Coffee Shop Diner
Small Batch Coffee Roasting
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Home Coffee Roasting Coffee Tasting Terms How to make a good cup of coffee Storing Coffee Beans Roast Styles Coffee Origins Coffee Recipes Tips for Roasting Machines Blending & Adding Flavors
What are the
advantages of roasting your own coffee?
By roasting your own Green
Coffee Beans
you can enjoy the
freshest coffee you’ve ever tasted. The small batch coffee roaster
has the flexibility to enjoy their own preference on roast styles and even
experiment on creating their own blends based on their own personal
preference. Plus, purchasing Green
Coffee Beans
over roasted is very economical.
Does home
coffee roasting require any special skill?
Depending on the type of method used to roast, roasting coffee can be fun
and fairly simple. It is not any more complication than making a cake. If
using the oven or stovetop method, the process will be more manual. See our
Green
Coffee
. If using a
home coffee roasting machine, the process is pretty much automatic. Either
method chosen will require practice to produce that cup of coffee that is
much more satisfying than anything ever bought in a can.
What is the
difference between a drum roaster and a fluid bed roaster?
Drum type coffee roasters roast the green coffee beans in a cylinder type
drum. The Green
Coffee Beans
tumble as the drum rotates
over heat. When the desired roast is achieved the heat shuts off while the
coffee
beans continue to
rotate, this is known as the cool down process. When the cool down stage
finishes, the beans are poured into a hopper.
How does the home roaster begin?
Education is the key. There are a lot of books on the subject today.
Remember everyone’s taste preference is different. One may like the acidity
of a fine Costa Rican while another may like the body in a cup of good
Sumatra. There are over a 100 coffee growing regions in the world, each
producing it’s own distinctive characteristics. Experimenting with the
straight varieties will help you determine your preference. Next, roasting
a coffee to the different roast styles can even change the taste of that
coffee. A light roast will have more sharpness in the taste verses a dark
roast, which will have a smoky & sweet flavor. Practice roasting coffee to
different degrees – this will help determine what roast style is best for
each individual preference.
How do you create a blend?
The unique flavor each bean variety carries with it sometimes can be
combined with others to create a more complex taste. This is also true with
espresso. Many espresso blends will carry three to seven different types of
beans. The art of blending requires knowledge of each bean. Once the
characteristics have been determined for that variety, a roaster may combine
them to create the desired blend of flavors. Debate exists today among
professional coffee roasters whether to roast all the different beans
together or separately.
How long will Green
Coffee Beans
last?
Green
coffee
is much like rice when it comes to its shelf life. In proper conditions,
green coffee beans can last for years. Its only when it becomes roasted
that its shelf life rapidly deteriorates. Store your green coffee beans in
temps between 50 to 85 and making sure it’s not exposed to extreme climate
conditions. A storage container that allows the bean to have some air
circulation is recommended.
What’s next after roasting?
Proper storage of roasted coffee is essential to maintaining it’s freshness
& flavor. This is what separates specialty coffee from what you can buy in
the stores. Fresh roasted coffee is coffee that has been roasted within
the last 3 –7 days. We recommend storing roasted coffee in a clean, dry,
airtight container...preferably glass containers.
Next, enjoy! Nothing is more satisfying than having that great aroma and wonderful taste that great Arabic coffee offers. We tell our customers that once they roast coffee at home they won’t go back to drinking anything else. The difference is so noticeable.
While tasting the coffee, you should try to discern whether the flavor, body, acidity and aroma of the coffee is pleasant, or unpleasant. Here are the criteria that most tasters at the Coffee Shop Diner use to judge coffee: Coffee Shop Diner