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Roasting your own coffee beans yet? |
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Written by asap
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Tuesday, 20 March 2007 |
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Most people just roll their eyes when I bring it up.
For them, coffee is what’s at hand — the drive-through, the cafeteria, the office Mr. Coffee no one’s willing to clean. Others depend on Starbucks, or Seattle’s Best, or Dunkin’ Donuts.
Then there are those who go out of their way to buy their beans whole, grind them, and then drip or percolate or even french press to get a hot cup of caffeine.
But roast your own?
I dismissed it, too. That was taking the whole thing one step too far. I don’t need any more gadgets cluttering up my cabinets. I certainly don’t need more chores. And most days, for me, coffee is more about the buzz and the cookie that goes with it than what’s actually in the cup.
And now here I am, bags bulging with hard kernels from Tanzania, Yemen, Sumatra crammed in next to the peanut butter and instant oatmeal. Every Friday night I break out the little home roaster — about the size of a blender — and turn a cup of those beans from dull green to dark, pungent brown.
And all weekend, the coffee can’t be beat.
It’s deeper. It’s somehow sweeter, still with a bitter bite but no sourness behind it.
Trying to describe fresh-roasted coffee lures you into territory that’s easily lampooned, like wine tasters talking about “hints of grapefruit, and tobacco, and the barnyards of Tuscany.” The labels that come with the green, unroasted coffee mention molasses, aromatic wood, clove.
I’ll just say it’s good; no, better than good. It’s fascinating: a spectrum of tastes and smells that remind me that they all come from someplace different, with their own soil and weather and flavors.
Like most things home-made, a friend taught me. He brought his own roaster and a bag of fresh beans over to my parent’s house over the holidays, when we were all back where we’d grown up with ’fridges stocked with Folgers, Sanka or the supermarket special.
Here’s how it goes:
A handful of the fresh beans into the electric roaster, which roasts them at a super-high temperature like a popcorn popper, keeping them moving so they don’t burn and all the beans cook evenly. A trap catches the chaff — the outer shell of the bean that comes flying off as it roasts.
You’ve got to watch carefully. After a few minutes, the beans start turning brown. Then they begin to crack. You could stop then for a light roast. Or wait another minute or three, depending on the qualities of the bean and your roaster for a fuller, darker roast.
Then you let the beans cool, and let them sit for a half-day or so, to let the flavors settle. But don’t wait too long — after a few days, roasted beans start to go stale. (Imagine what’s being lost at the market.)
Thoughtfully, my friend had brought a jar of beans he’d roasted the day before, so we could drink it right then. So the whole family had a taste test, right alongside the pot of Dunkin’ Donuts that had started the day.
Some thought it was good coffee, sure, but nothing more. A few thought it was eye-openingly better, light and rich at the same time, sweet without sugar and without losing that “coffee” bite. My dad shrugged.
And I immediately turned to the Web to order up a roaster and 10 pounds of green, dusty beans.
I still drink the coffee-machine joe in the office, and I like it. But now, weekends are something else.
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Find coffee roasting supplies here: www.sweetmarias.com/
Find unroasted coffee here: www.theunroasted.com/
And for more on the finer points of coffee, look here: www.ineedcoffee.com/
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asap columnist Robert Tanner has eaten his way around the world as a national writer for The Associated Press. Hear him introduce himself here: http://tinyurl.com/29zxud | Only registered users can write comments.
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