Roasting Coffee

[scrambled_eggs]

I've read on here that some of you buy your coffee beans green and then roast them for the guest after they pick what they would like. It seems like this could be a great touch to a bed and breakfast. Where do you buy your green coffee beans? I buy already roasted beans for about 7 dollars a pound. Would it be cheeper to buy them green? What kind of equipment would be needed to roast the beans and how long does it take? Does roasting the beans stink up the house? I lived near a coffee roasting business once and it always smelled terrible when they were roasting. I look forward to your input on this.

 

[JBloggs]

coffeebeandirect.com it is less for green beans. it does stink up the house, esp for a darker roast which takes longer to roast. If you have coffee haters it would be an issue, but most people love the smell of coffee roasting.

 

[EmptyNest]

Personally, I would leave the coffee roasting to the pros. How do you know when you get it right or not? I am not a fan of the smell of roasting coffee. I would rather just buy it from the roaster if you have one locally.

 

[SecondAct]

Can you guys tell me, if you buy the already roasted beans and grind them just before you use them, is that a very close second to actually roasting the green coffee beans? I mean, I don't think I've ever smelled coffee beans actually roasting, so I don't know if I would like the smell or not, but I'm a coffee drinker and do love the smell of freshly ground and brewed coffee. So, my question is, how much better of an experience would I hope for if I took it to the next level of actually roasting the beans????

 

[EmptyNest]

Can you guys tell me, if you buy the already roasted beans and grind them just before you use them, is that a very close second to actually roasting the green coffee beans? I mean, I don't think I've ever smelled coffee beans actually roasting, so I don't know if I would like the smell or not, but I'm a coffee drinker and do love the smell of freshly ground and brewed coffee. So, my question is, how much better of an experience would I hope for if I took it to the next level of actually roasting the beans????.

We always bought the beans and my husband who is the coffee man...grinds and brews. Who has time to roast beans at breakfast, then grind and brew??? We have a compnay in town that roasts beans...and its aroma saturates the town from time to time and for me...it is not a pleasant aroma.
Check out this page on home roasting. as this source says, "Warm, fresh roasted beans are wonderful, but the coffee attains its peak 4 to 24 hours after roasting. If you store it as recommended, we'll call it fresh for 6 days. When you open that jar in the morning, you will know what fresh coffee truly is"
So, according to this...it really should be done in advance and not when you are ready to serve guests a cup.

 

[SecondAct]

Can you guys tell me, if you buy the already roasted beans and grind them just before you use them, is that a very close second to actually roasting the green coffee beans? I mean, I don't think I've ever smelled coffee beans actually roasting, so I don't know if I would like the smell or not, but I'm a coffee drinker and do love the smell of freshly ground and brewed coffee. So, my question is, how much better of an experience would I hope for if I took it to the next level of actually roasting the beans????.

We always bought the beans and my husband who is the coffee man...grinds and brews. Who has time to roast beans at breakfast, then grind and brew??? We have a compnay in town that roasts beans...and its aroma saturates the town from time to time and for me...it is not a pleasant aroma.
Check out this page on home roasting. as this source says, "Warm, fresh roasted beans are wonderful, but the coffee attains its peak 4 to 24 hours after roasting. If you store it as recommended, we'll call it fresh for 6 days. When you open that jar in the morning, you will know what fresh coffee truly is"
So, according to this...it really should be done in advance and not when you are ready to serve guests a cup.
.

Looks a bit like too much extra effort for not much payback. You have to be able to shake the pan while keeping it covered and make sure that you're not over roasting or unevenly roasting. I think I'll stick to the freshly ground and brewed.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

DH roasts our beans. He gets the green beans from a supplier on ebay. K. at Gillum House has a huge variety the guests can choose from, but we only have our "house blend".
You do not want to roast in the house! The smell is very potent and not appreciated by a lot of people. It does not smell like brewing coffee. Also, you need a good roaster (don't do it yourself in a pan) and after a couple of years we burnt one out and bought a larger $500 roaster. Our roasting is done in the garage and you can smell it all over our property, but not in the inn.
My suggestion is only do your own roasting if you have an interest in it and not because you think it will bring you more business.

