Coffee Roasting at Home

Coffee.  It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I LOVE coffee (and to think that I've gone on a 40 day coffee fast) .  That's why Starbucks is the perfect job in my estimation--all I can drink while I'm there, a pound of coffee a week--my definition of a great benefits package.  But I digress.

I love coffee, and decided to try my hand at home roasting.  I found a "local" coffee shop (local in terms of "in the Denver Metro area") that sells green coffee beans, so on my day off today we trekked to the other side of the world (that's how it felt in Denver traffic), and bought some beans.  Then the real adventure started as we searched for a device to roast the coffee in.  I've heard popcorn poppers are a good place to start, but who would have thought that finding a popper with a chamber that looked like this, would be so difficult.  After several stops, we finally found a popper that looked "right" so we bought it and headed for home to try our first batch.

Sumatra is one of my favorite coffees, so that's where I chose to begin.  I was amazed at how quickly the coffee roasted, and just how much smoke it put out (moved outside for the second batch). 

I think I roasted it just a hair too dark as the brewed coffee had a bit more smokiness than I intended.  But it was good!  Everything that I have read says that fresh roasted coffee develops its best flavor about 12-24 hours after roasting, so I'll try brewing a French Press again tomorrow to taste again.

I'm looking forward to experimenting and finding my "perfect" roast!