My friend David got me on to the path of a coffee snob about a year ago, maybe more. Actually, two steps back, I've always been pretty particular and critical of food and becoming a cook made me that much more of a pain in the ass, so the slipper to coffee snobbery was fairly close to my bed when I woke up.
Notwithstanding, I'm not consistentent about buying the best fresh roasted beans possible. Honestly, I don't have the patience to give two shits most of the time. But when I returned the iced coffee container to Crop to Cup the other day I picked up a bag of green unroasted coffee beans. Daniel, the sales guy and barista of the day asked me what I was planning to do with them. I said, "Honestly I don't know...roast them in a pan?"
So, this morning I wake up to no roasted beans left in house and figure its as good a day as any. An hour later I get this:
While it made a very nice morning brew, I can't say it was worth the hour at the stove burning natural gas in the summer heat. I look forward to Dyson's upcoming home coffee roaster (Poke. Dyson, you make hand dryers and vacuums, put the 1+1 together and hit your target market with a great new product. And skip all the plastic parts, use glass and metal or something. Seriously, I'd pay $150 for a 2# capacity &$300 for 5#. PS-Pay me my 5% for creative idea. Thanks). Otherwise, I'll stick to buying pre-roasted beans, as freshly roasted as I can get (thanks David).
UPDATE: Friday, July 8th, 2011
I roasted some again this morning. This time, instead of using a saute pan over a flame I opted for a simple low oven and a sheet tray. I originally thought that the beans would benefit from agitation in the form of stirring to achieve even roasting. Then this morning I was thinking of all the times that I've roasted nuts on a sheet tray with minimal agitation and achieved even browning.
Today, I roasted the beans for half the time and to half the darkness as yesterday and brewed a batch in the french press. The coffee today is rich in overtones of tobacco and undertones of caramel. I'm sure if my palate was cleaner I'd detect more. I'll check again tomorrow morning first thing. I feel this method was superior to the agitated beans in a saute pan. And indeed the flavor profile is significantly more rich and pronounced than quite any coffee I've tasted before. This inspires me to keep trying and find a simpler, more efficient way to do the home roasting. I'm interested to see the differences in slow roasting in a pan, versus a more efficient method. I'm also interested in using different locations for beans.
I hope you can see the differences in the two:
If you are interested in traceability of the stuff you buy, particularly food or in this case coffee, Crop to Cup's 'Burundi Bukeye' green coffee beans are probably the most traceable yet. Thanks to Taylor and Daniel and all the other good folks at Crop to Cup for making this happen.
Home Roasted Coffee
