Coffee Roasting with a Popcorn Machine
“Uses hot air to make delicious, fat-free popcorn in minutes” says the box for the gadget I bought yesterday. Popcorn? Those things that you put in the microwave oven for two minutes, whereafter you eat them to your favourite TV show? Buying yet a machine which can do what the microwave does better, may sound like a sub-brilliant move. But wait, there’s more…
My popcorn machine
Date: 04/29/2006Views: 1206
For about a year and a half, I have been roasting my own coffee. I find it interesting how you can fine-tune the result by varying the time of roasting, but the main reason is to ensure myself a cup of fresh coffee. The experts say coffee beans are fresh for 10 years - unroasted. After roasting, they shall be consumed within a week. After grinding them, one shall brew them (or do whatever is planned) within two minutes. I don’t know how strictly one really should apply to these time limits, but on the other side, I don’t understand the arguments against doing so.
Until now, I have been roasting my beens in the oven. It is not complicated, but it takes 15 minutes to warm up the oven and 10 minutes to roast one baking tin of coffee. That’s quite a waste of time and power. Roasting coffee also brings plenty of smelling smoke, which probably is not what you want in the kitchen. The most complicated thing about it, is that I don’t have an oven, so I have to do it at a friend’s apartment.
Recently, I read an article about roasting coffee, that mentioned a popcorn machine can do the job. After the time of reading, I have convinced myself that a popcorn machine would be a great gadget to buy. Said and done. Yesterday, I went to Teknikmagasinet (a Swedish store) and bought one. At the moment of writing this post, I have been trying it three times for coffee roasting, with a result much better than I ever had with the oven method. In the oven, the beans are lying still, which make them unevenly roasted. In the popcorn machine, they are constantly moving by the powerful hot blowing air.
First coffee roasting session
Date: 04/28/2006Views: 1213
The image above shows the first attempt of roasting. When roasting coffee, the beans release paper thin peels. They are quite tasteless, but why would you want something like that in your coffee? When roasting in the oven, most of the peels stay with the beans, but when popping them in this machine, they are blown away. Where do they go? Luckily enough, they find their place right of the mouthpiece of the popcorn machine (where the popcorns are supposed to go). By placing a little bowl there, they will be easy to get rid of.
Freshly roasted Indian Monsooned Malabar beens
Date: 04/29/2006Views: 1220
This picture shows the result of my third attempt. It is freshly roasted Indian Monsooned Malabar. Best of all is that they taste as good as they look. I have even tried to make some popcorn in this machine, and believe it or not; it works!
Do you bring your own coffe to the movies?
I use the same method with medium results. In 7 min. I get a medium dark roast but the plastic hood of the popcorn maker it’s starts to melt. When I went to 9 min. the result was perfect but the plastic hood end up with two small deformities. The manufacturer recommends 6 min. running time. How long do you roast your coffee?