Roasting my own coffee
After writing this story about people roasting their own coffee at home, I thought I'd share my own home-roasting method.
This low-tech beauty is what turns my green beans brown and jump starts my day. It's a decades-old (in case you couldn't tell from the groovy orange lid) Poppery II popcorn popper I scored on eBay. Air poppers like the Poppery with side vents (important because alternate venting can lead to fires) have become popular items for eBay sellers, who pick them up for a buck or two at yard sales and flea markets. I just throw some beans in, plug it in, and wait. It only roasts a half a cup or so at a time, but that suits me -- I'd rather roast in smaller batches for freshness, and it doesn't take long.
I discovered home roasting a few years ago. I'd gone to look at an apartment, and afterward my potential landlord and I talked over a cup of coffee he'd made. When I took my first sip, I looked at him and said, "What did you do to this coffee?" It was incredible. Soon we were in the basement of the house, checking out the crazy coffee-roasting contraption he'd rigged.
I didn't do much rigging with my "roaster," but I did drill a hole in the lid and add a thermometer. When I first starting roasting in it -- I get my greens from Sweet Maria's -- I had trouble figuring out how long was long enough, and how long was too long. When the beans would start smoking, certain I was about to burn down my building, I'd stop the roast too soon. Or was it too late? Who knew. The thermometer solved my problem: Now I can easily tell when my beans have reached city roast, full city roast, and so on.
Roasting produces a strong aroma, so I stick the popper out on the fire escape and close the window gently on the cord. It keeps my neighbors from hating me and also makes cleanup easier: The chaff from the beans blows out into the world rather than all over my apartment.
In researching the story, I talked to Benjamin Chen, one of the folks behind Barismo. This coffee (and a little tea) website is run by people who've been involved with Simon's Coffee Shop in Cambridge and Peet's. Chen had a ton of interesting things to say, none of which made it into my story, unfortunately. That's in part because, after doing lots of home roasting himself, he came to the conclusion that it has too many limitations. He feels that truly attaining the best roast calls for professional equipment and expertise. Lucky for him, and us, fellow Barismo-ite Jaime van Schyndel plans to open a roastery/retail shop off Mass. Ave. in Arlington. When we spoke, Chen said it was in the final stages of approval, so hopefully soon there will be another local source for great beans. Other than your own antique popcorn popper, of course.
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Try a comparison taste of same-day and previous-day roast ... I did this on a tour of Peet's roasting plant in California and the previous day's roast was way better ... some of the carbon dioxide had been released and the bean's flavor was more developed.
Yes, good point, Janice. Coffee needs to rest about a day to off-gas CO2. Don't put fresh-roasted beans in a tightly sealed jar till then, either; the gases will have no escape route.
Loved this post and I am eager to give roasting a try. I just happen to have the very same orange topped popper from yes about twenty years ago... you mention you drilled a hole in the side - can you give a bit more info on that - does it matter where/how big? And... as an Arlingtonian I am thrilled that we are soon to gain a roastery!
You can make a "one way" jar to store your coffee:
Take a canning jar, put a small hole (about 1/16") by either drilling or via hammer/nail. Cut out a one-way valve from any bags of coffee you have purchased, then glue the valve to the jar with a hot-glue gun (or any sort of epoxy). Do make sure of the proper direction of the valve though...
In practice, the valve bags worked much better - possibly due to small amount of head space/ residual oxygen. Those are available to purchase for around $0.50 per bag...
From our experiments, what works the best is to vacuum seal the coffee immediately after roast (food saver bags will do). When the bags are really puffed up, they are ready to be used ;-) (and I have yet to have any bags burst).
OK, so first double-check it is indeed a Poppery -- I don't want to be responsible for starting a fire in your kitchen! When you look into the metal chamber you'd put the kernels in, you'll see vents on the side, not the bottom. To add a thermometer, I just drilled a hole through the butter dish. I ordered the thermometer from Sweet Maria's, where I also get green beans. (http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.roastkits.shtml) They have a nice selection of thermometers that work well for roasting, going up to the appropriate temperatures. (They also have a whole bunch of info about roasting in a popper: http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpopmethod.html.) I got the Cooper 550 degree large thermometer, and the 8-inch stem is long for the Poppery II: The stem needs to be 1-2 inches from the bottom. That's what all that duct tape in the picture is about, elevating the stem to that distance. I tried threading a bunch of metal nuts to raise the head, but they were heavy for the clip that secures the thermometer from the underside of the butter tray. For drilling, I just chose a bit that was the same size around as the thermometer stem and situated the hole so the thermometer shaft would come down into the center of the roasting chamber. It was really easy to do, and even though it's not exact, it still gives me a much better idea about what's actually going on with the beans' temperature.
Hope that helps. Feel free to post more questions if you've got 'em.
That's great you live in Arlington. I'm looking forward to trying Barismo's coffee. I expect it will be among the best available locally, as these guys are fanatical. Chen told me this is Arlington's first roaster, and the inspectors had no idea what to make of the big, shiny contraptions with pipes coming out all over the place. They had to reassure them it wouldn't blow up.
Fantastic, Ben. Thanks!
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