Although my home brewing still stands some time away due to the price of equipment, I am all too happy to begin my adventures in home coffee roasting. Home coffee roasting, as it turns out, allows one to save 25% – 50% on coffee, to roast one’s beans exactly as one likes and to stockpile a “coffee cellar” from which one can formulate one’s own coffee blends or enjoy the distinct flavors of varietal coffees on a stand-alone basis.
As it happens, all one needs for this is a stovetop or electric popcorn popper (or even just an oven or a skillet or wok), some green coffee beans and a grinder. A book is also helpful; the one I have is titled, oddly enough, Home Coffee Roasting. Useful information abounded at CoffeeGeek.com and at SweetMarias.com, the latter being a vendor of many interesting coffees and coffee accoutrements in addition to offering a number of extremely helpful charts and guides for the aspiring home roaster and coffee geek. Green coffee is available through a local source, as well – AbsoluteCoffees.com, which seems to be based in Joliet (I have not been able to confirm this yet).
I was fortunate enough to be able to find beans from a finca (estate) in Boquéte, in the northwestern region of Panamá. Alas, I’ll have no maracuya (a purple passionfruit) ice cream to go with my coffee but homemade flán will suffice!
