We used to like coffee � or maybe tolerate is a better word. The coffee rave of the last decade or so opened our eyes to a whole new taste treat, along with a pronounced increase in dinero outlay. Coffee bean shops shot up everywhere, and so did the price of a cup of joe. We would guard our newly acquired bag of Colombian Supremo the way a child guards a bag of jelly beans, brushing the dust off the dropped one and popping it in the grinder. This was more of a Sunday or special occasion treat. Monday mornings started with the three pound can of whatever was on sale at the discount store, unless there might be a cup left in the pot from the day before.
A few years ago, on a visit with my family, my father served the coffee and my taste buds went into orbit. It was, by far, the best that I'd ever had. When he told me it was fresh roasted and that he had roasted it earlier that day, I had to know more. Turns out he had been buying green beans in bulk from a local roaster. He was using a hot-air popcorn popper to roast them.
The rest of our stay was a coffee delight. The car was packed with the usual haul from a visit home, and, of course, tucked away safely in the trunk was the new corn popper and the bag of green beans my dad had given us. We headed for home, and for a new coffee life.
We felt so strongly that real coffee lovers needed to be aware of the ease and extraordinary flavor of fresh home roasted coffee beans, not to mention the low cost, that we decided to buy beans direct from the importer and carve out our little spot in the coffee revolution by selling off the surplus to other home roasters. We had an ulterior motive as well, a chance to try a wide variety of some of the best and deverse coffees in the world.
Home roasted coffee is so much better because it's fresh. Once roasted, coffee loses flavor quickly. Why not make every cup the best you can have? Home roasting allows this. Not only can your coffee be fresh every day, but you can change types from day to day. It makes it possible to make up your own blends, mixing and measuring until you find that special flavor � one scoop of this, two of that, and maybe a few of those beans from Africa -- Now that's a cup of coffee!
Green coffee beans will keep for years under the right conditions. For our purpose, they can be kept alongside your pastas and pintos, or under lock and key if your friends and neighbors find out...