OBSERVATIONS ON SELF-ROASTED COFFEE:
1. Raw beans smell like grass. Or hops, as Matt says. Also smells like raw, dried beans/peas/lentils that have just been rinsed.
2. Roasting coffee beans is a delightful experience for the senses. The closest approximation to the smell that I can come up with is like popping your own popcorn. The smell is comforting and delicious. The sound is a little like popcorn as well, but not as loud. We roasted about 30 seconds past “first crack” (medium roast) and the beans all make a pop sound like popcorn at first crack.
3. The smell of fresh roasted beans is unlike any coffee bean smell you’ve ever smelled. Once upon a time, the whole and roasted beans you buy at the store or a coffee shop probably used to smell like this, but the fragrance is fleeting and linked to freshness and probably the fresh roasted smell is gone before you even buy the already-roasted beans.
4. The delicious fresh roasted smell is amplified by grinding. Again, like no coffee smell you’ve ever smelled. More nutty maybe and less mellow and entirely intoxicating.
5. I brewed French press just now and the taste is a tamed down version of the incomparable fresh-roasted, just-ground smell. For about 15 minutes. Then it mellows a bit and resembles the flavor you’ve probably come to love from your favorite store bought bean, but still more potent and way better. Tomorrow I will try espresso with the beans.
6. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to experience the same joy from a store-bought coffee bean again because the taste and experience of self-roasting was so delicious and rewarding.
This post has 5 notes and tag: # coffee # coffee roasting .
