Roasting Green Coffee at Home
Yesterday I picked up some green coffee beans at an Ethiopian grocery. I roasted and brewed a coffee pot's worth. I used a Turkish coffee maker, but have heard of people using hot air popcorn makers. Does anyone have any experience with this?
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6 Comments:
Here's a link on the subject.
Actually, here's the entire google search. There seems to be some issue with the design of certain poppers. Be aware of the dos and don'ts if you're going to try this. Good luck!
therealchiffonade at 2:21PM on 07/07/08
A local guy in the coffee roasting business told me that it's fairly simple to do in a cast iron pan, if you watch and stir, but he suggested doing it outside. A popcorn popper would contain the roasting a bit, but the instructions I've seen online suggest using specific models for the best results. If you've already got a way to roast the beans, I don't imagine a popcorn popper is going to do much better.
dbcurrie at 2:26PM on 07/07/08
i use a popcorn popper all the time to roast my coffee beans.....you just gotta make sure that the hot air comes in from the bottom of the popper....and i suggest using it outdoors coz there's a bit of smoke when roasting....not to mention all the chaff blowing around....
onepercent99 at 4:54PM on 07/07/08
I've done this a few times...you're not going to get as exact a roast as you might with a "real" roaster, but if you like good light roasts or serious dark roasts, you're in luck--if you're a fan of city roasts or medium roasts, not so much--that sort of nuance is hard to get here. with a bit of practice, though, you'll develop an "intuition" as to when to hit the power.
the one downside here is that it can be difficult(or impossible, depending on your popper) to add flavorings and whatnot.
rasellers0 at 8:43PM on 07/07/08
I signed up just to respond to this post, and egads it got long!
First of all, congrats on getting into coffee roasting! Once you get the hang of it, it'tal be tough to go back to drinking the stale coffee you've probably been drinking from the grocery store...
Here's some info to get you started...
About home roasting: http://sweetmarias.com/tradition.html
Basics, with links to instructions for different methods (including popcorn popper): http://sweetmarias.com/instructions.html
Popcorn popper roasting is probably the most economical way to get started if you're not sure that you're going to stick with it. However, batch sizes are fairly limited (1/4 lb? I'm not sure, I've never actually used one). Total investment in the roaster is $2 (thrift store) - $20ish (new or ebay). But as mentioned before, be sure to get the right kind of popper.
The general consensus (and what I use) is that the next step up is the "Stir-Crazy / Turbo Oven" combination, which can do between 1/2 and 1lb per batch. It uses the 'West Bend Stir Crazy' popcorn popper ( http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4764754 ) to agitate the beans, and the top of a tabletop oven like this ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896100203&Tpk=SO-2000 ) to heat them. Total investment is about $100 in the roaster.
sweetmarias.com is a great resource for information and a great (and relatively inexpensive) place to get great quality green beans of all different varieties.
www.coffeegeek.com has some great forums (including a home-roasting section) with very helpful people and more information about coffee than you would have ever thought possible. This is where I'd recommend that you go looking for information if something is unclear.
Once you're confident that you're actually into roasting coffee, there's a coffee buying club wherein volunteers split whole bags of great quality green coffee and distribute them to other members for cheaper than would be available anywhere else. See the aptly-named www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com
And just one last note: where a coffee is from has (in general) little to do with the way you 'should' brew it. Your Ethiopian coffee will also taste great as drip or french press or whatever your favorite way of preparing coffee is.
tevyk at 12:25AM on 07/08/08
I've only had it in Ethiopia at a few coffee rituals when invited into a few homes and the only concern or issue ever was making sure you were close to a bathroon;-)) There was just something a tad different in the way THAT coffee reacted to your gut.
That and the time thang some of those rituals were a couple of hours long!
Stiv61 at 12:17PM on 07/08/08