Mornin' Joe: Mr Green Beans What's In Your Roaster/Mug?

dlb2 said:
I also find that the nastier the smell of the coffee, the more I like the flavor. Go figure...:p
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You could probably say that about a lot of things. :eek:

It never occured to me to roast your own beans at home. Hmmmm. I'll have to think about that. Thanks for the info and links.
 
Everyone... Roasting our coffee for Sunday. This one is Rwanda Lot 19 (2011 Cup of Excellence Award Winner)
 
joeinid said:
I am a big fan of freshly ground regular Dunkin' Donuts. Not too strong so I can enjoy the taste. Mmmmmmm
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What ruins most coffee isn't how "strong" it is, it is whether or not the coffee is burned into too dark a roast, of course. Not using enough coffee will give you a weak drink that tastes like badly flavored water!

The regular Dunkin' Donuts is a fairly light roast, hence it doesn't taste burned or "too strong" to some taste buds.
 
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Everyone... Roasting our coffee for the next 3 days. This one is Flores Bajawa Ngura (Organic, RFA)
 
GaryProtein said:
What ruins most coffee isn't how "strong" it is, it is whether or not the coffee is burned into too dark a roast, of course. Not using enough coffee will give you a weak drink that tastes like badly flavored water!

The regular Dunkin' Donuts is a fairly light roast, hence it doesn't taste burned or "too strong" to some taste buds.
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Thanks Gary.
 
is anyone here a fan of those single serve coffee machines? Like Keurig? I've always been curious if they are good.
 
Everyone... Roasting our coffee for Sunday. This one is Jamaica Blue Mountain (Clifton Mount Estate, RFA) This will taste so good tomorrow morning!!! :woot:
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Everyone... Roasting our coffee for the next 3 days. This one is Nicaragua Selva Negra Estate (RFA)
 
Everyone... Roasting our coffee for the next 3 days. This one is Ethiopia Harrar (Queen City)
 
Coffee is very complex. During the roast the bean is actually a chemical reactor until it 1st crack when the super-heated steam blows it open. If you put green coffee through a gas chromatigraph you'll see 200 indentifiable compounds and extractives. A roasted bean will have 4X that or about 800. 60% of those are good. 40% are nasty and bitter. When roasted much past 1st crack the flavor shifts from predominately the bean to the roast. This is why "Big Coffee" roasts the crap out of inferior beans and calls it French Roast. They're using low grade beans. Here's a hint : black, shiney beans mean the essential oils have been pulled to the surface where they can begin to oxidize, loose flavor and turn rancid. The first thing I learned is not to confuse strong with bitter. If you do you'll use less coffee, over extract and make it worse. For better coffee use more coffee, 16:1 by weight is the water to coffee ratio to start with. I use a little more coffee at 2.2oz in a standard sized french press. I roast my own coffee because I can drink freshly roasted, single origin coffee, often traced to the farmer for about 1/2 the price of the same coffee roasted from either of my local roasters. I just made my green coffee run to Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders and picked up 5# each:

Brazil Bob-O-Link Yellow Label
Brazil Bob-O-Link Moka Peaberry
Sumatra Blue Java
Guatamala Antgua Los Falicidad

I started home roasting a year and half ago when my daughter gave me a hot air popcorn popper which I modified into the "Franken Popper". https://picasaweb.google.com/teamo65/Coffee?authuser=0&feat=directlink

This January I upgrade to the Behmor 1600 drum roaster and am very pleased with it.

http://www.behmor.com/behmor-1600.php
 
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I order my beans (espresso blends) from counterculturecoffee.com. The source beans from small coffee farms all over the world and roast them on the day that they ship. If I forget to order I usually pick up a 12oz bag of Intelligentsia Black Cat from my local coffee shop. They are not quite as good as counter culture, but vastly superior to everything else I have tried.

Intelligentsia Coffee

My espresso machine is a dual boiler, e61 group, PID temp controlled beauty from Italy named Alex :)
izzo_alex_duetto_2.jpg
For espresso, the grinder might very well be more important than the machine. I use a Baratza Vario:

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The home barista community is almost as crazy as the audio crew!
 
Thanks for the link Jay. That looks like a very cool website to explore. I like your dual boiler machine. I have a Gaggia Classic which is fine for a couple of shots with frothing but any more than that and you need to wait for it to get back up to temp. That can be a pain in the neck if you're doing a couple of doubles.
 
Julian, if I'm not mistaken I believe that the Kirkland brand is roasted by Starbucks. Perhaps only some types though. I have gotten the Kirkland Decaf which comes in a blue foil pkg. and it's really tasty.

I'm intrigued by those pod machines but haven't done much research into them. At first glance it seems if you drink a lot of coffee using one pod each time seems a waste. I'm sure it comes out the same in the end though whether you brew singles or if your brewing a whole pot with a regular coffee machine.

I've gotten back into using my french press. I think the taste is better than a drip machine and I can drink the whole pot without any waste.
 
dlb2 said:
Thanks for the link Jay. That looks like a very cool website to explore. I like your dual boiler machine. I have a Gaggia Classic which is fine for a couple of shots with frothing but any more than that and you need to wait for it to get back up to temp. That can be a pain in the neck if you're doing a couple of doubles.
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I started with a Gaggia Classic / Rancilio Rocky combo, and it worked well for me for a couple of years. What eventually led me to upgrade was exactly what you describe - it struggled to steam 10 oz. of milk after pulling 2 doubles for our (wife and I) everyday lattes. Also, I found that everything had to be perfect to get a great shot out of the gaggia. The faema E61 group on my current machine is very, very forgiving. I get perfect shots almost every time, and never have a throw away - it's so easy to use.
 
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