Many years ago I was trained as a barista at an upscale vegetarian restaurant in Victoria which allowed my life long infatuation with one of God's kindest gifts to mankind to fully blossom into a gourmet obsession. Of course, at that time I was unmarried, I didn't have any children, and I actually had disposable income that I spent quite freely on ridiculously overpriced coffee beans, sushi, and CD's. Since then my coffee spending habits have REALLY changed but I think I have finally stumbled on my ultimate economic caffienation solution. Roast your own beans!
Now I have been reading online for years about people who have roasted their own coffee in a hot air popcorn popper and I haven't bothered because I thought it would be too much work. Finally one day I went down to my local independent microroaster cafe where my awesome friend Brandy works and I bought a kilo (that's 2.2 lbs for all my American friends) of high quality, organic green beans for not all that much $$$. (Really great coffee is way cheaper if you buy it green...) I came home, checked out www.coffeegeek.com to find some roasting tips, and dug out my popcorn popper. I poured some beans it, cranked it up, and waited, and waited, and waited... Apparently, my old popper just doesn't have the cojones to get hot enough to roast coffee. So I whipped out my trusty cast iron skillet, fired up my gas stove, grabbed a wooden spoon and got down with the roastin'! Below you will find a video of my first experiments.
Since then I have tweaked my process just a little. I now roast 3 cups at a time and when all the beans get to a light roast and take about 1/4 cup out. Then when they get to a medium roast I take another 1/4 cup out. I take the remaining beans to a standard dark roast and then take almost all the beans out of the pan leaving about a 1/4 cup to go to a very dark espresso roast. Then your final roast is a beautiful, multi-nuanced roast sensation. Let it cool off overnight and when you get up in the morning prepare yourself for the best cup of coffee you have ever had. Oh yes, you are that cool. Feel free to dig out your black beret, your anarchist poetry journal, and practice phrases like "delicious mouthfeel" and "complex acidity" and "Oh yeah? Well your mom drinks instant!"
