YUMTASTIC!

I have been less than thrilled with the roasting efforts of my cute little red popper (6-10minute roasts) So, after a quick trip to the local thrift store, and spending seven dollars...ta da!

the very 80's Popper Pumper! This little machine evenly roasted 3/4 cup of green beans in 4 min 30 sec!  It did smoke like a soggy campfire, but hey it worked! because the very next day.....ta da!

I made my first cup of coffee that actually tasted good from my own roasted beans! (i am keeping the cute popper to make yummy popcorn with!).  I'm out of green beans now, so time to decide where to get the next batch!

Ascared to burn the beans

That's right, I was ascared to burn the beans.
These weren't just any beans though. These were Panama Esmeralada Gesha coffee beans, 28.35 a pound for raw beans and only one pound per order from Sweet Maria's.

So I hesitated to try out my newly modified Air Crazy with my super expensive Gesha beans.

My modification, by the way, involved:

1. Opening up the Air Crazy popcorn popper
2. Locating the overheat sensor about half way up the metal chimney
3. Pulling off the clip on wires leads
4. Stripping the wires
5. Twisting the two wire ends together
6. Taping the twisted wires with heat proof electrical tape

I figured that the overheat sensor broke the circuit when a certain temperature was reached and some testing after the unit was reassembled proved this to be the case.

Anyway, I ordered some more reasonably priced coffee from Sweet Maria's and just got the package yesterday:

Inside was a 2 lbs bag of Panama Organic Duncan Estate

And 1 lb of Guatemala Acatenango Gesha (another very pricey cultivar)

Now, to the roast!
The Air Crazy without the overheating turn off sensor worked great! In about 4 minutes I had a darker roast than I got in 10 minutes previously:

My four minute plus roast is on the left an earlier (unmodified) six minute roast is on the right.
Here is a closer look at the new roast:

I usually wait close to twenty four hours before brewing coffee from my home roast but these beans are so cute I don't think I can wait - here comes the Aero Press!

COFFEE GOOD.

So I admit to putting Jer on the coffee roasting path to keep him busy and out of trouble.  If he ends up burning the house down I apologize in advance to his lovely wife...just as long as he don't burn the beans!

Of course, I couldn't let him have all the fun so I stopped at Utica Coffee Roasting Company on my way home last weekend and got me some green beans! 

They were super cool there. I got the Brazil green beans and some of their Brazil light roasted so that i could match it.  They were very encouraging and gave me great tips plus I got an awesome cup of Ethiopian to keep me awake for the remaining 4hrs of my drive!  Check them out if you're cruising through NYS!

The verdict is still out on my choice of roasting mechanisms.  But it looks cute and makes good popcorn when it's not roasting my morning joe!

I've made a couple batches and the last one even turned out pretty decent.  Here's my first two batches (top two), the pile in the middle is the Utica Coffee Roasters beans (pre-roasted) that i'm trying to match. As you can see, not so much with the matching. sad me.

Jer and I are both having fun and we both know how to buy really good coffee when we can't quite roast it right ourselves!  We're gonna keep on trying it until we do and if you want to read about how it's going just check back here!  (btw...doing this blog thing is harder than roasting your own coffee!) ~b

In the beginning, there was coffee.

My friend Becky sent me a link to Sweet Maria's and the world of home roasted coffee opened before me. Next, I get two pounds of green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's and an Air Crazy popcorn popper from Marshals and I'm in business.

My Air Crazy Popcorn Popper. 

My beans are way too blond! This is a six minute roast.

Much better. These were roasted for ten minutes! I think it is time for a slight electrical modification of my roaster/popper.

And a close up.






























Sooo, did I mention how awsome Sweet Maria's is? One thing I love about this site is their honesty - they sell products (roasters for example) but they don't hesitate to tell you the pros and cons. They also have a great selection of raw beans and close relationships with small farmers. They call it " Farm Gate coffee, where we can be assured of exactly what the farmer received. And in these cases they yield 40%-100%+ more than Fair Trade prices."