Comments on: This coffee tastes positively Parman!

Question: This coffee tastes positively Parman!

parmanparman — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:36:48 -0800

I need to be famous for other things. So I would like to make my own blend of coffee. At home and cheaply how can I get started?

In terms of style, I would like to do something like a French Roast with the aroma of tilled farmland after a rainstorm.

I have heard you can use a popcorn popper to roast beans, but what else should I consider getting or trying in terms of tech and beans/spices/additives?

By: mixed greens

mixed greens — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:30:09 -0800

I don't personally have experience with at-home roasting, but an acquaintance who does found Sweet Maria's to be informative. They seem to offer advice and sell roasting equipment and green beans. Also, check out this post.

By: XMLicious

XMLicious — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:33:58 -0800

This episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats has a bunch of good information.

By: rainy

rainy — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:33:36 -0800

2nd Sweet maria's, especially pay attention to what type of popcorn popper to get, and don't get the manual one with a handle, it's too much trouble (unless you don't know what to do with your spare time).

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:49:01 -0800

I use an old breadmaker to agitate the beans and a paint-stripping heat gun as a heat source, as outlined here. I have found this to be far superior to a popcorn maker.

Those earthy farmyard notes are typical of Indonesian and Timorese coffees. Look for beans with "Mandheling" in the name, eg Sumatran Mandheling. Later, when you know how to control a roast and have more idea what you're after, you might dig the funky skanky taste of monsooned beans, eg Monsoon Malabar.

Poppers generally roast quite fast, resulting in a fairly sharp, acid coffee. This is pretty good in a plunger or filter setting, but usually doesn't work well in espresso. No matter what your method, roast time is a big influence. Even if the beans end up the same colour, a batch that took 18 minutes will taste way different to one that took 8.

An actual French Roast is so dark as to destroy most of the distinct flavour notes in the beans, and I encourage you to experiment with lighter roasts than that.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:44:14 -0800

Thanks, everybody!

By: scruss

scruss — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:59:32 -0800

Roasting coffee makes more smoke than you'd think. If you have wired smoke detectors, roasting is a tiresome process, but at least you can offer the fire crew fresh coffee ...

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:37:00 -0800

I was thinking of doing this outside on our patio