Coffee Roasting and Tasting – It’s Still the Nose and the Tongue

I’ve been experimenting with different roast profiles.

I gave my popcorn-popper-roasted Sumatra coffee beans to the scientific adviser of our lab. I told him one roast was stopped at seven minutes and thirty seconds. The other roast was stopped at eight minutes. A few days later, he commented about how different the taste profiles were when the difference in roast was only thirty second.

My quick description was that the lighter roast seems to maintain delicate aromas for the nose. The darker roast seemed to give characteristics that were more noticable to the tongue – thicker body, nuttier, heavier attack to the tastebuds. To get the best of both worlds, just put the two together and make yourself a good cup of coffee.

So tasting still comes back to the nose and the tongue. So in this flu ridden time – do your best to protect your nose and your tongue.

Home Roasting – Going to the Dark Side

Most coffee aficionados recommend light roasts. They say that it maintains the subtle flavors of the geographical origin in which the coffee was grown. The darker the roast is, the more the subtle flavors are roasted away.

Now let me explain some basics about roasting coffee beans. The two points of reference are the “first crack” and the “second crack.” The “first crack” marks the real beginning of the roasting process. The art of roasting is knowing when to best stop the process after the “first crack” has occurred. Stop soon after the “first crack” you have a light roast. Continue to the beginning of the “second crack” you have a medium roast. Let the beans roast after the “second crack” has begun, you have a dark roast.

I’ve been home roasting since January. The first set of beans that I began to roast and enjoy was a mixture of Kenya AA and Brazilian beans. Individually the Kenya AA beans were too “bright;” the Brazilian beans were sweet, but too boring. Together they seemed to compliment each other.

I typically roasted my blend of Kenya AA and Brazilian beans just up to the beginning  of the “second crack.” So it was basically a medium roast. I liked this roast but after a while I began to use less and less Kenya AA beans in my blend. The “brightness” of the Kenya AA started to irritate me. I liked coffee that had more flavor and richness, rather than just the sensation of brightness. Finally, I ended up with a bag of Kenya AA beans and no more Brazilian beans. So now, what to do?

This past Sunday, I decided to roast the Kenya AA beans darker than usual. I actually let the beans roast 30-45 seconds into the “second crack.” I wondered what it would taste like – burnt Starbucks coffee?

Monday morning I made myself a cup of this fresh roast.

Mmmm. The “brightness” was slightly muted, but still there. The coffee also had a nutty taste. The best thing though, was this cup of coffee was real “sticky” in my mouth. I drink my coffee black, without sugar or milk. But the stickiness of the coffee was as if I had added a tablespoon of sugar to it. Now that was a good cup of coffee!

A Caveat for using the Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper from Target

My Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper from Target

ffgeeks inquired if I would recommend the Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper from Target. My quick answer is YES. For $39.99 plus tax, bring the box home, open it up, plug it in, pour in 1/2 a cup of green coffee beans, turn it on, turn your timer on, and in 8-9 minutes you’ve got yourself some home roasted beans. It is that simple.

But let me describe the battle wounds my Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popcorn Popper has received after using it for the last 5-6 weeks every 2-3 days. Remember that the popper was not made to maintain the higher temperatures for the length of time needed for roasting coffee beans. So things MELT.

Inside the plastic cover

So here is the inside of the plastic cover of the popper. As you can see the plastic is melting. When the popper was brand new, there was a aluminum cylinder used to guide the popcorn that is poured through the hole in the top of the popper. A measuring cup, that also doubles as the container to melt butter, is supposed to sit on top of the hole while the popcorn is popping. The very first time roasted coffee in this popper, I kept the measuring cup covering the hole, just in case it would help help maintain the temperature in the popper. Well it certainly helped maintain the temperature. Actually the popper got so hot that the aluminum cylinder melted from the plastic cover and fell into the hot air chamber.

I’m a little slow, so I kept the measuring cup over the hole in subsequent roasting sessions. The plastic around the hole continued to melt, producing little red plastic stalactites hanging down. A couple times the plastic stalactites melted onto some of the beans. Then I finally got the idea – I no longer kept the measuring cup over the hole.

