Coffee Roasting How-To

Tuesday November 21, 11:56 am ET
By The Associated Press
How to Roast Your Own Coffee Beans

Roasting green coffee beans is no more complicated than making popcorn, and it takes roughly the same amount of time.

Most beans -- which are actually seeds taken from the berries of coffee plants -- cost less than $5 a pound.

After exposure to high heat for just a couple of minutes, green coffee beans turn yellow and give off a grassy bouquet. A few of minutes after that, they begin to expand, turn light brown and an aroma similar to toasted bread fills the air.

Once the beans begin to crackle -- a stage in the process referred to as "first crack" -- personal preference will dictate when they are "done."

A few minutes later a more subtle "second crack" begins. Beans roasted much beyond this point will be quite dark, if not burned.

Keeping beans in motion is critical to achieving an even roast. Home-roasting appliances do this automatically; the stovetop technique requires constant stirring.

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Coffee snobs move on to homemade roasts

By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer

ARLINGTON, Va. - America's most finicky coffee drinkers tout their caffeine connoisseurship in many, often contradictory, ways. They spend a bundle at Starbucks, or refuse to patronize big chains. They only drink espresso, or decline any cup of joe they didn't brew themselves.
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Then there are people like Chris Becker of Arlington, whose coffee worship involves a ritual that places him at the outer edge of the country's java culture.

Becker roasts coffee beans at home.

"Even my less-than-good batches are fresher than any (beans) I'd buy in a store," said Becker, a 30-year-old government employee who uses a gas grill to transform flavorless green coffee beans into savory dark-brown kernels that he then grinds and brews within a few days, if not hours.

It doesn't require a lot of time, money or equipment to roast coffee beans at home — less than 10 minutes in an air popcorn popper does the trick — but enthusiasts devote plenty of each to the craft.

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