Coffee Roasting with Guy @ home

Burned Darker than Starbucks

Sorry for the blurry picture – maybe it’s for the best.

At La Prima (see previous post) I met someone who roasted his own coffee beans at home. His sister-in-law was there during the tour and said the coffee tasted great. He told me he just put it in the oven on a cookie sheet at 500F and let them roast. But he warned me that the smoke filled the house with the smell of dry hay.

So I decided to give it a try myself. I used my wife’s Pampered Chef stoneware cookie sheet, thinking it may give a more even heat and not run the risk of burning the beans.

I poured about 1/2 pound of unroasted (green) coffee beans on the cookie sheet. Turned on my gas oven to 500F – waited for it to preheat. Once the oven was hot, I put the cookie sheet in the oven, turned on a kitchen timer, and waited in anticipation for the “first crack”.

At 16 minutes:  I heard my first pops.

At 18 minutes: “first crack” in full swing – popping like popcorn.

At 20 minutes: end of “first crack”

Now I thought, let’s just wait until I hear the beginning of the second crack. My oven light doesn’t go on and I didn’t want to open the oven and run the risk of cooling the oven down. So I waited.

At 22 minutes: no sounds of a “second crack” but smoke began to pour out of the oven. I quickly opened the door. There it was! My black charred coffee beans!

I poured the beans off of the Pampered Chef sheet onto a metal cookie sheet and stepped outside into the 20F weather, shaking the beans to cool them off. The beans then went into a tin. Freshly roasted beans are supposed to sit for 24 hours before brewing so let them de-gas. I made myself a cup of coffee with these beans using my French press. They smelled good – but they sure tasted like charcoal.

Fun fact: I read on another coffee blog that the French roast (which is probably what I would have had if I got the beans out at 21 minutes) originated from the culinary tastes of Louis XIV. He was obsessed with his bowels and like the higher carbon content in his French roast coffee to keep him regular.

Tags: coffee roasting, La Prima