Learning | Coffee

Sunday we went to a coffee roasting demo. We sat through some introductory slides before getting hands on. That was amazing. I knew roasting wasn’t super hard but I didn’t realize exactly how easy it is.
There were three machines. A Behmor roaster, a Huky drum roaster, and a Sonofresco air roaster.

The Behmor was the most interesting to me because it is affordable. It is simple to use and seems easy to clean. Also it is compact. It could easily fit on a kitchen island or in garage. It does put off some smoke but not that much. I imagine if you had the kitchen window open or a vent fan going you’d be fine. In the garage just open the door or a window.

We brought home some South American blend City Roast + beans done in the Behmor. And some Mexican Full City Roast +/Vienna on the air roaster. The City Roast + should be ready to drink this evening. The Full City roast we could try on the day.

The presenter brewed some and we got to try it. Oddly he only had flavored creamer to add in. I was hoping for something that wouldn’t alter the flavor profile.

Anyway, the coffee is amazing. I had no idea what a difference fresh roasted coffee makes. It tastes really great. It was even better with the lingering smells of roasting in the air.

So now I’m running the numbers and seeing how much I’d save by buying a roaster. It’s $370 for a Behmor. That is a little more than I spend on coffee each year. Then it’s about $60 for a 5 month supply of green beans. That really depends on which beans you choose. The presenter said the beans will be good for about 6 months. So I’d buy 10lb bags. I could easily pay less if I got a 20lb or larger bag. I see a 20 lb bag of Mexican beans for $89. Wow!

The Behmor only does 1lb at a time with an output of .75lbs. It also can take upwards 20 min to roast for a Full City+. So not the fastest if I was making some for other people. If I got a 20lb bag I’d need a little help going through it in a reasonable amount of time.

The large air roaster took a lot less time and took 3lbs of green beans. It was also super simple. Just dial in the darkness of the roast and turn it on. It magically shuts off when it needs to. It comes with a giant price tag. It’s 3-5k to get one. I’d need to start a coffee business and sell beans like the presenter has done. I’ll stick to a less expensive one.

I make french press coffee at work. At home I use a scale and measure out the coffee and hot water. For work I grind and measure the beans. The water I just eyeball it. It occurred to me I have a liquid measuring cup at my desk. I could be more precise. I still don’t have anything at work to measure out the sugar.

This morning I put 7 oz of water on my .5 oz of coffee. I need to tweak it a bit more. I don’t have a fancy scale at home so I’m not sure if the fluid ounces it measures match the measuring cup. I usually do .75 oz of coffee to 13 oz of water on the weekends. Enough to fill a 12 oz mug.

The other thing that makes it enticing is we do a craft fair at work every Christmas. I could easily make up some half pound bags and sell them. Even if I only sold 10 or 15 it would help pay off the roaster. There’s a cost to buy bags but Amazon will sell me 25 8 oz bags for $17. That would be more than enough I assume.