Home Roasting Coffee

After doing a little reading on this website, I decided to try my hand at roasting my own coffee.

I'll take pictures next time, but night-time lighting kind of sucks for photos. The barrier to entry was low, and the results first time out the gate were freakin' awesome.

I bought one of these at Target for $16 (on sale last week apparently)


And I bought about a lb of green coffee from whole foods. This isn't the best way to buy it, as they charge you the regular roasted price. You can buy it online for much cheaper.

One caveat, you can only do about a half cup of green beans at a time. That turns into nearly a full cup when they roast and expand. That was more than enough for 2 double shots out of my espresso maker this morning. If you are doing french press or drip, one batch may not be enough, so it may be too big of a pain in the arse for most folks. (or buy 2 machines)

The process is easy.

- Put about a half cup in the hopper, turn the machine on.
- Put a bowl with water to catch the light airy chaff that shoots out the chute.
- At about 3-4 minutes you get first crack, 6 or 7 I started to get a second crack.
I probably went a full 8 minutes for a medium-dark roast.
- Pour them out, cool them, store them loosely or grind once totally cool.

I can now have super fresh espresso every morning.