COFFEE ROASTING HOBBY

I mentioned in my Actifit post from yesterday that I roasted coffee and one gal had a question for me which I answered, but it got me to thinking that I might just make a post on what I do.

My love affair with coffee began back around 1998, but I didn't think about roasting coffee until we had been in the Northwest for about 5 years. I first roasted very, very small batches with a hot air popcorn popper. While this worked well, it had several downsides. It would roast only super small batches, had to be totally done outside as often a 400 degree coffee bean would escape which could lead to an unintentional fire. I then graduated to a whirlybird popcorn popper on a Coleman stove. Again, it worked fairly well, but had to be done outside due to the smoke. At that point, my husband reconfigured a gas grill with a hand crank and stainless steel chamber. This worked okay, but you had to be careful about burning the beans.

In 2013, we purchased 2 table top commercial roasters which roast one pound per cycle. The cycle takes about 13-15 minutes and with powered exhaust hoods, I could stay in the comfort of the kitchen. We actually removed our cook stove to put these in (I use a toaster oven and gas burners to cook with for now until we remodel the kitchen). The thing about these roasters is that you can do a light to super dark roast as they are controlled by algorithm. My coffee has actually made it overseas to Japan!

Consequently, now I am totally spoiled and will not buy anybody's roasted coffee. It helps that I have around 250+ pounds of green beans handy for myself and the folks who purchase from me. My love of coffee has made this investment worth it!

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