back home: the coffee


When we arrive back home from a few days away usually we are out of coffee beans and need to get a roast on fairly quickly. That is, Gunt needs to get a roast on fairly quickly. I've managed to leave the roastery in his court, or more precisely on his job list.
Gunt has been roasting our coffee for about 6 years now originally inspired by a dear friend of ours.
Each year we buy a 60kg sack of fair trade, organic coffee, usually from East Timor so that the air miles are as few as possible and we share this with our wee community of converted coffee roasters. This makes our daily habit affordable ( green beans are generally a quater of the price of roasted beans) and allows us to be involved in more of the coffee's journey to our cup.

So how do we do it?

Roasting equipment is a popcorn maker, often picked up cheaply off Trade Me.
Optional is the tin can on the top used to adjust the heat emition.
Essential in our house is the accompanying ukulele.

Put 3/4 cup of beans into the popcorn maker.
Different brands have varying capacities. You need to allow the beans to move around so as to roast the whole quantity.
Turn the popcorn maker on and let it run until the chaff has come off.
At this point Gunt puts on his personally designed tin can to retain more heat around the beans.
It has an adjustable opening to allow some of the air out.
Don't be put off by this quirky gadget. A lot of people don't bother with it.
From there you wait for the beans to "crack" twice.
This "cracking" is fairly obvious.
Then you need to cool them down quickly.
Gunt pours them into our cast iron frying pan and swishes them around a bit.
Done.
There is loads of extra information on the internet. Have a look and give it a go.
You'll never go back.

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