Roasting Green Coffee Beans at Home

When I first considered roasting my own green coffee beans at home I research several write-ups on the web about roasting beans in popcorn machines, on cookie sheets in the oven, in bbq grilles, and in frying pans.

Then there are ingenious devices that appear to be home made that cool the beans quickly once the roasting process has been completed. I was going to try the frying pan approach, but I also read up on the few coffee bean roasting machines for the home that are available.

Two in particular took my fancy, the I-Roast 2 Home Coffee Roaster and the Nesco Pro Coffee-Bean Roaster
. After reading up on both of them, I decided to go with the i-Roast which I ordered through Amazon yesterday.

The reason I chose the i-Roast was that it seems it's been on the market longer, and in fact this is "version 2", so it has a track record and the reviews at Amazon were pretty favorable. One of the great features about the i-Roast 2 is that it has the ability to save up to 10 roast settings in memory so that once you hit the sweet spot with a roast, you can save it and use it again.

Both machines have glass viewing areas which is something essential for getting your roast perfect it seems. One feature on the Nesco machine that sounded like a big plus is that it has a catalytic converter that removes the smoke; from my reading it sounds like smoke is a big thing when it comes to roasting your own beans and you're almost always going to set off your smoke alarms. So, again, that seems like a plus, but living in sunny Southern California, and having a deck with power outlets means I intend to take my i-Roast outside when I use it.

The thing that ultimately decided me against the Nesco machine is that it is brand new to the market as of January 2007, and there are no reviews for it, and even on the Nesco website there is currently very little information about the machine and its features, which seems like a major marketing faux pas to me.

I ordered some green beans from Espresso Vivace when I placed my latest coffee bean order a week ago. They supply their Dolce espresso roast as green beans. I intend to try green beans from other companies going forward too.

See follow up to this post here: Tips on customizing your roasting profile using the i-Roast 2

Here is a link for all posts in my entire series of posts on home roasting coffee beans.

Brazil Poco Fundo Green Coffee Beans

As reported in my previous post, I was about to roast some Brazilian Poco Fundo green coffee beans. I used the following profile, which is saved as #3 in my i-Roast 2:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

The roasting profile seemed to work out very well for these beans, which are on the small size. The color was medium to dark-medium. The beans when ground were the same color as the exterior color of the beans, meaning I had pulled off the perfect "Full City" roast.
The beans produced acceptable crema, though less than was produced by the previous beans I was testing, Timor Maubesse beans. The flavor was on the sweet side, and they made a very pleasant espresso-based drink. (Try my favorite, a flat white). If I had to choose between this, the Poco Fundo from Brazil and the Timor Maubesse from Timor, I would prefer the Maubesse.
Next up are Bolivian Cenaproc beans. Once again, organic green coffe beans, shad grown and certified USDA organic.

Roasting Green Timor Maubesse Coffee Beans

Roasting the green Timor Maubesse coffee beans that came in the Seven Bridges Cooperative sampler pack was a learning experience.

If you've been reading these posts about roasting green coffee beans at home using an i-Roaster 2, then you will know that I started out with Seattle's Vivace Roasteria's "Dolce" blend beans. The Timor Maubesse beans are a lot smaller than the beans in the Dolce blend. Actually, they are sort of tiny.

In the first roast I actually blended 50/50 Dolce and Timor Maubesse beans and roasted at 385F for 7mins, 430F for 3.5mins, and 465F for 2.5 minutes.

It turned out to be one of my favorite blends ever! So sweet tasting! Good crema production too.

The second roast I used just the Timor Maubesse beans and set out to use the same roast profile. Luckily I kept an eye on things as by time it was at the end of 1.5 minutes for the final step the beans were pretty dark, so I stopped the roaster. (By the way, to interrupt a roasting profile and start the cool cycle, just press the "Roast" button").

The outcome was definitely a "dark roast". The flavor of the beans on their own wasn't as pleasant as when blended with the "Dolce" beans. And crema production was only average to poor. Unfortunately there weren't any more beans for me to test whether this less-than agreeable outcome was due to over-roasting the beans or not.

So on to the next bean variety. These are Brazil Poco Fundo, fair trade certified, and USDA certified organic green beans. Once again the beans are on the smaller size so in the roast I just finished, but haven't yet tried, I used the following profile which I have saved as roasting profile 3 on my i-Roaster:

• 385F for 7 minutes
• 430F for 2 minutes
• 465 F for 2 minutes

The roast turned out at a mid-brown color. The label on the package states the beans are recommended for medium to full city roasts. I'll let you know what the flavor is like and what the crema production is like soon. Oh, and as I put them in my Bean Vac I took a whiff of course, and noticed that the aroma had a distinct tobacco overtone!

Get a sampler pack of organic fair-trade green coffee beans from Seven Bridges Cooperative

Get your own i-Roast 2 from Amazon.com

Latest Roasting Profile for iRoast 2

My latest roasting profile using Vivace "Dolce" blend green beans and my iRoast 2 home roaster was as follows:

• 385F at 6 minutes
• 430F for 3.5 minutes
• 465F for 2.5 minutes

I think I got to the point where the beans were starting to burn. This profile was different from the previous one with the addition of 30 seconds for the last phase. I do believe the beans need a tad more roasting than that in the 385F for 6 minutes / 430F for 3.5 minutes / 465F for 2 minutes profile. So my next test profile will actually be to extend stage 1 by a minute and go back to 3 minutes for stage 2, and 2 minutes for stage 3.

Get a sampler pack of organic fair-trade green coffee beans from Seven Bridges Cooperative

Get your own i-Roast 2 from Amazon.com