Home-Roasting Coffee

Want to roast your own coffee from home?  Home roasting is a way to save money (since green coffee beans are cheaper than roasted).  You can buy green coffee beans at your local whole foods co-op, or online (like at Amazon.com).

Home roasting also, if done right, can make for a tastier cup o’ coffee.  And there is also the matter of increasing your sense of self-satisfaction.

Coffee roasters, however, are expensive.  Unless, of course, you use a popcorn popper to roast your beans.  Yes indeed, you can roast green coffee beans in a popcorn popper.  And you can find them for as low as $10 (even cheaper if you get one at a thrift store).

Allow me to make a disclaimer: roasting with a popcorn popper can be hazardous if you aren’t watching what you’re doing.  The popcorn popper creates a huge amount of heat.  If you are careless, you can burn yourself.  And it is also worth pointing out that it makes a lot of smoke. 

When you roast with a popcorn popper, limit your batch to about 1/4 cup or so of green coffee beans.  More than that will cause uneven roasting.  Add the beans to the hopper.  Before you plug in the poppper, remove the yellow plastic hood and cover the top with cheese cloth, or some other well-ventilated cloth.  You should secure the cheesecloth onto the popper with some string (a rubber band might melt and break). 

Once the beans are in the popper and the cheese cloth is secure, you can plug the popper in.  Make sure you are near a window or outside, since there is a lot of smoke created in roasting. 

You are going to have to judge the roast by “ear.” The beans will create two different “crackling” sounds during the roasting process.  The first crackle happens a couple minutes into the process and sounds a bit like a the snap, crackle, pop of rice crispies.  A short while later, you’ll hear a louder “crack.” Once you’ve heard the beans enter into this second stage of roasting, you are on your way to a medium roast.  Feel free, at this point, to unplug the popper and carefully remove the cheese cloth to examine the beans.  Keep roasting them until you achieve your ideal roast. 

You will need to experiment to get a sense for how long you should roast the beans.  This method is a lot faster than roasting with a conventional roaster.  Because of this, some argue that the coffee quality isn’t as good.  I disagree.  Since we are working with a small batch, the roast can be consistent and even.  And the taste quite good. 

Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be on your way to saving money with your home roasted beans!

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