Are you a connoisseur of fresh coffee, appreciating its wonderful aroma and distinct flavor? If you are and you enjoy high-quality brews, it could be worth your while to explore roasting your own coffee beans. This could elevate your coffee experience to a whole new level, all from the convenience of your own kitchen.
There are a number of easy ways to roast your own coffee beans, from using a pan or grill, to using your oven, a popcorn maker or buying an expensive but purpose-made coffee roasting machine for home use.
The cheapest of these options is to roast your coffee beans in a pan or in the other but these won’t necessarily give you the best results. Investing in a coffee roaster or a popcorn maker will yield better coffee roasting.
If you plan use a popcorn maker, you need to be aware that it is not designed for this purpose and will likely break after repeated use. Not all popcorn makers can be used for this purpose either. You can only roast coffee beans if the machine heats from the sides. Never use a bottom-heating popcorn maker to roast coffee as it could catch fire. You need to watch your machine while it’s in use.
Choosing the beans
When you buy coffee beans to roast you need to choose the right beans. Fresh coffee beans are green so look for green beans. They don’t turn brown until they have been roasted properly. Look for green beans which have a standard size and color otherwise your coffee will have an inconsistent flavor when you come to make it.
The higher the quality of beans you have to start with, the higher quality and better flavor of coffee your roasting process will end up producing. I’d recommend checking out the best organic coffee to give the taste buds a real treat.
Roasting your own coffee
So, let’s move on to what happens during the roasting process. You need to reach a temperature of between 350F and 500F and your coffee beans need to be constantly stirred and moved or they will burn on one side and not roast at all on the other side.
After around four minutes you should hear a crack which means your beans are now roasted sufficiently well to make white coffee. If you want average roasted beans for regular coffee, this is when you would stop the process.
If you prefer darker roasts, keep going and you will hear a second crack after a few minutes, which will deliver a medium roast flavour. It’s not recommended to leave them in much longer than half a minute after the second crack or they will burn.
Cooling the coffee
Once completed you need to transfer all the beans into a metal sieve to cool down and to remove all the dried husks from the coffee beans as well. You can then spread them over paper to leave them to cool down.
You need to remove all of the husks, or chaff, from the beans before you can grind them and this can be a long and messy process which is best done over the sink or even outside in the garden, where the chaff can be disposed of.
Once your coffee beans have had all the husks removed, you need to allow them to cool down completely and then you need to think about how you are going to store them to keep them fresh, as fresh beans make the best coffee.
Storage of your roasted coffee beans
Once your coffee beans have cooled down you need to be aware that there are a few issues with how to store them. You can just put them straight into an airtight container as you could end up with a serious problem.
Roasted coffee beans release CO2 gas for around two weeks so you need to allow most of this gas to escape, before you try to store them or your coffee will end up tasting really bad. Wait around 12 hours before trying to seal the beans in a container or you will get a build-up of CO2 which could actually damage your container.
Once the gas has released you can store the beans safely and then you can think about the next stage which is grinding your beans. But don’t rush to grind them too quickly; it’s best to wait at least 24 hours after roasting, before you grind the beans, so they have the fullest flavour.
Coffee is always at its best when it’s fresh so make sure you do grind and use your newly roasted coffee beans within seven days of carrying out the roasting process, otherwise they will start to go stale and your precious drink won’t taste so good any more.
Conclusion
Roasting coffee beans at home is a fun way to create your own personalised coffee flavour with a roast that is unique to your own particular taste. Whether you roast them in the oven, or buy a dedicated roasting machine, your morning coffee will never be the same again.
