Published in BackHome May/June 2007

Whether with a hot mug of instant Nescafe or steaming cup of cappuccino, people across the globe start their mornings with coffee. Today a growing number of caffeine fans are not only brewing but also roasting and grinding their own beans. To these connoisseurs, home coffee roasting has become synonymous with the perfect cup of joe.

“Home roasting is in its infancy but for the first time it’s a rapidly expanding niche in the coffee market,” says James Cameron, owner of the Wisconsin-based, green bean supply company U-Roast-Em and a founding member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the trade association setting the standards for growing, roasting and brewing gourmet, or specialty, coffee.

Cameron estimates that in 2005 alone the number of home roasters in the U.S. multiplied more than 10 times. A former commercial roaster, he attributes this boom in home roasting to the high prices and low quality of commercially, mass-produced roasted beans and the increasing desire on the part of the coffee consumer for quality and freshness.

Home roaster Jeff Caskey can attest to this yearning for a fresh, flavorful hot beverage. His venture into roasting began over three years ago with the search for a new coffee maker and a better pot of coffee. After perusing several home roasting websites and reading coffee expert Kenneth Davids’ seminal book, Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival, Caskey replaced not just his coffee maker but his entire source of coffee.

“A lot of coffee shops don’t roast their own coffee. Those that do usually don’t date their beans so you could be buying stale, old coffee,” says the systems analyst who lives and works in suburban Philadelphia.

As Caskey points out, left untouched, the pale green coffee bean remains fresh for one to two years. Yet, once it is roasted, it begins to relinquish its delicate oils and, therefore, flavor within a few days. After a week the roasted bean will have lost its distinct flavor, aroma and freshness. Grind and brew a batch of beans like this and you end up with a lackluster pot of coffee.

Pre-ground beans fare even worse. Grinding instantly releases the beans’ oils and speeds up the deterioration process. It should be done only minutes prior to brewing, not hours or days before consuming. Walk out of a coffee shop after paying $9 to $13 for a pound of ground coffee and you depart with a costly, increasingly bland beverage in hand.
Along with desiring a fresh cup of coffee, Caskey, like many home roasters, was lured by the prospect of increased flavor and complexity in each pot. “A lot of commercial roasters roast to a dark oil where all the flavors of the bean have burnt off. You no longer taste the flavor or the differences within beans. With home roasting there is no bitterness or burnt taste, so you can add more ground coffee per cup,” he says.

As well as selecting the type and origin of their beans, from Costa Rica to Zimbabwe, home roasters choose the level of roasting from the darkest “Spanish” roast to the light, dry “cinnamon.” Each batch made, every cup drunk is tailored to their palate and preferences.

Blending, or the combining of beans from different crops or regions, allows roasters to play with flavors and create distinctive coffees. In blending they also mix inexpensive with costlier beans, thus saving money and extending their premium bean supply. Such is the case with the Hawaiian Kona blend where the distinct flavors of the high end Hawaiian Kona are combined with a less pricey, more subtle bean.

Even without blending beans, these coffee aficionados end up saving money, spending half of what their non-roasting counterparts hand over for a pound of coffee. Most of James Cameron’s U-Roast-Em customers buy beans in five pound increments with their cost per pound averaging around $5. At Sweet Maria’s, a popular California-based, online supplier of green beans, roasting equipment, and tips, novices can buy both regular and organic beans from $5 a pound.

By belonging to a coffee buying cooperative, roasters like Caskey save even more. This non-profit cooperative, in Caskey’s words, “cuts out the middle man.” Members across the country pool their resources and purchase beans in bulk directly from the importers and, in some cases, the producers.

Once a shipment arrives at port, co-op volunteers fetch the bulging burlap bags at the docks then divvy up and ship the coffee to the members. Through a cooperative Caskey pays as little as $3 a pound for Sumatran, Yemen, and Guatemalan beans.

Because green beans store so well, many roaster create cellars of their favorite coffees, stockpiling their beans according to region, such as Costa Rica or Kenya, and flavor profile, such as Blue Mountain or Kona. As with avid wine drinkers, they can pair their beverage with specific foods, occasions, or moods.

To store their beans properly and safely, roasters place them in a cool, dark, and dry location. Ideally, the beans should be kept inside burlap bags with drawstring closures. These bags allow them to breathe yet protect them from dust, pests, and other nuisances.

