The first week of January, with my last remaining Starbucks dwindling, my dad and I made a trip to Mr. Green Beans, a do-it-yourself coffee roasting, soap making, etc shop located on Mississippi Ave in Portland. Now my dad has been roasting for 8 years or so...and I have been wanting to join the family craft myself, but with a job at Starbucks I would have had no place to store my coffee and the drive to roast outside on a 33* day would not have been there. Since I rely on my almost-daily roasting, it makes it that much more important to spend the 15 minutes to roast. What I have learned in the past month or so, I will expand here:
First off, the desire to roast. As stated above, my father started roasting many years ago. With each cup he offered me, I realized that not only can I have good coffee, I can cut some of the cost by roasting it myself. All I needed was a machine, beans, and out of Starbucks. Fast forward 5 years and here I am, at the beginning of my journey. I am not a fine-art-artist. I like to take pictures, I will draw (mostly for/with the nephews), but aside from those things, I wouldn't consider myself an "artist". Funny thing though, about believing in a creative God, Elohim, is that I believe we all have some sense of "art" in us. It may not be art as it is popularly thought of, but cooking, interior design, beer, wine, and coffee are all arts. Shoot, I worked at Papa Murphy's and my title was "Pizza Artist". Art in a broad sense can be defined as general or specific as you want. Back to the point, coffee roasting for me is my art, and an expression of my God n each creation.
Second, I like coffee. I like good coffee. It is interesting to take a bean from it's green state to a nice dark roast. My roaster is the FreshRoast 500. One of my favorite things about roasting with this machine is that the chamber is glass, so I get to watch the green turn to yellow, yellow to brown, and then the darkening of brown and the first and second crack commence. It can get tricky though. My timer only goes to 9.9 minutes. With pretty much each roast I need to add 2-3 minutes. What makes it more interesting is how the weather changes the timing of the roast. When I started roasting it was 33*-36* outside. It jumped to 50* for a couple days and it caught me off-guard to see how quickly the beans changed stages. My last few roasts have come out quite nicely. Nothing beats the satisfaction of an action turning out positively. Right now, it's not about making the best roasted, best tasting coffee, but getting used to the process and finding something that is drinkable and that I like.
Third, the beans matter. I bought two pounds from India and one from Brazil from Mr. Green Beans.I was told that they were both farm-direct, which is awesome, but I also got the sense that they are high-grade beans. You can buy low-quality beans, called Robusta. They generally don't taste good, but depending on sugar, milk, etc, you may not notice. The high-quality are Arabica beans. You can read about the difference here: http://tinyurl.com/ylzhca5. Within each category are grades. AA are the top of the scale and my recent Sumatra purchase was AA. My dad gave me some El Salvador beans that he was having a hard time getting a favorable roast one, at least in Mom's taste. Trying my best, i noticed that on each roast, there were beans not getting fully roaster, some staying green, some looking like a leopard (spotted). I decided that it had to be low-grade beans, because as I soon as I went back to the Brazil and now Sumatra, I haven't had that happen where the roast is so uneven. Now, some beans will be different shades, but I haven't seen the spotted bean since that El Salvador. So, one must consider the grade of the bean in order to get a good and proper roast!
Fourth, It's fun! Literally, I can get a 1/4 lb. roasted and ready to go in 15-20 minutes. It is a fun hobby that doesn't take a weekend or even a day to do. Of course, I am sure that I could spend that amount of time roasting, but I don't have to in order to enjoy a cup. Although I have heard that within 3-5 days of roasting is the optimum time to drink the roasted coffee, it is ready to go as soon as it is done. One thing I would like to do is roast a pound of the same coffee, and then try some the following days. One cup within an hour of roasting, one cup within 24 hours, within 3,5,7 days, and just see how much the characteristics change each time. Now, it won't be dramatic or anything, but there should be a slight profile change in each cup.
Ok, this is a long post, and I hope you found it interesting. This is my first on Roasting, but it won't be my last! God bless!
Third, the beans matter. I bought two pounds from India and one from Brazil from Mr. Green Beans.I was told that they were both farm-direct, which is awesome, but I also got the sense that they are high-grade beans. You can buy low-quality beans, called Robusta. They generally don't taste good, but depending on sugar, milk, etc, you may not notice. The high-quality are Arabica beans. You can read about the difference here: http://tinyurl.com/ylzhca5. Within each category are grades. AA are the top of the scale and my recent Sumatra purchase was AA. My dad gave me some El Salvador beans that he was having a hard time getting a favorable roast one, at least in Mom's taste. Trying my best, i noticed that on each roast, there were beans not getting fully roaster, some staying green, some looking like a leopard (spotted). I decided that it had to be low-grade beans, because as I soon as I went back to the Brazil and now Sumatra, I haven't had that happen where the roast is so uneven. Now, some beans will be different shades, but I haven't seen the spotted bean since that El Salvador. So, one must consider the grade of the bean in order to get a good and proper roast!
Fourth, It's fun! Literally, I can get a 1/4 lb. roasted and ready to go in 15-20 minutes. It is a fun hobby that doesn't take a weekend or even a day to do. Of course, I am sure that I could spend that amount of time roasting, but I don't have to in order to enjoy a cup. Although I have heard that within 3-5 days of roasting is the optimum time to drink the roasted coffee, it is ready to go as soon as it is done. One thing I would like to do is roast a pound of the same coffee, and then try some the following days. One cup within an hour of roasting, one cup within 24 hours, within 3,5,7 days, and just see how much the characteristics change each time. Now, it won't be dramatic or anything, but there should be a slight profile change in each cup.
Ok, this is a long post, and I hope you found it interesting. This is my first on Roasting, but it won't be my last! God bless!
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