Coffeeeeeeeeee!

I just received 18 pounds of coffee - green beans today. Can you say "Excited"! I had a long talk with the UPS guy about coffee and how to become an official coffee snob. He did not want to put the time into roasting his own and I forgot to tell him that he could simply buy it from me. Oh well, I'll catch him on the next trip. ;-)

Coffee Dreams - Thom's Rebuttal!

Well - as promised Thom has seen fit to change his 50% plus of the Coffee Dreams post. John - is seriously considering that allowing me to be a guest blogger may have ended his blogging career.
Here is Thom's take on the coffee roasting experience.

The Other Side…

It was still early, Friday night around 5:30 PM and Malcolm had already called me three times, left voice mails for my wife twice, and sent out several text messages and emails. The messages were all the same: Thom, do not come over before 10 AM – otherwise, you might not like what you find (imagine Malcolm sitting in his wife’s pink bathrobe at his computer creating fabulous stories of grandeur and laughing hysterically to himself).

[I note here that Thom fails to account for the Oatmeal Breakfast Stout in the bathrobe pocket - but then this is his rebuttal - so I shall let him continue]

Due to snow and a pregnant wife asking for just three more things to be done before leaving, I didn’t arrive at Malcolm’s until 10:30 AM. I drove faster and faster though, worried that my friend would not wait for me, but instead pioneer ahead without me. Finally I arrived… and was somewhat concerned at the sight of hazy smoke pouring out as Malcolm guiltily opened the door. He had indeed begun without me; luckily though it was with just a handful of beans in a skillet to make what he repeatedly called Cowboy Coffee. It was wonderful – the smell was deep and strong, the color a black mocha. The steam coming off the mug actually tickled my nose and forced a slight giggle out of me (which I quickly covered with a cough).

After much debate, two spreadsheets, a PowerPoint presentation, and a heads/tails toss of the coin, we started roasting the Costa Rican beans. I spent the first hour trying to distract Malcolm, so as to keep him from continually opening the oven door and frowning at the beans: “Why aren’t you popping!” Finally, after turning up the oven and hearing a few lonely pops, we pulled beans out. We both sampled a few and found them to our liking. We set them aside and immediately began roasting the Brazilian beans. We played with the oven settings – going from 410 to 425, trying to find the golden spot – the perfect temperature. We heard a glorious sound after only 5 minutes... it was a choir of popping, aww yes, such a sweet popping sound, like little angles clapping their hands to our hard work.

The smile upon Malcolm’s face was indescribable – the kind of smile that makes every wrinkle disappear and the eyes glaze over with contentment. We congratulated each other - our second batch was successfully roasting away, quickly approaching the famous 2nd pop… just as we had hoped and dreamed it would.

The process was at its end – we were happy, sad, wired and exhausted. What a morning… why oh why had it taken us so long in life to rediscover the simple and beautiful process of roasting our own coffee. It was at this point I noticed Malcolm fondly holding the bowl of yummy roasted coffee beans close to his chest. He had a look in his eyes… the look of pure determination, “this is mine.. mine.. all mine.” I realized then we had not discussed how, if at all, we were going to divide the beans. I knew I had one chance at breaking through to Malcolm and so I did the only thing I could, I casually handed Malcolm a paper bag and with arms wide declared loudly, “well done my friend, now, let’s hug it out.” Needless to say, I left with half the beans, of which I’m now enjoying my first cup.

Ok – time for a reality check: The process was very fun and exciting, though in the oven on a pan seems to take a considerably long time – about 1-2 hours depending on how dark you want to go.
I’ve heard about a popcorn popper that works much quicker – any comments out there? The taste of the coffee is satisfactory; I would call it a light bodied smooth blended taste. It isn’t nearly as harsh/dark/acidic as I sometimes like my coffee, but still good. I think we needed to roast it longer to bring out a more robust flavor. I’m excited to try again and again and again.

Thanks for believing in us!

