I only began smoking foods a couple years ago when I got my Smokin-It #2. I've been roasting coffee at home for ~15 years. There's been a little interest expressed in coffee roasting, so I thought I'd post some stuff to get anyone interested started. While you certainly can sink incalculable amounts of money into roasting, the awesome part is that you don't have to when starting out. Just be aware that once you go down the rabbit hole you may never return.
Why would you want to home roast?
- Cost - You can actually end up saving money, as a "pound" of high-quality pre-roasted coffee is often $15+ these days while home roasting can cost 1/2 that. I put pound in quotes because a lot of coffee shops now sell their beans in 12 oz bags. Also, when you roast, a pound of green coffee may only yield 12 oz of roasted coffee due to moisture loss that occurs as part of the roasting process.
- Freshness - If you have a high quality coffee shop near you then you can buy fresh coffee. If you're getting your coffee from the supermarket, (some) mail order places, out of a can, or a big box store then you're almost certainly buying coffee that is past its prime. In some cases it was never prime in the first place, too.
- Quality - Coffee is one of the largest commodity items in the world... if things haven't changed, it's 2nd behind oil/petroleum. However, there's a lot of 'junk' coffee out there. Some of it has been eat up by bugs, some of it was grown in poor conditions, some of it has been sitting in ships and warehouses for literally years, some of it has bugs, twigs, and who knows what else mixed in. There's also high quality coffee grown by smaller farms that take care of their crops and earn more for their efforts. The market is far more complex than what I can post here. The point is there is some high quality coffee to be had if you know where to find it and it still doesn't have to break your bank.
- Control - Do you like your coffee dark (but, hopefully, not burnt), medium, or light roasted? When you're home roasting you get to decide. I could actually list quality again as there are plenty of roasters who can take a quality bean and turn it into a garbage roast. You get to control many variables so that you get the roast and quality of coffee you desire.
- Variety - You ever go to a coffee shop and their choices are things like 'french roast', 'premium blend', or 'hazelnut'? Those labels tell you almost nothing about what you're about to drink other than it's probably low quality and covered up by burning it (most french roast), a mix of beans to mask off flavors (premium blend), or covered up with added flavoring (hazelnut). When I talk about variety I mean you get to choose varietals from all over the world. You may find that you prefer beans from Africa (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, etc.) Maybe your preference is Central America, such as my favorite Guatemala. Maybe you have a preference for dry processed, wet processed, monsooned, or a variety of other processing elements that impact the coffee flavor. Maybe you want a coffee with a high acidity or you prefer lower. Do you want a nutty or chocolately flavor or do you want a fruity or maybe citrus flavor? Do you want something with a lot of body or something more subtle?
- Availability - You ever run out of coffee and dread having to go to the store to get more? If you home roast you can just roast as you need it. Right now I roast roughly every 10-15 days and roast 3 pounds per session. This takes me 45 minutes to an hour including setup, roasting, teardown, and cleanup. While roasting I can do other light chores, read a book, drink a beer, for a significant part of the time. In addition to always having fresh coffee, I always have coffee when I need it. I buy green coffee, on average, twice a year. When my stash gets low I reorder, so I always have it available.
- Popularity - If you think your BBQ makes you popular with all of your friends, wait until they find out you home roast! I frequently give fresh roasted coffee as gifts and it's always received with a smile!
If you're saying you've never liked coffee, that may well (always) be true. It may also be true that nothing will change that. Coffee is not for everyone. On the other hand, I've met many people who have never tasted good coffee and once they do they find they actually enjoy it. Bad coffee can taste really, really bad. Good coffee can taste really, really good. There are some people who like what is arguably bad coffee and do not like what is objectively good coffee. To each their own. I'm not posting this to tell you how to (or not to) enjoy your coffee. Do you like a little coffee in your cream and sugar? More power to you! You like yesterday's Folgers reheated in the microwave? I'm going to throw up a little bit, but that's my problem, not yours... you be you.
If you're going to home roast then you're going to need a grinder. If you enjoy coffee at home and have always used pre-ground because you don't have a grinder you're really missing out. You can buy some pretty questionable whole-bean coffee and use a really bad grinder to achieve a significant improvement in your cup. You can achieve that much improvement again by grinding fresh, quality whole-bean with a good grinder. I'll talk more about grinders and brewing in upcoming posts.
If you think you might be interested in home roasting, go on to the next post -
Home Coffee Roasting 102.
