Anyone Into Coffee?

mep said:
Awesome that we have some people on the forum who are way into coffee. I would love to try roasting beans if I could get a good source for quality beans that you could trust. A friend of mine recently bought one of those starter kits that includes a popcorn roaster and several bags of beans. Something about a popcorn roaster doesn't appeal to me and it's probably based on bad memories.

Years ago before there were Starbucks every 5' on any street, there was only one place I could buy fresh roasted beans and it was a little dive restaurant/coffee house that existed to serve freaky clientele with even freakier servers. They had a popcorn roaster there. I used to cringe every time I went in there to buy some beans because I knew I was going to get weirded out. All of the women that worked there were hired based on how freaky they looked. Shaving your legs or armpits was absolutely not allowed. Your face/ears/head had to look like someone took a nail gun to it on full automatic.

So now when I think about a popcorn roaster, all I can see in my head is one of those freaky women pouring my beans in a bag while I'm seeing this huge bush under their arms.
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Wow Indiana is freakier than I thought! :)

We have this Brazilian restaurant downtown near Union Square where all the female waitresses are 6-4. That should give you a hint. :rolleyes:
 
How about some non-popcorn roaster recommendations?
 
mep said:
Awesome that we have some people on the forum who are way into coffee. I would love to try roasting beans if I could get a good source for quality beans that you could trust. A friend of mine recently bought one of those starter kits that includes a popcorn roaster and several bags of beans. Something about a popcorn roaster doesn't appeal to me and it's probably based on bad memories.

Years ago before there were Starbucks every 5' on any street, there was only one place I could buy fresh roasted beans and it was a little dive restaurant/coffee house that existed to serve freaky clientele with even freakier servers. They had a popcorn roaster there. I used to cringe every time I went in there to buy some beans because I knew I was going to get weirded out. All of the women that worked there were hired based on how freaky they looked. Shaving your legs or armpits was absolutely not allowed. Your face/ears/head had to look like someone took a nail gun to it on full automatic.

So now when I think about a popcorn roaster, all I can see in my head is one of those freaky women pouring my beans in a bag while I'm seeing this huge bush under their arms.
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Damn man, I'm eating my breakfast with a nice cup of Kona. Hairy armpits :trouble:
 
CPP said:
Damn man, I'm eating my breakfast with a nice cup of Kona. Hairy armpits :trouble:
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I know. I always wondered who/what would want to crawl into bed with them.
 
MikeCh said:
(tastes COMPLETELY different than Starbucks coffee purchased at a Starbucks = It's actually very good & not bitter but smooth brewed this way)
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Starbucks have a tendency of over roasting their beans. The process of roasting bring out various compounds, some of which are sugar compound, if you roast it right the sugars and other flavour will come out, if you roast too dark you kill those flavours. Dark oily coffee is normally the result of over roasting, and in some other case the addition of oils to make believe you have a dark roast. In any event you should refrain from having excessively oily beans.
 
RedSectorA said:
Starbucks have a tendency of over roasting their beans. The process of roasting bring out various compounds, some of which are sugar compound, if you roast it right the sugars and other flavour will come out, if you roast too dark you kill those flavours. Dark oily coffee is normally the result of over roasting, and in some other case the addition of oils to make believe you have a dark roast. In any event you should refrain from having excessively oily beans.
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I also thought part of it was that Starbuck's uses an acidic process too.
 
RedSectorA said:
Starbucks have a tendency of over roasting their beans. The process of roasting bring out various compounds, some of which are sugar compound, if you roast it right the sugars and other flavour will come out, if you roast too dark you kill those flavours. Dark oily coffee is normally the result of over roasting, and in some other case the addition of oils to make believe you have a dark roast. In any event you should refrain from having excessively oily beans.
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So what roaster do you recommend? Is it really worth the trouble and can you do it better at home than what you can get from professional roasters who have quality beans?
 
mep said:
How about some non-popcorn roaster recommendations?
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As a starter machine I would have recommended an I Roast II, but it's now discontinued. The FreshRoast roasts 90g of coffee and seems to be doing good job of it. It's basically a popcorn maker on steroid ;) . I never used it though.

If you want to buy a machine and never look back you can purchase a HotTop, that's what I'm using. Fairly easy to operate and does a consistent job once you understand the process. It's a drum operated roasted the likes of commercial roasters. Parts are easily available if it breaks and you can find instructions on the net on how to operate and repair.

As for a place to buy these machines and green coffee I would recommend Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting if you are in the States and Greenbenaery if you are in Canada. Sweet Marias have a pretty good website with instructions on how to roast, pitfalls.

Roast outside, it's pretty amazing the amount of smoke these machines can do. About 15 years ago I started roasting with a popcorn maker, I was roasting under the kitchen hood to reduce the amount of smoke to a minimum. By spring I needed to paint the whole kitchen as there was a film of coffee oil on the walls.
 
mep said:
So what roaster do you recommend? Is it really worth the trouble and can you do it better at home than what you can get from professional roasters who have quality beans?
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If you can find a local roaster where you can have fresh beans on a weekly basis by all means start with that. If not roasting on your own is the way to go, that's how I got into that. Once you sample fresh beans perfectly roasted it will be hard to go back.
 
We have some local roasters, but I haven't had any coffee from them yet that got me excited.
 
GaryProtein said:
It's funny you should mention this one. We have this in the apartment and like it but a year after Gail got it, she wanted me to get another one for the house. I wouldn't take the Bloomfield out of the kitchen, so the other Technivorm Mocamaster is new in the box in the basement. I can't help thinking she wanted me to buy it purely so she could cannibalize it for parts should that become necessary.
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Love my Technivorm too....Only use it when lots of friends are in the house... I'm a cup at a time brewer for the obvious benefits.
 
RedSectorA said:
Sweet Maria's is the way to go then!
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Mep,

+3 I've had nothing but great experiences with Sweet Maria's... Chazzano here in SE MI is my local source.... Get a decent budget grinder, Barratza Virtuoso for example and find the best local bean sources like others have suggested. A good drum roaster if you can afford it, good advice, some good green beans... and enjoy great affordable coffee.... You'll never drink Star*ucks again :roflmao:
Tom
 
hoosiertom said:
If you're in the bay area SM has 1 lb. Kenyan and Nicaraguan roasted beans to help see what appeals to your taste and budget.... or your BEST local roaster.. Find what you like first and then small steps in the jourhey and your BUDGET.

Some roasters: From Sweet Maria's: Behnoor Gene Cafe HotTop and from Coffe Shrub Quest M3 I want a Quest M3, but my budget says otherwise... Read their reviews and go to their blog site for more opinions, reviews and sharing

Coffe Mills: Barratza Virtuoso or Rocky Rancillo

Brewers : Drip, French Press, Chemex, Siphon.....

Take your time and hopefully you can avoid information overload... Remember there is no substitute for a learning curve.... It's a process ...

BTW, there's a great link from an Australian roaster about roasting Ethiopian beans...

Tom
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thanks for the brief treatise. i've already been researching the Quest M3, the buzz on it looks positive.
 
In my machine, the La Pavoni Professional, which is the tubes & vinyl under the coffee machines the Lavazza black works best. I have never tastes better coffee than at home. :P

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Glareskin said:
In my machine, the La Pavoni Professional, which is the tubes & vinyl under the coffee machines the Lavazza black works best. I have never tastes better coffee than at home. :P

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Need steady hand pressure with those machine, I use an Astoria which I tweaked so my pump does the heavy lifting ;) .

I think you need to try good fresh coffee though Glareskin, you won't know what your machine can do until then.
 
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