Coffee Roasting Nightmares and Dreams

It was early, 5:30 AM, I wanted to be asleep but the intense desire to begin my new life as a coffee roaster was driving me to near insanity. I had already speed dialed Thom, who was supposed to be here at 10 AM to help me roast. He had angrily turned his phone off after the 4:55 AM call. I sat by my oven, already warmed up to 400 degrees and ran the green Mogiana coffee beans through my fingers. 'Oh sweet toasty Brazilians! Roast! Roast!'. Tears of anticipation welled up in my eyes as I imagined that first cup of the sweet fruit of the labors from my new life. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the pounding on my door. Rushing down I opened it to my friend Thom, visibly angry, holding a 12 gauge over/under shotgun and wearing snow boots and his wife's lacy pink bathrobe which he had obviously grabbed by accident in the dark. I immediately thought about two things. First, the elegant workmanship of this remarkable shotgun and second, my own deep wish that his lovely wife had been a bit taller, as the short pink robe made the moment very awkward.
Thom, not by nature a morning person, waved the gun and shouted "Why in the world would you call me at this time in the morning!!!?" I began to utter an apology, while looking discretely away, when suddenly the aroma of the coffee beans I had already begun to roast in the skillet on my stove overtook us. As the aroma overcame us, tears came to both our eyes. We realized that whatever differences we might have regarding the hour of the morning to get up - we were united in our love of coffee.
"Let's hug it out buddy" I said (a very discrete hug followed)

Thom responded "Let's get to roasting coffee!"
We quickly drank the potent brew which we had whipped up in the cast iron skillet as our hardy pioneer forefathers had done for centuries before and now we went on to the oven process. That deep calling that had brought us both here this morning also brought us together. Calling and brotherhood demanded that we finish the quest that we had begun. New lives as real live amature coffee roasters.

Whilst sampling a delightful breakfast stout (from a bottle Thom had discovered in the pocket of his wife's bathrobe) Thom and I began the roasting process in a 400 degree convection oven. The smoke alarm went off and I called John Rock, editor of this blog, for advice. As usual he had his answer machine on. We opened the door to the sub zero cold and quickly the smoke cleared. Thom, now wearing a long over coat was by far the better coffee roaster novice. His advice was invaluable. We began with some Costa Rican beans (less expensive) and roasted them to a toasty brown. They didn't seem to make the distinctive first pop that the beans in the skillett had done. We discovered that we needed to turn the oven up another 10 degrees. Then we went on to the Brazilian beans as the house filled up with the smokey goodness of fresh roasted coffee. Thom suggested that we roast some lighter and some darker and then mix them. This seemed to be the best way to go. Having finished the roasting process, and having mixed the lighter and darker beans together we suddenly heard. . . .

A Friend's Coffee Roasting Experience

My friend Malcolm has this funny way of getting me into new things. First it was beer tasting, then it was wine tasting, then it was scotch tasting (do you notice a theme?). He likely would have gotten me into cigar smoking were it not for the fact that I had quit smoking after having spent over 10 years with the habit (my wife doth protest this particular vice). So now it is my turn to influence him, he liked the idea of roasting his own coffee so he decided to give it a try.

He obtained some Brazilian Mogiana green beans and decided that Saturday morning he would roast them at 400 deg/f in the oven on a cookie sheet. I have not tried the oven roasting method so I was particularly interested in his results. The only advice that I offered him was to take the battery out of his smoke detector and then I waited to learn how it went.

The following day I took my son out on a Daddy-Son Date and when I returned home I had a 20 second message on my answering machine. Click **** HERE **** to listen to the message.

Coffee Demonstration

Today at church one of the guys asked me about how to roast coffee. So I volunteered to demonstrate the process using my popcorn popper at our small group bible study that afternoon - it was a hit. Not only was there a buzz at church about the roasting demonstration but everyone wants to roast there own coffee now. Hee-hee, I feel like the Brain who is attempting to take over the world.

To the left (from the left) are my popcorn popper, jug of filtered water, green coffee beans, 12 cup coffee maker with conical screen filter, aluminum pie plate to cool the beans on, and a burr grinder. I let everyone see and smell the green beans and then added 2/3 of a cup to the popper. With-in 10 minutes the beans were a nice shade of brown and finished having fully entered the First Crack.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the coffee.
My continued preaching of how it is a mortal sin to add cream or any flavoring to black coffee made people feel obligated to at least try it plain black. Afterward I heard from person after person that they did not need to add flavoring because the coffee was so good. Ahhh, converts. (Sidebar - Do you know why they flavor coffee? Because it is bad coffee in the first place) At least two people commented that they are going to seek out a popcorn popper of their own and so I am well on my way to starting the green coffee bean co-op that I need to help with my coffee bean purchases

This was my first coffee roasting demonstration and it turned out well. I had pieces of 72% and 86% dark chocolate to sample with the coffee which seemed to go over well with the ladies. I am looking forward to having more demonstrations like this so that more people can learn the joy of truly experiencing coffee.