Anybody else roast their own coffee?

Anybody else roast their own coffee?

Where do you get you beans?

How do you brew it?

I started home roasting about a year ago and I don't think I could ever go back to drinking supermarket coffee.

I've been getting my beans from http://sweetmarias.com . It's the only place I've dealt with as far as green coffee beans.

I use a Frenc... Freedom Press (not sure if it's safe to use the F word again ) and brew it one cup at a time.

For green coffee beans I recommend this place:
http://www.coffeeismydrugofchoice.com/coffee_green.htm

I own: Mazzer Luigi Major grinder (modified of course to replace the doser assembly with a single-use chute), a Zassenhaus grinder, a Gaggia Espresso machine (modifed for PID control and higher heat capacity resulting in +/- 1 degree F brewing throughout a shot), a French press, a 4/2 tasse stainless steel mocha pot, aluminum mocha pots in 6/3, 6, 3 (two of them) and 2 tasse, a stainless steel vacuum pot, an Ibrik (turkish coffee brewer), and two drip machines.

I have been mostly using beans roasted within 24 hrs. of shipment from a web store, but I need to get roasting. A friend of mine has been roasting for me with his Hottop, but that is now at an end since he no longer works with me.

I don't like to drink drip anymore, or even pressed or vacuum pot coffee; I crave the flavor from the stronger stuff (especially espresso). I like to use a Vienna roast (or full city) for the mocha pots and I have come to prefer this sort of a roast in general, except of course for espresso.

How are you roasting?

Roast my own? I chewed some green wild ones in Puerto Rico once. :green: I've eaten chocolate-covered roasted ones from Trader Joe's. :yummy: But why, when greenLED keeps sending me genuine Costa Rican, roasted and ground!!! :bow: (OT, but I couldn't help myself!)

Larry

What? GreenLED is hte coffee pusher? I gotta get ahold of that man :-D

I've roasted my own for about 7 years now. Get them from sweetmarias.com, coffeebeancorral.com.

been roasting green beans for aprox. 8 months. a kind flasholic sent me all necessary items to roast with.

results are unbelievably good... grind beans with a turn of centry hand grinder.

expresso for single cups or stainless vacum brewer for large batches.

only drink 1-2 cups every other day, but I enjoy what I do drink...

mudman cj said:

How are you roasting?

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I'm using a hot air popcorn popper (Wearever Popcorn Pumper). It works pretty good. I can roast half cup of greens in less than 6 minutes.

I also have a Zassenhaus hand grinder and I've had my eyes on a Rancilio Siliva, maybe when I'm rich and famous...

REparsed said:

I'm using a hot air popcorn popper (Wearever Popcorn Pumper). It works pretty good. I can roast half cup of greens in less than 6 minutes.

I also have a Zassenhaus hand grinder and I've had my eyes on a Rancilio Siliva, maybe when I'm rich and famous...

Click to expand...

The simplest implements will do just as good a job taste wise as a $2000 setup. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. principle.

So that is what they are calling it these days "Roasting Their Own Coffee"

I used The Zach & Dani's Coffee Roaster so I don't smoke up the house, Solis Maestro Plus Conical Burr grinder, and Gaggia Espresso with Bottomless Portafilter. Now, I love Kenya Gethumbwini Peaberry from sweetmarias.

I'll roast outside on the rear patio. was warned about smoke smell hanging around for some time...

If the weather is cold, you could roast for longer time outside. I roast by the open window and a box fan to blow the smell out.

cy said:

I'll roast outside on the rear patio. was warned about smoke smell hanging around for some time...

Click to expand...

I roast my own in a hot air popcorn popper. I have a WB P I and a popcorn pumper from proctor silex. I actually use the WB as a bean cooler (I have the heater element on the switch but the fan always on--you just move one wire).

I get my beans from SM.

I grind with a Zas knee mill hand grinder, and most often brew in a 4 cup Kitchen Aid Ultra electric drip machine. It's a great little maker for a drip--got some serious heating elements installed so the water actually gets close to the right temp (but not really all the way).

