper will start emitting smoke. When the beans reach second crack I will turn off the popper and quickly begin the cool-down process. The beans will be a lovely dark color.
The cracks are quite distinctive: first crack sounds just like popcorn popping: rather loud. The second crack is more like small, dry twigs being twisted.
When you have finished roasting your coffee and cooled the beans down (pull them out of the freezer after about five minute), let them rest for about 24 hours before storing (I vacuum pack mine). During this time the beans are releasing gases (which is why, when you buy whole roasted beans in a bag, there is an air-vent in the bag, to allow the gases to escape). You may, of course, grind some beans during this period and enjoy your coffee.
Where to buy green coffee beans: I have purchased beans from Sweet Marias, and have always been pleased. There are also quite a few reputable sellers on Ebay. Indeed, virtually all I have seen on Ebay have 100 percent positive feedback scores.
When you begin roasting your own coffee you will never, ever go back to store-bought. Even Starbucks will begin to lose its appeal. There is nothing like utterly fresh coffee to perk you up.
Buying green coffee beans in bulk saves a lot of money. I buy Columbian Supremo beans in 5 pound bags. There is also a seller on Ebay who sells Kona coffee; or, you can go to his website: http://huladaddy.com/index.html. Hula Daddy has his own coffee plantation in Hawaii.
What you will need:
1. A hot air popcorn popper. It must be dedicated to coffee roasting, since you can never pop popcorn with it again (at least, not without a distinct coffee taste to the popcorn.
You must get the type of popper that has the air vents in the side of the tube, NOT located at the very bottom, in the tubes base.
For a picture of what you need: http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpopdesign.html
I highly recommend this website, Sweet Marias. Not only does she explain how to roast your own coffee using the popcorn popper (as well as other roasters), she also sells a great variety of green coffee beans.
2. Two metal colanders.
3. Oven mitt.
4. Large bowl.
5. Green coffee beans.
6. Access to a freezer.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You will want to do your roasting outside, since the process produces some smoke. I do mine in the garage, with the garage door open. I also happen to have a freezer in the garage, which is useful.
Step one: Place popcorn popper on your table, and place the Large Bowl under the chute (where the popped popcorn would come out; however, the purpose of the bowl is simply to catch the skin of the coffee beans during roasting). Turn on popper and let it warm up a couple of minutes.
Step two: pour in about half a cup of green coffee beans (about the same amount of popcorn you would put in). Be sure to put the popcorn popper lid on.
Step three: Roast coffee (more below).
Step four: turn off popper, pour roasted beans into a metal colander, and stop the roasting process and cool the beans by pouring from one colander into the other. NOTE: while the coffee is roasting I have the colanders inside the freezer, and then pull them out when the beans are about ready.
After the coffee beans have stopped cooking (no more popping) go ahead and place them in the freezer for a few minutes to let them cool down some more.
That, in a nutshell, is it. Grind the beans to your specifications (I use a French Press, so I do the coarse grind).
How long do roast?
Roasting just takes a few minutes (around five minutes, depending on the weather; more in colder weather). However, in roasting there are two processes going on:
1. As the green coffee beans heat up they will first reach the boiling point of water; the water inside the beans will cause the beans to crack. This is known as the first crack. Anytime you roast, you will always want to achieve first crack. At this point the beans will be a very light brown color.
2. I, however, prefer my coffee to be more roasted. I always wait for the second crack. The second crack is caused by the OIL in the beans reached boiling point. This is when the popper will start emitting smoke. When the beans reach second crack I will turn off the popper and quickly begin the cool-down process. The beans will be a lovely dark color.
The cracks are quite distinctive: first crack sounds just like popcorn popping: rather loud. The second crack is more like small, dry twigs being twisted.
When you have finished roasting your coffee and cooled the beans down (pull them out of the freezer after about five minute), let them rest for about 24 hours before storing (I vacuum pack mine). During this time the beans are releasing gases (which is why, when you buy whole roasted beans in a bag, there is an air-vent in the bag, to allow the gases to escape). You may, of course, grind some beans during this period and enjoy your coffee.
Where to buy green coffee beans: I have purchased beans from Sweet Marias, and have always been pleased. There are also quite a few reputable sellers on Ebay. Indeed, virtually all I have seen on Ebay have 100 percent positive feedback scores.
When you begin roasting your own coffee you will never, ever go back to store-bought. Even Starbucks will begin to lose its appeal. There is nothing like utterly fresh coffee to perk you up.
Buying green coffee beans in bulk saves a lot of money. I buy Columbian Supremo beans in 5 pound bags. There is also a seller on Ebay who sells Kona coffee; or, you can go to his website: http://huladaddy.com/index.html. Hula Daddy has his own coffee plantation in Hawaii.
