How to Roast Coffee Beans
The movement towards organic food has been slowly but surely affecting how consumers buy and produce the food they eat and the drinks they consume. Coffee aficionados may be interested in growing their own organic coffee beans and roasting them at home. While you can readily roast coffee beans in handy home coffee roasters, you can also have them roasted in popcorn poppers. Here’s how to do it.
Home Coffee Roasters
Prepare your green coffee beans, making sure that they’re clean and free from peelings, bits of coffee leaves and such.
Put your green coffee beans in your home coffee roasters. Don’t overfill the canister, roasting the coffee beans a little at a time, like three to four tablespoons’ worth of coffee beans. Make sure that the canister is sealed securely.
roasted coffee beans
Decide on how long you want to roast your coffee beans. A longer roast will result in darker beans, which in turn makes for a more bitter or a stronger coffee bean. You can also opt to use one of the preset times on the coffee roaster.
Once the time is up, simply remove the now-roasted coffee beans from the coffee roaster and put in a colander. Let cool.
For best results, grind the roasted coffee beans and brew immediately. (see how to grind coffee beans)
Popcorn Popper
If you’re not sure if you want to invest in a coffee roaster yet, you can use a popcorn popper instead. Make sure that you have the appropriate popcorn popper to use, with its heat coming out from the side vents, and not heat coming out from the grate at the bottom. Using the improper popcorn popper may end up being a fire hazard, so keep this advice in mind.
Have a cup or half a cup of green coffee beans at the ready, making sure that’s there’s no other debris or leaves mixed in with them.
Put the popcorn popper in a sturdy bowl to prevent dust or chaff from spreading in your kitchen.
Start up your popcorn popper. Don’t leave the popcorn popper alone, just in case. Keep in mind that this isn’t a proper coffee roaster, so you still need to keep an eye on it.
You’ll start hearing a popping or a cracking noise around three minutes in. If you want a medium roast, turn off the popper four minutes after starting the popcorn popper. If you want a darker roast, turn off the popcorn popper six minutes after starting your roast.
Put the freshly-roasted coffee beans in a colander and let cool.