I also have a french press and a vac pot. I love the vac pot. It's a way cool method of making coffee, but it's a bit of a pain to clean up after compared to the electric, so most of the time I end up brewing in the Kitchen Aid and figure it's good enough--although the vac pot makes the best coffee for my taste hands down.

A long time ago LEDmodMan posted a Coffee thread for the CAFE and that's about the time that me and a few others started to spread the gospel of home roasting. It's truly amazing how good the coffee is when you roast at home and it's amazing how easy it is to do. Plus, you can store green beans for a long time with little ill effect. But roasted coffee starts to go stale very quickly (like 5 days) once exposed to air. Roasted coffee is more like bread than it is like pepper or cinnamon or such-like. It is a perishable commodity, like bread. At least if you want to taste FRESH coffee. Stale coffee will last a long long time--and it's still quite good stale. I'll drink most any coffee and enjoy it. I just enjoy fresh roasted, fresh ground, freshly brewed cofee most of all.

actually I introduced Sweetmarias to CPF, I even sent pounds of home-roasted beans, (roasted 3 ounces at a time; on solar power yet! in a FreshRoaster) to a certain webmistress, but things have changed since then..

-- but that was a long time and many, many, deletions ago...

now I have found Nirvana in the 'Back to Basics' stainless steel popcorn popper. I can roast a POUND at a time WITHOUT electricity, so I have been in heaven..results are great, but you have to keep your eyes and nose and ears open to get to the right degree of roast and to get the flavors Tom of SM's speaks of..

beware of mudmen..they are insane :laughing: Mudman, please go easy on these poor mortals and unleash thy madness slowly upon them..
btw I got a HotTop too, but it used electricity and roasts only 9 ozs at a time, the $40 Back to Basics has completely replaced it. In fact I got TWO B to Bs,
in case one breaks while in the middle of the roast! (it uses a manual stirring paddle)

There's a nice article on coffee roasting and Sweet Maria's in the current issue of "Imbibe" magazine, complete with an interview. It's an interesting magazine about all different types of liquids; beer, wine, whisk(e)y, juice, coffee, and sodas.

Wow, any links to good how to articles on home roasting? Sounds like jsut another thing to waste my time on In the pursuit of good coffee.

VWTim said:

Wow, any links to good how to articles on home roasting? Sounds like jsut another thing to waste my time on In the pursuit of good coffee.

Click to expand...

You may find some articles at www.coffeegeek.com.

if you look around sweetmarias you can find alot of good info about roasting, and how to use the various untensils available -- here's my prefered method

http://sweetmarias.com/prod.stovetop-popper.shtml

You would probably never guess by my screen name, but yes, I have been roasting coffee from SM for about 9 years now. I use a HotTop roaster and have been grinding and brewing with KitchenAid ProLine appliances.

For those that know how expensive flashlights are, I did buy one of the Panama Trifecta coffee sample packs that Sweetmarias sold 2 or 3 months ago. Three pounds of the best of the best unroasted coffee from Panama for $100 + shipping. Still cheaper that Starbucks, folks.

I sometimes buy my green coffee direct from the Kona growers in Hawaii. Most of the rest comes from Sweetmarias.

Life is just too short to sit in the dark and drink bad coffee!

(which one of you jokers just tried to get my password from sweetmarias?)

edit:
ok, Sweetmarias knows, they sent me this email, it's interesting, and attests to SM's attention to their customers;

"Hi Ted,

Thanks for the note and we understand your concern.
Someone has triggered 'password recovery' which sends an email that
is associated with a login.
Someone must have thought their login was **** which is your login I
believe and accidentally triggered password recovery
to your email... No other copies of the email went out so your
account is safe and secure still.

I took a look at today's orders and see that a returning customer
named ****** placed an order around Noontime today.
I have a strong feeling he triggered the password recovery because he
couldn't remember his login (which turns out to be *******
--- so a similar style of password)...

Anyway... we're waiting for him to write back and will let you know
what's going on. I suspect he made a mistake and there is indeed
nothing to worry about either way.

I took a quick look at candlepowerforums and found some interesting
threads but... what is the premise behind this?

Best,
Derek & Sweet Maria's..."

...so, does that explanation sound plausible to you?