Community Coffee, recommendations sought

B

Bob W

Joined
Dec 31, 2000
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Bob

Have you ever tried roasting your own? You can do it in a cake pan at ~350° to 450°F in your oven. Stir the beans every few minutes until they are the color you like. You will never go back to buying already roasted once you get used to fresh.
http://www.coffeebeancorral.com/

For Indonesian, I like the Sulawasi better than the Sumatran. Try Ethiopian Harrar horse coffee and Kenyan or Tanzanian Pea Berry.
Some Brazilian beans are very good dark roasted, too.
 
I incinerated a few batches learning how to get the right process. I just roast enough for 2 or 3 days at once and so even the occasional burnt offering doesn't hurt too much. You can always invest in a small roaster, but I have never got a round tuit.
 
Have not tried any of the online coffee's yet but there day I was in Atascadero working on a store that carried San Louis Obispo coffee company's coffee, I got a bag of fresh , dark roasted Guatamalen beans that were frickin phenomenal........... What a lovely coffee :)
 
I have been roasting my own for over three years now and it is the best coffee at half the cost. Kenya mountainos select AA and Tanzania peaberry are my two favorites, both from Africa.

This is the simple way to do it (outside).
coffeeroasting002.jpg


This is my two lbs roaster I built that slides onto the rotisserie on my BBQ.
coffeeroasting004.jpg
 
I'm a certified coffee-holic but I haven't even thought about roasting your own beans in ages. My Dad's best friend used to roast and hand-grind his own and it was nectar for the gods. I remember he had an old-fashioned grinder that looked like a large pepper mill which he had acquired in Turkey. Is there any place you can buy a good quality hand grinder these days? (not the small electric ones you see at Wal-Mart)
 
Looks to me like B Finnigan is the coffee king, at least of this Post!

I am coffee junkie, but not to you alls standards. Kudos for the education!!!
 
Roasted beans start going stale within 3 or 4 days. Green coffee beans will keep for a couple of years.

That is why roasting your own gets you hooked so easy.
 
I posted a mini tutorial over on TKN and Primal Fires forums how to do it with just a cast iron pot, wooden spoon and a heat source.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39326

That is how I first started out. Then I bought an electric roaster but it would only do about six oz at a time. It also stunk up the entire house and was extremely loud. So I worked on an idea to build a drum and use the rotating skewer on my BBQ. The drum can slide off so I can stick a slab of dead cow on it and use it for BBQing.

It is all stainless steel with a hinged opening on one side and a window with wire mesh on the other. That allows the chaff to fall out and to watch the roasting progress. It takes around 20-25 minutes to roast two pounds. There is no noise and the stink stays outside. I also de-chaff it outside so there is no mess to sweep up off the floor.

Most of my green coffee beans cost around $3-4 per pound and I buy 24 pound bags. That is just shy of a years supply of coffee. I give alot of it away also.

Here is a news report video about home roasting:
http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_004185504.html
 
I don't toast much, there's a local shop that toasts once or twice a week, they also sell me green coffee beans from Veracruz.

I use a popcorn machine and run the beans through two or three cycles, depending on how much coffee I use and how dark I want it, truth is it does not come out even, some beans much darker than others, but I like it, when I buy toasted coffee I often ask to mix half medium/half dark.

About Community Coffee I wouldn't know, but I have tried coffee from different places and have found Guatemala Antigua much to my liking.

Luis
 
Don_Luis said:
I don't toast much, there's a local shop that toasts once or twice a week, they also sell me green coffee beans from Veracruz.

I use a popcorn machine and run the beans through two or three cycles, depending on how much coffee I use and how dark I want it, truth is it does not come out even, some beans much darker than others, but I like it, when I buy toasted coffee I often ask to mix half medium/half dark.

About Community Coffee I wouldn't know, but I have tried coffee from different places and have found Guatemala Antigua much to my liking.

Luis
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I wonder if the coffee I got the other day is that specific kind ? It is from Guatamala , very dark and oily and my goodness , it is delicious ! :D
 
Roasting your own coffee STINKS. I spend a lot of time in a little town that has a coffee shop that roasts its own every day. God that stinks. Everyone walks around going "What the HELL is that smell?!" The coffee roaster. I just bought some Lavazza espresso to try out. i can't wait. This one coffee shop I like to go to uses Lavazza, but their espresso is always really sour, so I am curious to see if it's the Lavazza or the way they make it.
 