So the Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper from Target is not perfect, but nothing is. The popper was not made to roast coffee beans. But it was made with enough power to roast coffee adequately. I don’t know how long it will last. But I will let you know when my popper coughs its last breath.

In the meantime – ffgeeks, welcome to the wonderful world of home roasted coffee. It’s been only a couple months for me. But I’ve enjoyed every day of it. It is really hard for me to drink coffee I have not roasted. I’m really spoiled.

How to Roast Your Own Coffee

So I’ve been home roasting with my popcorn popper for 4-5 weeks. The house smells great. The coffee tastes incredible.

If you’ve been reading my posts you know that it took a little time for me to get here. But let me tell you what I now do.

1) You just have to start.

2) Go to Target and get yourself the $39.99 popcorn popper – not the $14.99 one – and begin.

3) Get some raw/unroasted/green coffee beans. I don’t know if you have a local coffee roaster who can sell you green beans, but that is where I got mine. If you don’t know where to go, send me a comment – I’ll try to hook you up somehow.

3) Pour in about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of beans. You can follow the directions of the popcorn popper and put in as much coffee beans as you would have put popcorn.

4) Turn the popper on. Turn on a count-up timer.

5) Just watch the beans change color. There will be a little smoke – nothing like my oven encounters. Keep the popcorn popper near your sink, where the chaff can blow.

6) Around the 4.5 to 5 minute mark, you’ll begin to hear the beans start to crack – just like popcorn popping. Now the fun begins.

7) For a medium roast – I turned the popper off at 8 minutes; poured the beans onto a cool cookie sheet or casserole dish; then shook the beans around to cool.

For a dark roast – I kept the beans going until about 12 minutes; poured the beans onto a cool cookie sheet or a casserole dish; then shook the beans around to cool.

9) Let the roasted beans sit for at least 4 hours – to release any CO2 – otherwise the coffee may taste a little too acidic.

10) Grind the beans and make yourself a delicious cup of coffee.

West Bend Poppery Popper – where home roasting began

West Bend Poppery Popper 1200 watts

This West Bend Poppery Poppers is what began the home roasting phenomenon. I found this one while on eBay. They’re actually readily available on eBay. But let me tell you a secret – the only thing that really matters is the amount of power they put out. These Poppery Poppers deliver 1200 watts. The popcorn popper that I got from Target delivers 1080 watts – which seems to do just fine.

I’ve actually be home roasting successfully now for about a month. It’s really great. There is a little bit of smoke, but nothing like the half pound of beans on a cookie sheet in the oven. Chaff can be directed into the sink. In about 8 minutes -  a medium roast. In about 12 minutes – a darker roast. Voila! You’ve got wonderfully smelling home roasted coffee beans. Let those beans sit for at least 4 hours to degas. The smell just gets better. Then grind those babies up and make a great cup.

Let me tell you another secret: it’s not that hard. You just have to get a popcorn popper that gets hot enough, then get over the fear factor of the unknown.

Roasting with Guy @Home – It finally works!

Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper

I finally found a popcorn popper that roasts coffee beans well. After my failure at my brother-in-law’s, I was still on a mission to make it work for me. Earlier in December, my mother sent a popcorn popper to my kids. Not knowing what roasting coffee would do to the popper, I was hesitant to use it. After popping with the cheap Chefmate popper, I realized that the popper is not really hurt at all. So grandma’s popcorn popper was fair game. It is also from Target – Nostalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper – $39.99. More expensive than the Chefmate – but at least it works.

I poured the beans in. Turned the popper on. Started a timer – counting up. I kept a cool cookie tray nearby to pour the beans in and oven mitts, just in case. At around 4 1/2 minutes, the beans began to pop – first crack. At 5 1/2 minutes the first crack was in full swing. By 6 – 6 1/2 minutes the cracking stopped. The beans continued to swirl in the popper, getting

Home Roasted Coffee - Success at last!

darker and darker. My experience at my brother-in-law’s taught me to not be so impatient. Wait until it is dark enough. Waiting to 10 minutes gave a nice darker roast. I’ve done it a number of times since – stopping as soon as 8 minutes, giving a medium roast; and as long as 12 minutes, giving a dark roast.

Success at last!

