For Father’s Day I bought my husband several pounds of green beans. No, not Del Monte canned green beans – green coffee beans. He really loves his coffee and a few years ago he started roasting the beans himself.
I wish I could let you smell both the green beans and the freshly roasted beans. When green, they have a raw smell. Right after roasting they smell deep and a bit smoky. They settle down after several hours and take on a rich aroma.
We buy green coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s. I’m sure there are other companies that supply green beans for home roasting, but that is who we started with and they really know their coffee. They offer many, many varieties from all around the world.
My husband roasts the beans in an old popcorn popper. It needs to be a certain type of hot air popper (those instructions can be found on the Sweet Maria’s site). I found the popper at a Goodwill store several years ago.
The process is best done outside. We’ve set off the smoke detectors too many times doing it inside. The beans go in the popper just like popcorn, but they don’t get tossed out of the popper because of their weight. Instead, the chaff from the beans blows out. The beans themselves just spin around in the champer.
It only takes about 4 minutes to roast the beans and they need to be watched closely so they don’t burn. Burnt beans do not make a good cup of coffee. Some varieties can roast to a deeper roast than others. Some just taste better at a lighter roast.
What kinds of unusual foods have you prepared at home? Do you roast your own coffee? Make cheese or yogurt? Stuff sausage? Hunt down wild mushrooms? Tell us about it!
Wow Tiffany, I had no idea that you could do that. And, with a popcorn popper. Who would have thought? I started making my own Mozzarella cheese a few months ago. With the left over whey you can make ricotta cheese. You and I are going to have to get together and have a fun cooking day! Oh, and I’d love to try the coffee too 🙂
My dh is going to love this post. He wants to do this so bad!
love this post! We live next door to a coffee farm and they roast almost daily. We love that smell!! We have never tried to roast our own though.
I haven’t attempted it yet but it looks pretty easy. Sounds wonderful!
Thanks for stopping by from the Saturday Share Fest. Some great tips here- esp about doing this outside in order to avoid setting off the smoke detectors 😀
Wow, you roast your own beans? That’s fabulous!
What a great idea! Have a happy Monday~ I am slowly making my way through all of the comments that I so lovingly received last Thursday when I was featured on SITS. Thank you so very much for visiting me.
I had no idea you could do this yourself! I don’t think I have ever seen green coffee beans! Is it cheaper to do it yourself?
Home roasted coffee tasted the best. I tried once and since then I am a home roasted. I prefer them rosted light though, tried to roast it dark once and it tasted too sour for me