Comments on: Pan Roasting Coffee at Home

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:29:56 +0000

rama,

I’ve never had issues with beans tasting bad under 2nd crack. In fact, I rarely bring my roasts that far, just resting them on the verge of 2nd crack before getting into it.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:47:44 +0000

“High-quality” and “supermarket” usually don’t work together ;) Whole bean coffee from a place like Intelligentsia here in Chicago and a good grinder (in other words…not a Braun blade grinder but a nice burr grinder) are your best bet for good coffee if you dont want to roast your own.

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com

No I don’t work for them but a big fan.

By: randy

randy — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 05:09:49 +0000

Patrick, the difference is absolutely jawdropping. It almost brings me to tears on occasion

By: Craig Borysowich

Craig Borysowich — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 04:55:07 +0000

I have been roasting my own coffee for a couple of years, and I can say that the one critical part about roasting is the cooling after the roast. The pan roaster description has the right idea about setting the beans on a fan. The popcorn popper roaster does not really describe anything beyond swapping the beans back and forth between two colanders – I am not convinced that will cool the beans fast enough to halt the roasting process before the batch is ruined – unless it is 20 degrees outside when you do it. A fan will also make it easier to eliminate the chaff.

By: rama

rama — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 04:42:20 +0000

I got started via that same popcorn popper article, and I’d wager if your coffee *looked* okay but tasted like junk, you never hit “2nd crack”. When I roasted using my 1500W Poppery outdoors, I found it challenging to get the temp high enough. (The beans darken the same, but without the 2nd crack, the coffee is just bad.) Do you recall hearing the audible 2nd crack?

Patrick- the taste is significantly better, when done correctly. Unless you’re buying freshly roasted coffee every week or less, chances are your coffee is old (and probably over roasted anyway, given American’s tastes these days.)

By: frigg

frigg — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 04:25:07 +0000

Hmmm…Patrick maybe someone could answer that query…like, say…next week mebbe?

I dunno…just thinkin’ out loud over here.

By: Patrick Swint

Patrick Swint — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 02:42:41 +0000

I’m not a big time coffee snob but what’s the difference between a high quality, fresh ground coffee from a supermarket and beans that you buy and roast yourself?

Is the taste really that much more noticeable?

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:02:10 +0000

What do you want to know about coffee? We have a small roasting business, and we started as home roasters. If you did not have good luck with the popcorn popper it is likely that your popper either was underpowered, resulting in a long roast time (more than 20 minutes in a popper will taste bad) which baked the beans, or it wasn’t able to get the beans hot enough, or you burnt the crap out of them.

Poppers are still the cheapest way to get into roasting coffee, but a small purpose built roaster like the iRoast or FreshRoast will get you started, and once you taste the coffee you won’t want to go back.

Joel