Ya, I'm afraid my life expectancy would be reduced considerably were I to roast coffee in my, er, I mean, my wife's oven.

Any suggestions on a popcorn popper, or does it not matter? I've heard repeatedly that popcorn poppers do just as good a job as the expensive coffee roasters, do you all agree?

Joe
 
Joe Talmadge said:
Ya, I'm afraid my life expectancy would be reduced considerably were I to roast coffee in my, er, I mean, my wife's oven.

Any suggestions on a popcorn popper, or does it not matter? I've heard repeatedly that popcorn poppers do just as good a job as the expensive coffee roasters, do you all agree?

Joe
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Hey Joe,

One of the problems with popcorn poppers is the lack of control over the heating and the quenching. If left to cool in the roaster without quenching, the roasting process continues to hydrolyze the beans oils in an uneven manner. The current crop of relatively inexpensive fluid air bed home roasters started out from these concerns. Sweetmarias.com can fill you in on home roasting and they sell the accoutrements to save your wife's oven, your neck, and your marriage. I've been roasting for about 4 years now and I started out with one of their Fresh Roast plus roasters. They only roast small (3 oz) quantities but they do a good job for a starter roaster, they're fairly inexpensive, and you can see how the roasting process progresses and learn the basics pretty easy. I now have the I-Roast 2 and it makes a larger (up to 8 oz) batch - enough for a week of double shot espressos for two - and it includes programmed settings for various roasts.

As B Finnigan stated these home roasters are small, loud, and can stink up a house. I don't mind the smell but it sets off every smoke detector within. The first step in the instructions for the I Roast stated to disable the smoke detectors if you roast indoors thereby relegating me to outdoor roasting. Many of the small fluid bed roasters come with attachments to use with your range hood but I still prefer the "experience" of just sitting and relaxing outside while watching the beans brown.

There are a number of larger perforrated steel drum cages for sale on the net that work on barbeque rotissirees (sp) and yield 5 -10 pounds or more. Try the oven method suggested by Steve or stir up a skillet or two like we used to do before WWII brought tediously consistent roast and grind and lack of flavor through canned vacuum packing to our gotta-have-it-now society.

Folks also used to roast coffee in skillets over wood-fired stoves. Some still roast via stovetop and this stovetop popper/roaster for less than $40.00 is an excellent choice. You still have the problem of queching but you can pour the beans in a stainless steel colander and agitate it for cooling the roast.

There are plenty of on-line sources for home roasting and the results are far better than any canned C. robusta weakened "blend" or bag of so-called fresh roasted beans you buy in a store so, as a tinkerer and gadget collector, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.

BTW, that's a great tutorial that B Finnigan put together there. :thumbup:




:D
J
 
My ovewn roasting method puts out a lot of smoke, but I run the range hood at full blast and it helps a lot. You have to pull them out and stir em up frequently. Mine usually end up with a variety of color from brown to black and all greasy-and tasty. I like the mixed color batches, they seem much tastier than the uniform commercial roasted beans.

You have to wait several hours after roasting for the beans to "age". At first they have liottle odor or taste. I usually roast at night and by morning they are just right.

I especially like the African Peaberry and Ethiopean Harrar coffees for expresso. I think the Sulawesi (formerly Celebese Island) beans make my favorite brewed or filtered coffee. I also have had some very good free trade beans from Brazil.
 
java said:
BTW, that's a great tutorial that B Finnigan put together there. :thumbup::D
J
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Thanks Java, just want to pass on some info on something it seems few people are trying. Having champagne tastes on a beer budget is OK if you know how to make "champagne".:D

I like all of the peaberry coffee's but most of them fall through my 1/4" mesh screen so I have to put an extra temp scren in when roasting those little bastids. Then the chaff does not fall out so it's takes a bit longer to de-chaff.

I also like to roast white coffee to use in ice coffee. Most of the caffiene is retained from the brief roasting time. There is a noticable buzz from the stuff.:eek:
 
Well fellas, you got me interested. I've ordered a small roaster and a sampler of green coffee beans from the coffee project. Can't wait until it gets here.
 
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