My friend Tam is multi-talented. She makes awesome gifts, is an amazing massage therapist, can dye your hair perfectly every time, and now I’ve learned that she can also roast her own coffee beans. What can’t she do?
We decided to have a DIY adventure day, wherein I’d give mozzarella another shot (don’t ask), and she’d try to roast some coffee beans that a friend brought her from Ethiopia. I whipped up some ricotta pancakes for sustenance, and we were on the case. After traveling all over town looking for a hand-cranked stovetop popcorn popper, we settled on this electronic version. Spirits were high when the “Stir Crazy” started working its magic:
Excitement soon gave way to boredom, as the beans slowly turned. It was riveting.
At some point, maybe 30 minutes later, Tam took some beans and ground them. It was exciting, because the coffee smell really started to emerge (the raw beans, we agreed, smelled like dirt).
This just seemed to be taking a long time, though, so we tried another way. Good old fashioned elbow grease brought these babies to a beautiful, oily black shine in no time. Tam stirred so fast that she almost made the spoon disappear:
Success! We let these beauties cool down in a colander, then shook them free of the chaff that had separated from the beans. I wish you could smell this next picture – a well earned cup of the best coffee I’ve had in a long time. Thanks for an awesome Sunday, Tam! Cheers!
I’m trying to refrain from asking about the cheese. But what happened? I have one of those kits but I haven’t tried it yet. Is it hard?
Sweet….I had two cups of coffee this morning and couldn’t help but brag to people that we roasted our own coffee this weekend and, in fact are pretty awesome at it.
Well, the cheese. Let me just start by saying that ricotta is ridiculously easy. You have to try it. The mozzerella basically turned out the same as last time – didn’t quite set up enough to be formed into a ball. I’ve done some reading this week, and am set to try it again. Third time’s a charm, right? I’ll definitely keep you updated if I’m successful
Tam, I’m still all shaky from this morning’s cup. I feel like our coffee is way stronger than regular brews!
Wow, I bow to you… Too cool. Have you heard about sun dried coffee beans (instead of water processed)? They’re supposed to have less bitterness; I’m thinking of buying some to see how the coffee tastes.