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Letter Re: Do It Yourself Coffee Roasting
After reading
some information in SurvivalBlog about roasting green coffee beans I thought
I could offer some useful info on the subject, since I’ve been a coffee
supplier and roaster for about 10 years.
Let’s assume the grid is down---how does one roast coffee? You can do
it over an open flame such as a propane burner, or campfire. In the days of
cattle drives the cook would roast in a cast iron pot just stirring the beans
constantly. If you do that then a peaberry type coffee bean works best because
they are more round, and my research tells me that that’s what many of
the old cooks packed. Regular beans have a flat side and have a tendency to
burn some of the beans on that side regardless of how much you stir.
But here is the method I’ve tried and it worked reasonably well. Use
a good heavy duty wok pan. (Avoid a Teflon-coated wok pan at all costs). Place
6-to-8 ounces of green beans in it, and over the hot fire flick it forward
like a
chef does,
doing
so constantly. In a few minutes the beans heat up and you can hear the first
crack of the beans, it’s not very loud so listen carefully. Keep flicking —chaff
comes off, and when the first crack has stopped you can stop the roast. For
future roast adjust from the stop of first crack---you can go on into a less
audible second crack in a minute or so for darker roast. Going to the end of
second crack will give you a French roast that some like. Understand that this
will give you a decent roast, not perfect as some beans will roast up unevenly,
but you will definitely like it better than canned coffee, I guarantee it,
because it’s fresh roasted.
Now here’s a vital point to your roasting: when you have it just where
you want it---end of first crack, or into second crack, whatever, the beans
have to be cooled as quickly as possible. The most practical way I found was
dumping them back and forth in two colanders, 3 or 4 minutes at least. If possible,
allow the beans to degas for at least a day, but don’t roast up more
than you’ll need for a few days. Store in Ziploc type bags in a dark
place, but leave a small opening in the zipper to release the built up CO2
or the bag could burst. After that keep it sealed between uses. Have a hand
grinder, or as the cowboy cook did, mash between two hard objects. If you’re
just throwing your grounds into hot water use a course grind, and don’t
boil the coffee, let it steep for about four minutes.
I am not trying to present myself as an expert coffee survivalist, but with
some practice you can make excellent coffee truly from scratch. But why wait
til for a collapse? Practice doing it now. Charlie at Cme
Brew Coffee.
