I decided to start learning how to roast my own coffee at home. Why? Because I love coffee and like many things, making it yourself can result in a much better product than what you'll find in stores. Now, I'm not saying I'll make coffee better than many -or possibly any- of the local roasters, but I know I can beat out any coffee sold at a grocery store and most of the coffee shops that have their coffee shipped in.

I started out reading about popcorn popper roasting on Coffee Geek and Sweet Maria's- if you ever need information about coffee, those are the two places I would start!

I purchased a Popcorn Pumper at Savers, my local thrift store, for $4. I modified it a little bit using the "7 Steps to Hot Rodding a Popcorn Pumper" instructions found at http://garybt3.googlepages.com/thepopcornpumper. That was pretty simple; what hasn't been simple for me is getting a good roast. I have roasted about 6 batches now and haven't been able to get cup that wasn't either too weak or too burnt. I haven't given up on the Pumper yet, but I was reading the forums on Coffee Geek last night and became intrigued by the idea of roasting coffee on my stove top... what else would I do for the first time at 2 o'clock in the morning?

I heated up my 2 quart, hard-anodized steel stock pot for 12 minutes at level 6 on my stove (I have a flat top stove that starts at low, then goes through stages from 1-9, then high). I don't have a thermometer (one reason I haven't had a successful batch in the popper I'm sure), but someone else on the blog recommended this level on his stove, which sounds about the same as mine...

After 12 minutes I measured out 1 pound of green coffee beans and dumped them into the pan. Then I stirred. And stirred. And stirred. And stirred some more- I stirred for 35 minutes! I used a wire whisk and stirred the heck out of those beans- I didn't want any scorching on these babies! I heard the first crack at 23 minutes; another crack at 26 minutes; a dull crack followed by two or three higher pitched cracks at 28 minutes; then a few more cracks at 31 1/2 minutes. I stopped the roast at 35 minutes, because the color on the beans looked good and I was worried I hadn't had the heat up enough to avoid baking the beans.

I took the beans out to the porch, dumped them on a huge aluminum cookie sheet and blasted them with a fan while stirring them around with the whisk to cool them off and to blow away the chaff- and there was lots of chaff!

These are my pretty beans:


And closer:


They've been de-gassing for about 22 hours now, so I have some time left before I will brew them. I'm still new to home roasting, so I'm not sure if they'll be ready in the morning, but I roasted enough that I can try them every day for several days to find out how long they need to rest to reach peak flavor. I'm willing to be the guinea pig... my husband, however, doesn't so much appreciate the pursuit of excellence as much as the realization of it- he's going to wait until I have some sip-worthy coffee!