I misjudged the roasted coffee bean level in my coffee grinder yesterday. I thought I had enough for one more day, today, but actually had enough for about a quarter cup! Why!? Why!? Why!?
After I had my moment of horror, I realized life goes on without coffee. In fact, I should enjoy the next batch all the more for having suffered this terrible deprivation!
Stirred with something like a rotating Archimedes screw turning in the center of the glass cylinder, the beans are subjected to hot air and agitation till they are roasted to perfection! The aroma is heaven!
![[This is what my roaster looks like.]](https://i0.wp.com/phainopepla95.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/coffee-roaster.jpg?resize=154%2C152)
[This is what my roaster looks like.]
Yes, I finished a batch of beans in my little roaster. You can use a hot air popcorn popper, too, but this little roaster I use gives you more control over the roast.
Yum! Done! Let them rest till tomorrow morning, and they will be perfect for grinding.
While I had the roast on, Andy drew my attention to something happening in the other room.
Mischief is afoot. Spelled D-O-U-G-Y!
Andy didn’t point his tail in the direction of the mischief, but I could trace a line from his eyes to…trouble!
Dougy sees me watching, watching. What ‘s up, pussycat? Eh!?
Yes, once again, Dougy had his eye on the tub Andy and I know is ANDY’S TUB! Dougy knows we know he knows we know he knows we know he knows we know he knows…um…yeah! It’s Andy’s tub, folks!
Andy gave Dougy “The Eye”. Dougy left to take Andy’s favorite sleeping spot in the bathroom, by the shower. Dougy will be naughty one way or other! It’s his day!
Dougy just walked by to tell me “Mrow-mrow-mrow!” which is as close to an apology as Andy and I will get from him! Yes, it’s been an eventful day here today. 😉
I totally have the coffee envy…
It’s easy to get into this roast your own business. It wasn’t until the 1930s that you could buy roasted (and ground) coffee at the store. Everyone roasted their own coffee, usually just placing it on a pan in the oven and tending it carefully.
I suppose they used aroma as much as anything to determine when it was done. Anyway, this method produced good coffee, but required a bit of skill.
Amazon (among many others) sells the green beans in many varieties, plus people who live in cities lucky enough to support real coffee stores where you can buy the raw materials and tools to do your own can get what they need even more easily. I remember such stores in Europe when I was stationed in the US Army in Germany, and that was where I became a coffee drinker.
I’d stay away from the hand grinders, though, unless you need an upper body workout. They are excruciatingly slow drudge work when grinding for anything but old fashioned percolators. Like roasters, you can spend a whole lot on something to grind your coffee or a little. Rule of thumb, the less you spend, the more work you’ll probably end up doing.
Electric grinders are good if you want coffee…NOW! Which I do. (Mine is a Krups with controls on fineness of grind and for number of cups of coffee you want to make. I don’t recall what it cost, but it was moderately priced and doers a speedy job!)
It’s lots of fun to roast and grind your own! I recommend it. You can do it at many price levels. If you search the Internet, you can find green beans of many exotic varieties you may have heard of but never tasted. That’s an area fun it explore! Or you can buy basic blends that give a tasty cup but are less adventuresome.
Price doesn’t seem that far out of line compared with regular store blends of ground coffee. I mean, people buy $5 cups of coffee at coffee stores all the time, tip the barista a $1, and don’t even consider the possibility that $6 x 5 days might buy a premium green bean in a 5 pound package that roasted will last weeks!
Very good points! Thanks, I am going to investigate further, because I’d like to do this!
It’s fun exploring different varieties of coffees, trying your own blends, and just enjoying great coffee! You can get into lots of money or just a bit. As soon as you start the exploration, you’ll soon see what I mean!
You might want to check out the numerous books on home coffee bean roasting first. There are several in paperback, some on Kindle even. If you go to amazon.com, you also get reviews by people who’ve read the different books, which I found helpful when I started out and had some doubts about whether I should spend money on such a thing.
It’ll save you some mistakes down the line on such things as equipment you might buy, beans (there are lots of varieties, and it’s nice to know a little about as many as possible; storage of green beans; and other things like how smoke alarms respond to the roasting process – you may set them off, so you need to know how to minimize that with ventilation and knowledge of turning them off when there is no fire! Ha!); and so on.
I drink instant heated in the microwave and my day does not begin til I get my coffee.
>:)
Look at that adorable Dougy. How could she be up to anything with that sweet, innocent face.
Sounds like a day filled with drama in the cat world there.
I hav been watching Ali try to climb the wall to catch the shadow of a bird.
Oh how I love “the eye” … LOL. 🙂
It’s Andy’s biggest weapon since he’s a smaller cat than his brother. (Of course, he’s still scrappy when he has to be!)
Haha! And Dougy has such a mischievous face. Give him a pat for me!
I guarantee, he puts on the charm when he’s being a bad boy, too! Regardless, I’ll give him the pat for you, and we can hope it helps him reform his bad ways!