This is a long overdue post since it occurred about three weeks ago. I have actually succeeded in roasting coffee at home. But for the sake of documentation and posterity, I’m still going to include this post.
So after seeing Derek working his roaster and getting some green Sumatra coffee beans from Bongo Java for ourselves, my brother-in-law and I were fired up to give home roasting a try. Hopefully this would be a better experience than my personal fiasco with my oven.
Target Chefmate Popcorn Popper
CHEFMATE POPCORN POPPER–So I went to Target and purchased a cheap Chefmate Popcorn Popper for $14.99. According to what I read on the internet about roasting with a popcorn popper, I was expecting to get a reasonable roast after 5-7 minutes. So I went to the deck at the back of my brother-in-law’s house, just in case a lot of smoke was generated again. I had a metal collander to pour the beans into, when it was time to cool them off. I was ready.
I poured a quarter cup of beans into the popper and turned it on. It was actually quite exciting to hear the whirring of the hot air blowing and the beans swirling around in the popper. I waited for the first crack – should sound like popcorn popping. I don’t think I heard anything until about 8 minutes. So it’s late. Second crack should come in another minute or two. Well, not knowing any better, I stopped the popper after 10 minutes. Poured the beans out into the collander, let them cool.
beans cooling in the collander
The beans actually looked a little too raw. I let the beans sit for 5-6 hours and made some coffee in my french press with it. Verdict: still tastes green and raw.
10 minutes in Chefmate Popcorn Popper
I tried it again in the popper, letting it go until 20 minutes.
20 minutes in Chefmate Popcorn Popper
These beans were a little darker than the 10 minute batch. But again, after making a cup, the beans still tasted green and raw.
Judgment on the $14.99 Target Chefmate Popcorn Popper: NEVER GOT HOT ENOUGH! The amount of watts that the popper put out was not high enough. So I cleaned it up and returned the popper to Target.
Tags: Bongo Java, coffee roasting, popcorn popper, Starbucks
January 20, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Try a Fresh Roast Plus 8 coffee roaster–the least expensive roaster on the market. You’ll have much better results!
January 21, 2009 at 4:15 am
Thanks for the suggestion. After a few more posts on my roasting failures, you’ll see that I actually found a popcorn popper that works.
March 21, 2009 at 1:30 pm
[...] December 2008 – January 2009 – failures home roasting in an oven, twice, with a cheap popcorn popper [...]