I love coffee. The smell of it, the taste of it, the caffeine buzz you get from it. But, I'll only drink it under certain conditions.
You see, I am a home coffee roaster. Around 12 years ago or so, I started down the road to roasting my own coffee and have never looked back. Much longer ago, I had been a slave to caffeine. I drank coffee swill just for the buzz of it. Earlier than that, in my teens and early twenties, I was a strict tea drinker. It was more of a social thing back then, to enjoy a warm beverage [that wasn't a hot chocolate that only children drink].
For most of my 41 years of life, I could not stand the taste of coffee. As a child, I had fond memories of going to the A&P grocery store with my mom, since I was old enough to help her grind whole coffee beans in the store grinder. It was beyond me at the time why something could smell so good when it's ground up, but taste so terrible afterwards.
Around 16 years ago, I started drinking coffee at work. Again, there was a social component to it, since I was feeling like a martyr for being the only tea drinker in our work group. There was the wake-up jolt I obtained from it; the benefits from feeling more alert were undeniable. However, the taste was, to be kind, less than perfect. I had to drown the taste with lots of creak/milk and sugar. For a while, I belonged to the Gevalia club, and thought that their coffee was pretty good. The small, vacuum sealed packages, with CO2 valves, seemed to brew up some delicious coffee for the first few days after you opened it. After that time, the taste of it declined sharply and quickly, and I usually had to throw the package contents out before it was empty.
On a fall weekend trip to the northern part of the lower Michigan peninsula, I stumbled across a small downtown coffee shop in Harbor Springs. The enticing aroma coming from the store drew me in, and I had to stop for a coffee. After enjoying the beverage, I stopped to chat with the owner before I left. I asked about the strong aroma, and he explained that they not only brewed coffee, but they also roasted it on the premises. Since business was slow that mid afternoon, he gave me a quick tour of his place and showed me his coffee roaster and some green coffee beans. I thanked him for his time, and left with a new insight into this beverage that had all but addicted me.
A few days later, in my spare time I made use of some Internet search engines (sorry I can't say I Googled it because I'm pretty sure this was before Google came along]. I spent a few hours researching it, and came across a mailing list that discussed the subject, as well as a few websites where you could order green coffee beans. I thought I'd give it a try, and ordered 3 pounds [a mix between 3 different beans] and waited for them to arrive. A week and a half later, they were here. I tried one suggest, which was to lay some of the beans out on a cookie sheet in the oven, after preheating it to 400F, then using a spoon to mix them up a little a few minutes at a time. The results were disastrous. The beans were very undercooked and uneven. I thought I'd try another approach which someone suggested they used. I went to the local Sears store and purchased a hot air popcorn popper. The suggestion was to use around 1/4 a cup of beans, after heating the popper up for a few minutes. I already had the other prerequisites (a wooden spoon, oven mitts and a metal colender), so I gave it a try. After 3 to 4 minutes, I heard a sound; it was a cracking sound. It was louder than regular popcorn, and gained momentum much like popcorn too, in terms of frequency. There was a latent time afterwards, when the beans stopped making any sounds, so I thought I'd unplug the popper. The end result seemed to look like coffee. I had to give it around an hour to cool off, before I tried grinding it and brewing up a pot. The results were Nirvana-like! I couldn't believe the taste!! Clearly, the freshness of a roasted coffee has a big impact on the overall taste.
Since that time, I've experimented a little with the techniques and a lot with the varieties of coffee beans all over the world. In upcoming blogs, I'll talk a little about roasting tips and blends.
Here are some great websites to help you get started:
http://www.sweetmarias.com
http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com
