Rancidification – short and sweet

I’m going to make the topic of coffee going rancid short and sweet. If anyone wants a more in depth and even scientific version of this, let me know.

When coffee (or anything with oils) goes rancid, the coffee oils react with either water or oxygen. This is why when storing roasted coffee, you want it in a dry and dark container. Moisture in the air will provide the water that will make the coffee go rancid. Light and oxygen in the air (with the help of enzymes in the coffee beans themselves), will oxidize coffee oils, making it rancid.

So don’t store coffee in the refrigerator. Don’t store coffee in the freezer. The only time storing coffee in the freezer may be ok is if it is vacuum packed and you plan to store it for a period of time. Once you take the bag out of the freezer, let it come to room temperature. Keep it at room temperature. Use it within two weeks.

A tin kept on your kitchen counter or in your pantry is a good place for coffee. The more the roasted coffee is exposed to light, the more chance there is for it to go rancid.

Now let’s talk about the coffee I got from the coffee bins at Giant Eagle: 1) they were not vacuum packed, but were exposed to any moisture in the air, 2) they were not stored in the dark, but were exposed to the fluorescent lighting of the store almost 24 hours a day. No wonder the coffee tasted rancid!

But let’s be fair to Giant Eagle. This past weekend, I bought a bag of Starbucks coffee from them. The bag at least had “Feb” typed on it. So at the very worst it may have been three weeks old, which is better than three months old coffee. I made a cup for myself this morning. I did not get the upset feeling in my stomach. Conclusion: not all coffees sold at a supermarket are rancid. But sales to unload inventory may not be the best way to go – even though the price may be tempting. They may be three months old coffee.

More About Roasting Coffee Beans

I don’t have the fine skills of an experienced roaster, but with every roast, I’m getting one more step closer.

Coffee beans at different stages of roasting

So let me tell you what I know about what a roasted coffee bean looks like. The picture shows the coffee bean at different stages of being roasted.

The bean to the far left is unroasted. Unroasted beans don’t even smell like coffee. They actually stink, smelling raw.

The second bean from the left right has begun to roast, but has not even gotten to the “first crack”. At this point you should smell a slightly sweet aroma – kind of like sugar starting to caramelize.

The third bean has reached the “first crack”. The “first crack” sounds like popcorn popping, occurring around 4.5 to 5 minutes in my popcorn popper. This is where the water in the bean has finally evaporated and the bean begins to really roast. Roasting caramelizes the sugars and releases the oils found in the beans. The roasted sugars and the oils produce the wonderful aroma and flavor of the coffee.

Coffee roasting requires a sense of smell, hearing, and sight. I’m not able to monitor the temperature of the beans – so I rely on those three senses. Once you hear the “first crack” now it’s time to pay close attention (this is usually when one of my kids ask me to do something for them). Trust your nose and the color of the beans that you see. The beans start to smell like coffee after the “first crack”.

For a medium roast, I typically stop the roasting at about 8 minutes. The beans have roasted beyond the “first crack” but not to the “second crack”. The fourth bean is a sample of this. As you can see in the picture, a medium roasted bean is nicely browned, but not yet shiny – like you see in dark roasted coffee. Medium roasted coffee typically gives you the inherent taste of the beans.

If I let the beans go to about 9 minutes, you will begin the hear the start of the “second crack”. When I pour these beans out they usually continue to crack on the cookie sheet until they cool down. These beans are a medium-dark roast. I like this best for my blend of Kenya and Brazil or Sumatra.

Most coffee drinkers that I know like dark roasted coffee. They like the strong attack of their taste buds. For a dark roast I’ll let my popcorn popper go all the way up to 12 minutes. Most of the beans have reached the “second crack” by this time. The fifth bean in the picture is a dark roasted bean. It begins to shine since the oils have made its way to the surface of the bean. Starbucks likes to roast their beans pretty dark. In fact, they have a carbon taste to me. I like dark roasts, but I think I like to stop just before the carbon taste kicks in.

So that’s it. One key to roasting is knowing what the beans should look like. The difference between a medium roast and a dark roast in the popper is about 4 minutes. My 12 minute mark for a dark roast is a basic guidline. It’s still best to watch the beans, making sure they look like beans at the level of roast you want.

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.

How to Change the Taste of Coffee Drinkers

The Drug Dealers' Approach

I’ve been at my brother-in-law’s for the the past five days. He normally drinks at least one whole pot of coffee, if not more, throughout the whole day.

Since we’ve been here, I’ve been making coffee in either my French press or the Vacuum pot. We tried the El Salvador coffee. He felt the taste ended too quickly. So we’ve been drinking Starbuck’s Sumatra.

This morning, while rushing to get the kids ready for church, my brother-in-law made a pot of Maxwell House lite. Oh man! Did that taste bad!

The same thing happened to me with my 8 O’ Clock beans.

So I’ve been wondering how to start up an online coffee business. Aha! What better way than the drug dealer method. Give away one or two pounds of good coffee until they can’t go back to bad tasting coffee.

the winner is . . .

Starbucks Beans over Thanksgiving

Being unedjumakated in describing the taste of coffee, I’m going to give it my best try. My wife’s youngest brother bought four bags of Starbucks coffee beans by the time the weekend was over.

French Roast – I thought it was rich and smooth, but nothing that really stood out.

Cafe Verona – Not as rich as the French Roast, but it gave me the sensation of tea.

Ethiopia Sidamo – Seemed lighter than the French Roast and the Cafe Verona, maybe even brighter?

Komodo Dragon – Rich like the French Roast, but more distinctive – unfortunately, I don’t know how to describe it.  My inability to articulate the taste in coffee shows through.

The Interested but Uninitiated Coffee Drinkers

I have decided that the blog audience I am trying to connect with are the interested but uninitiated.

I went deer hunting yesterday. I knew most of the time would be spent sitting in my tree stand, so I decided to download a number of podcasts from coffeegeek.com. Mark Prince does a really good job educating the general public about the specialty coffee industry and the grand world that exists out there beyond Starbucks. I really appreciate what he is doing for the industry. In his podcast 64, he breaks down what he sees as the coffee drinking population: 80% consisting of Folgers/Maxwell House/etc. drinkers; 3% coffee aficionados who strive for only the best; 7% those who have tasted good coffee but feel its not worth the effort; 10% who have heard of good specialty coffee, are interested, but have never tasted it – the interested but uninitiated.

I won’t address the 80%. But first, the 3% who are aficionados are real coffee perfectionists. These are the purists of coffee. They have the educated, delicate palates that are able to distinguish all the subtleties of coffee, that culinary coffee has to offer. I hope one day my palate will be that fine.

I am in the 10% of the interested but uninitiated who have heard of the “heavenly cups of black gold” but can’t say that we’ve actually had a face to face with God yet. My interest was peaked by reading God in a Cup. But to be real honest, my palate is not yet fine nor educated. I’m more like a two-year-old who is able to experience and enjoy life, but is too limited in experience and in vocabulary to explain what is so great about life. My two-year-old can say, “Mmm,” when she has a piece of candy in her mouth. But have her explain anything more than that, I’ll only get a cute grin or a response like, “Barney?”

So I am going on this coffee journey to let my palate experience what coffee has to offer. Along the way I hope to pick up the vocabulary that will let me help others be educated as well. For the near future, I’m not aiming for the stars. If I can just get to one or two steps beyond Starbucks at half the price, I’ll be happy.

If any of you out there would like to experience the same or have suggestions let me know.