How To Have Your Own Fresh Roasted Coffee
Having fresh roasted coffee, whether it's from your local neighborhood roaster or from a package claiming to contain fresh roasted coffee, seems like a little piece of luxury. The taste and smell of fresh roasted coffee is enough to make you mouth water. Sadly, not everyone can afford to have fresh roasted coffee, whether it's because of the absence of a neighborhood coffee roaster or the expense that comes with buying fresh roasted coffee. If you don't mind a little work, you can actually make your own.
Minimum Effort And Cost
While there are home roasting machines available these machines can be expensive and if you are already on a budget this is not the best solution. However there are methods that require very little equipment and are quite low cost. If you have an air popcorn popper you can have great coffee every morning.
Air popcorn poppers are easy to use and although you can only roast small batches a time the process is easy enough that you can roast two batches with no problem in a single session. Find a popper that allows hot air to enter the popping chamber from side vents. This achieves the best results and is also the safest for your roasting. Using a popper that allows air to enter from the bottom through a mesh covered hole could possibly set the chaff from your beans on fire.
Set the popper up near a window or anywhere else in your kitchen that is well ventilated. Additionally with good lighting so that you can monitor the color of the beans. Put the plastic hood on and also insert the butter dish. Put a bowl under the chute to collect chaff that will blow out.
After about three minutes or so you should hear a cracking noise and fragrant smoke should be coming out of the machine. A light roast only takes four minutes while a city roast takes five minutes. If you want to have a darker roasts then it will take six and a half minutes. Beans continue to roast after you take them out of the machine so they should be slightly lighter in color than what you want.
Cool the beans by pouring them into an aluminum colander and pas the beans into another aluminum colander. Keep the back and forth motion up to cool them down. Put the coffee into an airtight glass jar but don't seal it tightly until about 12 hours later, carbon dioxide needs to be ventilated. Your fresh roasted coffee is perfect to drink four hours to a day after it's been roasted. Keep it out of direct sunlight but not in the fridge or freezer and it will remain fresh for five days.
