Roasting Green Coffee Beans - First Try
Hello all! We at DelightfulCoffee.com want to thank you for your readership, and announce that here at DelightfulCoffee.com headquarters we have just concluded our first test batches roasting green coffee beans!
For the sake of clarity...
Mind you, we have roasted beans before, or more specifically my partner BK has, and it went well as I understand it, but me myself? Never have I personally roasted coffee beans. I've always wanted to try it, and I did not want a huge expenditure, so I've held off for far too many years. So I thought I'd update you all on this experience.
Why the wait?
Well, I have been trading my time for money. Working or the man, in other words. Additionally I have been working on my other websites, and building my following for my online alter ego Bucky Builder, all in my very limited spare time. At the same time, BK has been busy building and pastoring a church helping the less fortunate, a very worthy cause! Shoot, you can tell by how seldom we post here that time comes at a premium!
Back to roasting green coffee beans
Right, so BK used the method of roasting pictured below, something like the Nuvo Eco Ceramic Handy Coffee Bean Roaster. This is a nice and inexpensive way to start. Reading up on it back in the day I learned that you pour the green beans in the top, put the unit over a burner on your stove, then you swish the beans around so they cook evenly. You judge doneness by the 1st and/or 2nd crack, or you can pour some beans out to see how dark your roast is.
But I just have to be different...
I did not want to be roasting green coffee beans standing over a hot stove. I did a lot of restaurant work in my youth, and no thank you. And until I had a means and method of roasting that did not require my labor over a hot appliance, no dice. Then Fathers Day came.
My kids, the best ever, by the way, got me like 4 small bags of green beans, and a cooling appliance for after the roast, something very similar, or really, exactly like the one pictured below. Unknowingly they unlocked my desire. Originally they thought or was an actual roaster, and they were a smidge disappointed when I said, no, it's a cooler fan. I mean, seriously, this was maybe the single most important aspect, as you must cool the beans off fast so they don't keep cooking, and this thing does! I don't think they believed me when I said this was an incredible gift, but I meant it!
Got to use it for the first time today!
So how did we go about roasting our green coffee beans?
This being the first time ever, we hedged our bets. We took one of the 1 pound bags and put about 6 ounces into a cookie sheet on foil, heated the over to 450 and slammed the beans in there for about 12 minutes. Then we put another 6 ounces or so into the air fryer rotisserie basket. We heater the air fryer as high as it would go, 400°F, and roasted the green coffee beans for 26 minutes.
The air fryer we used was similar to this one, but not exactly this one:
How did the coffee turn out?
If you've roasted green coffee beans, you know it is a process. A process of elimination. Try this, try that. So we learned quite a bit, and on the next batch we will apply these lessons. So, what did we learn?
- We learned that smaller batches, in this case, is better.
- The oven roasted beans was a little under roasted, but it was fragrant, but brewed a little weak.
- The air fryer batch was 26 minutes at 400, but we tossed it back in for another 8 minutes, and 4 more than that would have probably been better.
- The chaff mess isn't all that bad in either case.
- The cooling fan is AWESOME, and captures a lot of the chaff as well.
We should have roasted about 4 ounces, the cook in either the air fryer or the oven would have been more consistent. There were too many beans that did not darken enough. We did not want a super dark roast, fearing over done beans, so we pulled the beans out a little too early as well.
The lightness of the roasts, I suppose, meant we had to use more ground coffee per cup, even with a fairly fine grind.
Before we started the air fryer batch I read up on the topic. Roasting in a perforated basket is not recommended, as the heat transfer is a little too low, especially at a 400 degree top setting. A solid metal sided basket is preferable, the articles I read said, and I fully believe this is true. Our perforated basket does have one flange inside, to help stir, but 2 more flanges would have been welcome
What is next for our roasting of green coffee beans?
I am such a coffee drinker (1 pot a day, a real coffee sewer, this guy) that of course the roasting of green coffee beans will continue. We plan on perfecting our method, if only for our personal use, but who knows? Maybe at some point, some day, we'll market our roasts.
Personally I'm fascinated by all the varieties of green coffee beans that are out there, mostly speaking about the locale the cherries are grown at. Ten factor in the varieties of roasts, the possibilities are close to endless, especially for boutique coffees. See, I really love the McDonalds K cup and canned coffees. I also found that I love the savings of the Kirkland large cans of ground coffee. But I love myself too, and if I'm paying these prices, it may be worth roasting green coffee beans for my personal consumption, like, all the time!
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Green coffee beans might just be the next big thing in your diet and budget. Whether you’re a seasoned coffee aficionado or a curious newbie, green coffee offers a unique blend of benefits that are hard to overlook. So, brew yourself a cup of curiosity and dive into the green scene!
