Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Roll That Beautiful Bean Footage...



If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I adore coffee. You also know I'm weird in a lot of ways, and my love for coffee is no different.

I can only drink coffee two ways.

At Starbucks or when I make it at home.

Let's just talk about Starbucks for a minute. I usually call it FourBucks, cause that is how much it costs. I love Starbucks though. I love the colors in the store, I love the smell, I love the 'feel' of the place. I love the cups, and the gadgets and the baked goods and the aprons the baristas wear and the ...and the....

You get the idea.
Don't be dissin' Starbucks.


Glenco and Aaron have been trained how I like my coffee, so I will drink it if they make it too.

If I come over, and you offer me coffee. I can't drink it.

It's something mental I'm sure.

I just can't drink 'regular' coffee, as in 'made in a drip machine'

It makes no sense, cause my little cheap espresso maker is just that.

There is no figuring me out.

Let me introduce you to a whole 'notha world of coffee.

Roasting your own.


I'm not going to go into the whole process here, I'll leave that up to some one much more qualified, and I'll share some links at the end of this post. I just want to let you know that this can be done!

You don't need a lot of fancy things. I use my Whirley-Pop popcorn popper. A lot of home coffee roasters use a hot air popper, but I find it doesn't roast enough at one time for me.

I do this out in the garage or the yard, depending on the weather, using my camp stove.

It smokes.
A lot.
Trust me on that one.

See this little contraption here? It's a KitchenAid Proline Burr Grinder. $199 on Amazon.com. Guess where I got it?
GoodWill.
Guess how much?
$12.
God is Good.

Here are some of the roasted beans. Bottom left are the 'green beans' that you get. Top picture is a medium roast that I did. I'm still not getting a consistent medium roast. I've not been roasting for long at all, and it just keeps getting better, the more I do it. The bottom right is the dark roast, that I like for my espressos.



I'd always thought that a coffee roasting factory would smell awesome. Fact is, it stinks. Smells like burnt popcorn while your making it. Doesn't smell like coffee until the beans start to cool a little.

Then, wow, does it ever smell good.

Add this to the list of things I'd like to roll around in nekkid.

Warm, freshly roasted coffee beans.

Don't look at me like that.

You know you have a list too!

Why roast your own you ask?

For me, it's the following reasons:
  • It's cool.
  • A pound of GOOD coffee costs about $10 in the store. When was IT roasted? It's still good, but home roasting you can get a pound of green beans for about $4.
  • It's just SO much better than what you can get in the store.
  • It's cool.
When I went to Missouri last month, and brought my cousin some home roasted coffee, he promptly ordered 25# of beans and started home roasting.

When I gave my friend Donna some freshly roasted and ground beans, she jokingly said she wept while she drank it.

Oh, it's that good.

Here are a few links to get you started. You will be AMAZED at the coffee selections, and the entire culture that there is with home roasting. I really encourage you to give this a try.

I've ordered coffee from the following two places and have had good customer service from both:

www.burmancoffee.com

If you sign up for their newsletter, you can get some great deals.

www.coffeebeandirect.com

What I like about this place is, when you order 25# of beans, they will ship it free.
I wouldn't order 25# until you really knew you liked what you were ordering. Try a pound of this, and a pound of that until you find something you REALLY like. The shelf life of green beans is several years. As with most things, the more you buy, the more you save.

Another really fun website is www.coffeegeek.com
You can search it, and it will tell you everything you'd ever wanted to know about roasting coffee at home, and everything else related to coffee.

You can also just Google 'roasting coffee beans'


Life is too short to drink bad coffee.

22 comments:

  1. Roasting my own coffee beans is something I never considered doing - until now. For me there is no life before coffee in the morning and I totally agree with you, life is to short to drink bad coffee. Now off to check out the websites you mentioned...

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  2. A small coffee purveyor here is at the heart of a local legal battle, due to the offensive smell. The neighbors near the business claim the smell when beans are being roasted is intolerable. Officials have told the business owner she must install odor-inhibiting equipment, and she says her small business has no money for such expenses. She has a lovely shop, and GREAT coffee, but is now faced with being shut down. Her shop is on the opposite side of the city from where I live, so I've never experienced the roasting smell, but I've wondered, how BAD is it??

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  3. Jayme, you so amaze me! I swear you're from another time in life. The next time I come to your house I'm going to look for covered wagons or something that shows me my thoughts are correct. :)

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  4. I LOVE COFFEE TOO. I MISS MY CAPUCCINO MAKER... ECONOMICS. HEY DOES THAT SQUIRREL HAVE A NAME? HE IS SO CUTE!

    JULIE

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  5. Awww...a picture of your two favorite things! :) I am not a big coffee drinker...and probably couldn't tell the difference between good and bad coffee! I buy the Wal-mart store brand and doctor it up with that Almond Toffee liquid creamer when I do drink it. The kids love it too! :) LOL

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  6. Unfortunately I do not like coffee, but I could sit and smell it all day! Go figure! Love your squirrels!