Beyond the freshness, flavor, and cost-saving factors, many are drawn into home roasting for socially conscious reasons. Theirs is a coffee both good in taste and intentions. Those disheartened by the dearth of fair trade beans sold in coffee shops and supermarkets can have green, fair trade beans delivered right to their doors. They can also buy from bean suppliers who support the international non-profits such as the organization Coffee Kids. Founded in 1988 by Rhode Island coffee roaster and retailer Bill Fishbein, Coffee Kids’ creates educational, training and health care programs for Latin American coffee farmers and their families.

Those concerned about the environmental impact of coffee farming have more options through home roasting as well. When buying green beans, they can select organic, shade grown and family-farm or cooperative produced beans over the profusion sold by enormous, wildlife and forest-depleting agri-businesses. Shade grown coffee farms intersperse the small coffee trees among other crops and taller trees, creating shelter for animals and migrating birds. Common in Central America, this growing method also reduces soil erosion and deforestation.

Just as there are a variety of reasons for roasting, there is also an array of ways to roast. A few purists prefer to follow the methods of the past and roast their beans in a skillet on their stoves or over a small, well-ventilated fire. Until the advent of commercial roasters in the mid 19th century, this was how roasting was done.

Those employing a skillet need a large pan with matching lid, an oven thermometer, and heavy oven mitts. They begin by putting the pan over a flame and placing the thermometer inside the pan. Covering both with the lid, they heat the skillet to 500˚ F.

Desired temperature reached, the roasters remove the thermometer and pour in approximately nine ounces of green beans. They then put the lid back on, grasp the pan’s handle, and start shaking it. They move the pan over the heat source, lifting the lid and checking the beans’ progress periodically, until all have turned a deep brown. This takes
about 10 minutes.

Some opt for more ingenious yet equally inexpensive means, such as roasting in an air popcorn popper or in a metal drum on an outdoor grille’s rotisserie. Those utilizing the air popcorn popper should select one with side air vents in its popping chamber and a chute on its plastic lid for blowing out the chaff, or skin, of the roasted bean. Both reduce the risk of the chaff igniting. The West Bend Poppery II is a perennial favorite.

With an air popper roasters pour in the same amount of beans as recommended for popcorn, between two-thirds and three-quarters of a cup. They then attach the popper’s lid, slide a bowl beneath the lid’s chute, flip on the popper and watch the beans roast. In less than 10 minutes the bowl will contain bits of chaff, the beans will be aromatic and brown, and the batch will be done.

Others select more conventional approaches, using commercially sold fluid bed roasters, which, like the popcorn popper, apply hot air, or radiant drum roasters where radiant heat does the roasting. As with any method, these roasters should be placed in a well-ventilated area, such as near a window, kitchen vent, or exhaust fan.

Among the non-roasting community the process raising the most eyebrows has to be the dog bowl. Great at conducting and retaining heat, dog bowls have proved to be a cheap, easy vessel for roasting small as well as large batches of beans.

After measuring 1 ½ cups of green, decaffeinated beans on his digital kitchen scale, Jeff Caskey drops them into a large, stainless steel dog bowl that he has placed inside his stone fireplace. Grabbing his red heat gun and a singed wooden spoon, he flips on a digital timer, aims the gun at the bowl and, turning on the heat, begins to stir the green beans.

Within minutes the rooms fills with the rich scent of coffee. The beans transform in color from pale green to yellow then light brown. Puffs of smoke rise from the bowl and waft up the fireplace chimney.

After 10 minutes of continually stirring and applying heat, Caskey hears the “first crack,” the cracking noise indicating that the beans are well along in the roasting process. At this point the beans have swelled in size. Their oils have emerged, creating a glossy sheen on the darkening beans.

Three to five minutes later Caskey hears the “second crack,” the sign for him that the beans are done. He shuts off the heat gun and timer and, reaching for a long-handled colander, dumps the beans into the strainer. Wanting to cool off the beans before storing them, he flicks on a large box fan that he has situated on the hearth and, holding the colander in front of the fan, agitates the beans until they have cooled. He then pours the beans into a glass canister that he places inside his kitchen cupboard.

In 15 minutes Caskey has roasted enough beans to last him a week. Had he used his modified air popcorn popper, the process would have taken even less time, about 10 minutes.

The best part about Caskey’s weekly routine is not the speed but the outcoutcome. A cup of his Panama Royal Select SWP decaf is delight for the drinker. Smooth, clear, and distinct in taste, it possesses not a hint of bitterness. Home roasted beans do truly make a perfect cup of coffee.