The process of roasting requires heat and time.

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If you take the challenge (no fear, it’s not a big one) and attempt to roast your coffee on your own, it only takes a heat source and some space, where some smoke won’t be a big problem.

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How do I perform the trick? With a cheap hot-air popcorn machine. No big deal, no ego boost for yours truly.

 

- Expect the chaffs to fly everywhere (not an issue if you have a backyard, otherwise you need a net or somehow to keep the chaffs contained).

- Expect some slightly burned batches and some batches that are “city-roasted”, lighter roasting (I like it darker actually) than intended.

 

But learning is key. A cup of green beans kosts a few SEK but learning is priceless.

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There is a ton of information about home roasting out there on youtube (at least until someone will start censoring this too, for any reason) and on the internet.

 

It takes a few minutes to roast coffee.

The principal is to apply heat until just after the “first crack”, it actually sounds a little bit like popcorn popping, and you follow the process closely (you don’t go doing something else). 

 

When the beans reach the color of your desire, just after the first pop, or crack, and probably sooner than the second crack, which is more gentle and more continuous, then it's time to stop the process.

Unless you want your coffee to go “French Roast”, very dark, or become burned. Charcoal does not taste coffee, and I wouldn’t think it is very healthy either.

So stop the process timely and probably just before it’s getting too late, he?

 

The next step is letting the beans cool down for a couple of hours, before putting in an air sealed jar. The coffee is at its best after several hours, sometimes days, when the beans have had the time to develop more rich aromas. 

 

I use Brazilian coffee beans, mostly the Santos variety, that (in my opinion) taste better a few days after roasting. Some gurus say that some beans get matured completely after 2-3 weeks (!), which might be true, but it could also mean that the beans already got stale, and it could be a trick to sell old beans to the unknowing public, who would believe anything.

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I did believe it too, but I learned my lesson. I bought a batch from an expert roastery and the beans were anything else but fresh roast.

 

In grossery shops, you will find beans that are very well balanced in flavor and very evenly roasted, as well as the total opposite - absolutely rubbish. But the common theme is that most, if not all, beans on the shelf have been roasted weeks ago, if not many months ago.

If freshness is not an issue for you, you don’t need to start roasting on your own at all.

 

I tend to think it is worth it - generally cheaper, somewhat more work, and some chaffs flying around, but always fresh.

 

Green, raw beans are a commodity. The beans can stay in a cool, dark place for many months. Some say they even get better with time (through the so-called monsooning effect).