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  7. Jayme - I understand perfectly your love of coffee. I worship regularly at the church of Starbucks. How about you come on out for a visit to Seattle, and I'll show you the very first store near Pike Place Market. I raised my daughter to love coffee too. When she was still small enough to ride in the grocery cart, she made me get close enough to the coffee beans so she could smell each and every variety. Her husband won't touch the stuff...so sad.

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  8. I love coffee too. I love Starbucks too. Mocka with vanilla. Sweet.

    I was just wondering what is it that you DO NOT do!!??? Your really do amaze me! I absolutely love the smell of roasting coffee.

    When My Guy retires, I am going to have him start roasting coffee.

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  9. Oh my gosh I can smell the fresh roasted beans from here. I must go now and make me a cup of coffee.

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  10. Very interesting post...I'm going to think about this. I only drink two cups in the morning but I like it to be good! I finding even Starbucks coffee is not as good as it used to be (I grind it at home)Maybe I need to upgrade from my little four cup Mr Coffee...lol...

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  11. Check out this website: www.deansbeans.com
    They sell fair trade organic coffee, beans or ground. The fun part is that you can make and name your own blend. Makes a great gift. Maybe you could make your own blends for friends for Christmas and slap on a fun little handmade label?
    ~Andrea in NH
    PS I enjoy your blog. We could hang out. I like coffee, you like coffee, I like to shop at Goodwill and Sal's (Salvation Army), you like to shop at goodwill, I got chickens, you got chickens...

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  12. It may be unbelievable, but in my 52 years, I have never had a cup of coffee!!...Neither has hubbs. So....if you stop to see us, you get tea!!

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  13. I'm so not showing my hubby this post. He *loves* coffee. Me? Only with tons of artificial sweetened creamer flavored like marshmallows or chocolate fugde or caramel....or, anything that covers up the coffee taste. It needs to be like a dessert. I like dessert. Can I roast dessert?

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  14. Jayme,I don't like coffee but I love the smell, go figure. I do really enjoy herbal teas. That squirrel is adorable! Thanks for the pretzel goodies. I will make loads of them to give away at Christmas. I really appreciate all the great ideas you give all of us. Take care.

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  15. Anke, did you check out the websites? I can totally see you doing this, you do so much other homemade stuff!

    Sparky, I don't think the smell is bad. In the house it just smelled like someone burnt popcorn. I didn't really notice outside much at all. Poor lady, I feel for her.

    Linda...if I start to try and GROW my own coffee, then we have something to worry about ...LOL

    Julie, I don't have a name for that Squirrel, I call it the Happy Squirrel, it was the inspiration for my camper being called the Squirrel and decorated thus.

    Jennifer, I'm a pretty new coffee drinker really, only like the last 10 years. I used to drink those gas stations 'cappucinos'. Oh dear, I can't anymore.

    Tammy, Beverly, Cindy and Cynthia...I don't understand.....YOU DON"T DRINK COFFEE? :-/

    Sharon B...I'm making my flight arrangements today!

    Dogwood...there are a lot of things I DON'T do. I've never learned to tat. See, there is one right there.

    Andrea...we could hangout! I'm planning on roasting beans as gifts this year as part of a gift basket.

    Lone Star and Ain't for City....you should SMELL THESE beans. I know it's not good for the coffee, but I keep opening the container after I roast them and sniffing. It's heavenly. I only drink two cups a day (that is all my heart can handle, but it's espresso, not regular coffee), and I find it totally worth it to roast my own beans.

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  16. You are my hero and a nut too! I love it.. and yes what you are doing is not dissing Mr. Bucks at all.. but doing what most of America should be doing..

    Love love love this post!

    Thanks for the ah.. 'red eye'.

    xxoo
    ~Olivia

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  17. I'm stopping over after my next cold run! Watch out Donna!!! lol

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  18. oh your coffee is heavenly!!!! specially with homemade muffins and good company!! i wish my kids would allow me the time and expence for things like that. someday. hopefully soon. youll have to teach me!!!

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  19. Oh gosh, Jayme, now you've introduced yet another great idea into my little pea brain :) I like to consider myself a coffee snob - it's truly about the only thing I'm persnickety about. We have a nice grind and brew type machine... Mmmm. I rarely drink coffee anywhere but home - love it! So, the next step makes sense! Let's roast! Thanks for the cool links and inspiration :) -Tammy

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  20. Hmmm. The whole process sounds so wonderful and delicious maybe I could like coffee after all!

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  21. Goodwill on 93rd? Don't ya love awesome thriftin' finds? I'm on the hunt for a grain mill. So iffin' ya run across one of those for cheap...will you get it and call me? I'll be there in 10 minutes flat! serious. You make coffee and I'll bring homemade bread!

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  22. I really appreciate the fact that you've made your own website and have factually posted your thoughts. I like your work and feel I can refer to what you've done. A lot of folks can't even imagine having such talent. I hope that you know how lucky you are. :) Good luck to you in all your aims. :)

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