RYO Coffee
Dave Koch | Monday, August 17, 2009 at 7:00AM 
Roast Your Own! I've been reading much of the database of coffee knowledge accumulated at Sweet Maria's Roasting Supplies and came to the conclusion, "I can do that!" Sometimes these are famous last words, sometimes these are life-changing epiphanies. I hope that in this case they are the latter.
I picked up two pounds of "green" (unroasted) beans; one pound of the Guatemala Finca La Bella JBM (Jamaican Blue Mountain) Cultivar, and one pound of the India Robusta Jeelan Estate Nirali.
The first type was upon their recommendation for a novice roaster, the second... just for kicks. I say just for kicks because Robusta has as much as twice the caffeine as Arabica - Sweet Maria's seems to be the only place that sells Robusta unblended with its more flavorful cousin, Arabica.
They recommend a "lightweight skillet with a good tight lid, or a heavy skillet for a real aerobic workout," I used a heavy copper-bottomed pot because I wanted to punish myself with a real workout. Having roasted plenty of nuts before, my biceps were unprepared for how long coffee takes to come to a French Roast.
Nevertheless, we don't have any lightweight skillets that are non-non-stick, and nothing with a lid either. It was just me, some beans, my two guns, and Chester Copperpot.
I preheated Chester (the pot) until I couldn't hold my hand over it for more than a few seconds and tossed about 1/4 pound of the beans. I roasted in batches so that if I royally screwed up, I wouldn't ruin everything. Toss the beans in and "start shakin'" were the instructions and that's what I did... for about ten minutes.
I realized that #2 (second from the highest setting) on Old Yeller's push-button heating options must have been just shy of roasting capabilities; however, HI (the highest setting) was too hot. So there we went; back and forth, shaking the pot, 2-HI-2-HI, shake shake shake - like a Paso Doble - smoke pouring out, until they started to look like what you buy at store, dark chocolate.
The results? Delicious.
Reader Comments (3)
Wow, I'm impressed! Looks great!
The end results do indeed look impressive! Also, In case I have not said so THANK YOU! for all the "What We Are Reading" posts. I soooooooo appreciate that there are some food bloggers who still read! I thought TasteGawker meant we only looked at the photos. Rah Rah to people with brains like you! Not that Sup! is a brainiac... but you know what I mean. GREG
We've been happy customers of Sweet Maria as well. Although we probably don't buy as often as they'd like -- when you buy green beans they really do last a wicked long time. We don't have a coffee maker, just French presses, so we only roast small batches at a time. We use an old popcorn popper bought off eBay, with holes melted thru the top plastic cover (used a sautering iron) for ventilation since yes indeedy, it can be a little smoky at times. If you decide to trade in Chester, the air poppers are awesome and will give the guns a rest for the better workout of lifting a full cup o' joe. It's still a bit of babysitting -- use a stopwatch; 10-15 minutes for a light roast -- but worth the effort. Goonies Never Say Die!