 

[gillumhouse]

Try again - I swear I am going to copy before hitting save! My system has been acting like DH - Huh? It takes on the second hit. Retype!
OK, back to the question. The aroma from mY roaster is a bit like slightly burnt toast - DH likes the aroma. You can roast in the oven or in a popcorn popper, but I am told they smoke. My roaster is a home roaster actually made in WisCONsin and does not smoke (catalytic converter) - http://www.burmancoffee.com/equipment/NescoPro.html. I have been using it for almost 2 years now. It has a timer (and recall for how long last roast) and if you set it for 25 min it roasts for 20 and does cool-down for the last 5 min of a cycle. I usually roast decafe for 20 min because I think they do a roasting process to make it decafe (the beans are a brown color already). I currently have 18 varieties of reg and 5 of decafe. The beans need to be kept air-tight after roasting - I use pint mason jars with canning ring and lids (it does a good job - you over the jar and get that pop sound with the fresh smell of coffee when opening!). About 5 oz of green beans will give you about 4 oz roasted - enough for 2 10-12 cup pots of coffee.
Coffee info: http://www.1st-line.com/coffee/greenbns/whlesale.htm
http://www.cw-usa.com/roasted-fresh-guide.html
http://www.burmancoffee.com/greenbeans/green-coffee-beans.html
Sources:
I use - http://www.uroastem.com/coffee-beans.html
Deliver in a couple days. If you order from them, I would appreciate the saying you found them through me - I will get a couple bucks off my next order. I usually buy 5 lbs at a time of whatever variety. Decafe 1 or 2 lbs at a time because I have less call for it. Orders over $75 (easy to do) get 15% off which is about what shipping costs.
http://www.1st-line.com/coffee/greenbns/retail.htm
http://www.burmancoffee.com/coffeelist/
Beans can cost as little as $3.50 per or as much as $26.99 per for the Jamacain Blue Mountain (Hawaii Kona is in that range but Kona Blend when available is aroung $10 per).

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

We serve only one blend that is 50% French & 50% Italian Roast. Same blend for decaf.
Full bodied, yet smooth with no bitterness and a slight hint of chocolate.
We buy whole beans from a certified 100% organic, shade grown source who has about 15 blends to choose from but we like the one we serve so that is what we offer.
Its roughly $6.50 per pound and is not roasted until the order day. We grind daily and use it up as we go, track our bookings closely to never run out, store it as suggested by the supplier and unless someone is a professional coffee taster, it'd be hard to suggest we aren't serving a top quality product for the average room rate we charge.
We have been buying it from this source for over 10 years, even before we opened our B&B and have never had a single missed order, shipping glitch, bad batch, etc...
Extremely nice, highly ethical people who are doing a very good job of insuring that the ground level farmer earns about four times per pound more than one who grows for one of the big conventional corporations.
This enables the small grower to resist cutting down more and more rain forest and wildlife habitat in the quest to make up for the far lower commodity price the big guys pay.

 

[Penelope]

Yellowsocks should chime in on here about this roasting. They, and by "they" I mean "her hubby", do a wonderful roast. A true coffee drinker can tell the difference between home-roasted that morning and factory-roasted long ago. I would encourage you to research this more to see if it's something you can incorporate it into your routine

 

[Renee V]

I have an espresso machine, and I have tried using all types of coffee, but I find that if I buy fresh roasted coffee (within a day or two of roasting) and then freeze the beans, they keep their full flavor and pull shots of espresso better than anything. Freezing the beans keeps their natural oils from evaporating, and grinding them right before brewing releases them and makes the best tasting coffee

 

[user 26]

for me, just grinding the already roasted beans inn house provides enough of a really fresh taste ..., and coffee aroma.