2nd Try at Roasting in an Oven, This time @ Brother-in-law’s

MY BROTHER-IN-LAW’S OVEN–The next morning, I woke up with coffee roasting on my brain. Everyone was asleep. After watching my brother-in-law roast with his convection oven, I thought, “Let’s give the conventional oven one more try. If I can roast the beans to the same extent that my brother-in-law did, but just roast at a higher temperature to get the beans roasted faster, then life should be good.”

So I got a cookie sheet. Poured a half cup of beans on the sheet. Heated the oven to 500F. Stuck the cookie sheet in. Turned on the light to watch. Slowly they browned. The first crack came around 5 minutes. Ok. Watch it. Watch it. Let it brown. Let it brown. It’s getting there. It’s getting there.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Oh, no! The smoke alarm! I opened the oven, grabbed the cookie sheet, smoke poured out. I ran for the sliding door to the back deck. The house was filled with smoke. Everyone was rudely woken up to the smoke alarm! It’s guy again, trying to roast beans and now filling someone else’s house with smoke!

I actually learned the most by watching these beans. If I had been able to let the beans go for another 30 seconds, the roast would have been perfect. Unfortunately, that would have been 30 seconds of billowing of smoke. The problem with roasting in the oven is that since they are not moving, the roasting of the beans is not very uniform. The beans on the outside edge of the cookie sheet roasted earlier than those on the inside. The smaller beans roasted earlier than the larger one. These “early roasters” were the notorious smokers.

Conventional Oven Roasted - 10 minutes 500F

For some reason this second oven fiasco helped remove some of the mystery of coffee roasting. I felt I knew at what points in the roast I could get a light, medium, and a dark roast. The time difference needed to produce these roasts encompassed a span of about 120-180 seconds. Also, hearing and seeing the first crack made me realize that this is the signal to begin closely watching the color of the beans. Watch the color and listen out for the second crack. This is the art of coffee roasting.

Hand-picked "Early Roasters"

I removed the “early roasters” from the batch and made a cup of coffee. Delicious dark roasted beans. The other beans in the batch were a decent medium roast.

Roasting in a Convection Oven @ Brother-in-law’s

Roasting in a Convection Oven

CONVECTION OVEN–My brother-in-law got inspired by my failure. He suggested his convection oven. So he made a wooden frame and attached a screen on it so the hot air could reach the beans from the bottom. We turned the oven to 450F, let it preheat, then poured the beans onto the screen.

We eagerly watched the beans. They slowly turned brown; then popped like Mexican jumping beans. Without any other guide I just watched the time. After 20 minutes, I called it quits and pulled the beans out. The beans were definitely darker than the popcorn popper beans.

Convection Oven - 20 minutes 450F

But overall it looked like a light roast.

Convection Oven - 49 minutes 450F

My brother-in-law decided to give it a try himself. He felt one thing that might help was to shake the rack every 2-3 minutes. That way the beans may be more evenly roasted. So starting after about 20 minutes, he shook the rack every 2-3 minutes. He finally stopped after 49 minutes. The beans actually looked like dark roasted Sumatra beans from Starbucks. The beans began to have the shine from the oils. After letting the beans rest for 4-5 hours, I made a cup for my brother-in-law and me. Not bad…But one comment my brother-in-law made about home roasting was, “If I had a choice between doing this and buying a bag at Starbucks, I think Starbucks would win.”

Roasting with a Cheap Popcorn Popper @ Brother-in-laws

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.

Roasting with Derek @ Bongo Java Roasting Co.

Derek @ Bongo Java

Over Christmas and New Years, my family and I went to Nashville, TN to visit my brother-in-law and his family. My brother-in-law and I went to check out a local roaster called Bongo Java. We saw Derek roast three batches of coffee: a blend, a central American coffee, and a Sumatra. We could tell that Derek must have been experienced since he could talk to us very casually, but when the critical time came to watch the roast of the beans, he was right there. He never missed a beat. Derek was very cool and helpful.

We left with a pound of green Sumatra beans. Derek’s advice was “Don’t start a fire.”

If you ever go to Bongo Java Roasting Co. in Nashville, don’t forget to check out the bathroom. The animated painting is intense!

Bongo Java's men's room