If you have every tried to make wine at home you will know how difficult it is, thankfully roasting coffee beans at home is much easier than making wine - and the results are often so good than no-one would know they have been roasted at home.
Although there are a large choice of roasters available you can use general kitchen equipment such as a frying pan or popcorn maker. Just make sure that what ever equipment you use is clean becausee if it is not clean the coffee will absorb the flavour of any left over food.
Dark roasts contain a little less caffeine than lighter roasts, but they lack the acid taste of the latter. Be sure to start with quality beans, of course!
When roasting coffee beans for the first time it is probably a good idea to do so in a well ventilated room. The beans need to be heated to between 460F (223C) and 530F (262C), therefore this may cause some smoke and quite a strong smell!
Put the beans in the roaster and turn up the heat! (Take care to be ready to temporarily disable those over-sensitive home fire alarms.)
For some roasters, the thermometer is built-in, but you may want to have an extra for when it’s open, or for those frying pan experiments. Candy making thermometers work well for the purpose.
During the process those green beans will turn yellow, then brown. How brown depends on how dark you like your roast, which is always an individual choice.
When the beans begin to heat up you make hear a loud back when the bean bursts. This is because the heat puts pressure of the surface of the bean. Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal. You should here this sound after about four to seem minutes. Make sure you keep stirring the beans every 30 seconds or so.
The sugars inside will begin to caramelize (turn brown and ‘burn’ slightly) as the roasting continues. Again the degree is a matter of taste. Check the color every 30 seconds or so.
Roast long enough and sometimes a second loud crack will occur. At this stage the beans will be quite dark and for some palates a little overdone. Beyond the second crack you’re really just burning the beans and boiling away the sugars. The results will be too harsh for most.
Pour the beans into a metal colander and ‘rough them up’. The roasting process produces a find skin ‘chaff’ that breaks away from the bean as they are roughed up. You need to remove this skin before you use the beans.
Try roasting a few different batches of beans to get your desired flavour. It will be a bit of a trial and error process initially. Remember the beans still continue to cook after they have been removed from the heat. So you may need to take the beans off the heat a little early.
For the popcorn popper style roasting, be sure to get one that allows you to stir up the beans to keep them moving around and not sticking to the surfaces. For the stove top style, a cast iron skillet works great. Be prepared for lots of stirring and viewing. Roasting coffee beans happens quickly!
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