This past weekend I travelled to Chicago for several reasons, one of which was to visit Intelligentsia Coffee to get schooled by former Kavarna barista Sarah Kluth. She is now Intelligentsia's Director of Quality Control and directly responsible their Black Cat espresso blend, which we proudly serve in our shop. I will write more on this topic later, but this serves as an introduction to today's new experience: roasting one's own coffee at home on the stove. As I was packing up to leave, Sarah very kindly gave me several pounds of green beans to play with at home. I am now drinking a cup of coffee from my first batch and I am very happy.

1. I turned the heat up to medium hot, and warmed the cast iron skillet. I poured a cup of green espresso beans into it, just enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. Immediately begin stirring and agitating the beans so that they roast evenly (keep on doing this for the next 8-15 minutes).

This photo was taken a couple of minutes into this process and already you can see that some of the beans are beginning to brown.

2. There are a couple of stages in roasting the coffee. The second stage begins after the 'first crack' of the coffee. At a certain temperature they will make a crackling noise and cracks will form in the ends of the bean. This is a good sign.

3. Keep on agitating!

4. This is the point that you begin to wish that you had an oven hood (if you don't...), or had thought to do this outdoors. The beans get smoky as they start going through the 'second crack,' at this point the beans are releasing their 'chaff' which is a flaky part the exterior of the bean that comes off. Keep on agitating. The oils also begin to come to the surface!

5. When you have sufficiently roasted the coffee (this is the point where it gets a little subjective!) pour the beans into a colander, run outside and begin swirling the coffee around. This both cools the beans and removes the chaff. The beans will keep roasting until they have cooled, so this is an important step. The chaff makes this part messy, so make sure you do it outside!

Looks like coffee!

According to what I read online, the coffee will taste better after several hours, but I couldn't resist putting it in the grinder immediately.

Here it is in the French press.

And here it is in the cup! Tastes fantastic! I'm sure that an experienced (or even an inexperienced) roaster could find many deficiencies in my roasting, but I'm not sure I've ever been quite so satisfied with a cup of coffee before. There are many online guides to home coffee roasting, various techniques, machinery, etc. But really all you need to do is to put in a skillet and agitate!

UPDATE: If you think you might like to try this too, go to Sweet Maria's for a much more useful look at home roasting. I think I'm going to try the air popper method next!