My first roasting experience

I love coffee just like any other people especially in the Northwest United States where I live. I've been drinking coffee for more than 30 years and trying out different coffees, but I had never roasted my own coffee before.

That is about to change today as I just roasted my coffee for the first time today!  And the coffee I dreamed for a very long time to roast my own, tastes like burned cardboard.  I found a reason for it later, but let me go back in time for about couple of weeks when I started to read online about different roasters to decide which roaster to buy.

Deciding on Roasting Equipment

By reading for the first time about roasting coffee, I find out that there are variety of roasters available out there. The cheap end can be as simple as a popcorn maker and the high end is what commercial roasteries use.

So what is my options?

Some people say that we should start with simple skillet to get the feel; but I kind of wanted something easier too in the beginning. 

I did not want pop-corn maker or skillet, or too low end of the spectrum.  So if I take the low end out from the list of roasters, basically I am left with two options:  Air Roasting or Drum Roasting.  People claim that drum roasting can bring the better aroma etc etc, but also the price of those ranges higher than the air roasters.  Air roasters sale online on Amazon for about $100 - $300, the drums mostly go above $1000.  So I thought of starting with air roasting first now.  I thought once I start with basic/easy ones, then when I upgrade to more high end in the future, I should be able to tell the difference.

So I limited my search to only air roasters.  I read reviews of different roasters, and I decided to buy
Nesco CR-1010-PRR Coffee Bean Roaster, 800-watt.  In summary this one is one of the best made air roasters in terms of air roasting, and have very good elimination of smoke, so many home roasters use this.  This is also easier to clean; I should be able to rinse by water and dry. With Shipping and Tax etc I paid $150 for this roaster on Amazon.
 

NESCO Professional Roaster arrives!

Un-boxed. Looks pretty cool.  I think it goes well with my other kitchen appliances.

Buying Green Coffee

I have not spent too much time on this yet, but I thought I should start from somewhere, I decided to start online on Amazon. On Amazon, I find out that Costa Rica Dota Estate, Green Unroasted Coffee Beans (1 LB Nectar) has the highest number of positive reviews.   With shipping included, it costs $17.19 for 1 lbs bag.  So I bought it.  Their shipping was very fast.  I order often online on Amazon, and you know there is that gap between you buy something and you receive the notification of the item got shipped? I received the notification on the same day I ordered.

COSTA RICA DOTA ESTATE has the highest review on Amazon

I actually do not understand the economics of Green Bean costing more than roasted bean sold at coffee shops and grocery shops.  Coffee is usually between $5 - $15 per pound, but this green bean and many others I see online are more expensive than $15 per pound.  Someone didn't need to roast these so I would think green bean would cost less, but that is not the case here.    Maybe I will find out more about them as I buy different green bean. Let's see.

My First Roasting Experience

So I got coffee roaster and green bean.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, this morning I roasted my first coffee and it tasted like burned wood! So here is what happened today.

I rinsed off all the parts last night with water and let it dry.  Roasting is pretty easy with NESCO. I put the green bean in the glass part put the metal couple of pieces on the top of glass: one for catching the chaff (dried skin on coffee bean which comes out during roasting) and one filter. I close the lid and put 25 as 25 minutes for roasting, click Start.

By reading online, I find out that less bean you put, darker the roast will be, and longer the time to roast, darker it becomes there too.  If I think about it now, it makes sense.  I don't really like dark roasted coffee, so I put the bean up until "Full" line and 25 minutes was suggested number for beginner that I read online.   "25" means 20 minutes of roasting, 5 minutes of cooling.

There is a huge sign all over saying never leave the coffee roaster roasting and unattended.  OK, that makes me nervous so I was sticking around the roaster for this 25 minutes. I got bored so I took videos:

This is the regular cycle:

This is the cooling cycle to the last minute.  You notice that cooling cycle speed is faster than the roasting one above.

While roasting, I notice that coffee chaff fly all over inside the glass piece, and little bit of chaff come out of the roaster even the lid is closed.  I thought it is bit annoying as chaff is so light and hard to clean up. I had the roaster at the edge of the counter, next time I will have it in the middle so that the chaff will fall on the counter and not on the floor. 
  
I was expecting that aroma of coffee while roasting, but the actual smell was... not aroma of coffee, it smelled like bread baking.  I didn't expect that either, and so my question is... when do I get to smell that amazing aroma?  I start to wonder if I am doing something wrong.

Cooling starts at 20th minutes.  The rotation of the coffee is faster and noisier during this period and more of those annoying chaff come out.

Done!  The moment of the truth....... I open the lid and carefully try to smell it.   It does not smell like coffee at all, it smells like... burned wood. Sigh.

OK, maybe if I grind it, it will smell better. No...
Maybe I make coffee and it will smell better.

My first pot of coffee... complete failure.  It is one of the worst coffee I ever tasted, I mean it doesn't even taste like coffee.It tastes like cardboard and doesn't smell like coffee...  What did I do wrong?

 

Right out of roaster...

With all the disappointment, I had to leave and I come back.  As I walk into the house, I finally did smell it.  Yes! The whole house smelled that gorgeous aroma of coffee. I was confused because I know what it smelled like when I left the house, it smelled like burned cardboard.  Now I go into the kitchen and smell the coffee. Oh my goodness!  I immediately grind it and make a cup of coffee.... Yes! Success!

I read online now that it takes about 12 - 24 hours for the aroma to appear. My thought of "fresher after roasting the better" was wrong idea to begin with. I read online that some type of coffee does taste better right after roasting, so it seems that it depends also on different coffee which make me excited to try out different coffee.

Here is a quote from Roast Magazine (March/April 2015 edition page 34) which explain the chemical process of roasting: "Prior to roasting, all green coffee has an abundance of amino acids and carbohydrates.  The roasting process starts to convert and break down these components, eliminating some and creating new ones.  In the green state, coffee has the highest amount of soluble material.  As heat is applied, the amount of soluble material decreases until complete pyrolysis occurs."

Well, I will find out more as I try more roasting.  I cannot wait!