Coffee roasting

About a week ago I ordered a popcorn maker on ebay. Even with postage it was slightly cheaper than if I had it bought at BigW or a similar place, and it was conveniently delivered to my doorstep on Thursday.

I had already purchased some green beans from BeanBay some time before, so all that was left to do was to cut an old tin to shape and do the first roast. I roasted 100 grams of Sulawesi Rante Kapua Torajah green beans for about seven and half to eight minutes. I could clearly hear the first and second cracking of the beans. The resulting roast was quite dark, almost black and had a slightly smoky smell. I let it rest on the balcony until this morning, when I tried the first cup.

Coffee roasting 16/10/10

The taste resembled the smell of the beans: A bit smoky, quite strong. The beans still looked a but oily and produced a good crema. I didn’t even have to adjust the settings of my grinder. And although the coffee was as drinkable as in certain coffee places on campus, and even tastes quite similar, I am afraid that I over-roasted the beans.

So this morning I gave it another go and took another 100 grams of the Sulawesi Rante Kapua Torajah green beans and did an exact timing of the roasting process using the stop watch in my mobile phone. After six minutes 15 seconds the second cracking was completely gone and I stopped the roast. The beans look much lighter now, and actually resemble the looks of my current favorite coffee blend (Rosetta blend from Grinder’s in Melbourne). You can see that in the attached pictures for yourself. Now I am looking forward to taste the outcome of this second experiment tomorrow. As much as I would like to taste the beans today, I read that to develop their full flavor, one should let the beans sit and breathe for at least a day before grinding and brewing the first cup of coffee.