More to being able to enjoy a fresh cup of flavorful coffee everyday, another reason why more and more people nowadays want to roast coffee beans by themselves at home is the health benefits that drinking newly roasted coffee brings. Many studies have revealed the serious health conditions that can be incurred from consuming preservative-laced foods, which definitely does not exclude the usual instant coffee mix that we can buy from the grocery. Unfortunately, though, enjoying a 100 percent fresh cup of coffee is not a one-step process. It entails careful choosing and proper roasting of green beans.
Choosing Coffee Beans
Selection of green coffee beans, which refer to the unroasted coffee beans, may be a daunting task as the market offers a wide range of beans to choose from. But the most popular beans for home roasting are Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Brazilian Santos, Guatemalan Antigua, Tanzanian Peaberry, Sumatra Mandheling, and Colombian Supremo. Of course, not all of these coffee beans are created equal. To enjoy a healthier, finer and tastier home coffee, the best beans to choose are those that are grown at higher altitudes. Because there is less oxygen at higher altitudes, it takes longer for coffee plants grown at these altitudes to mature than plants grown at lower altitudes. This allows the flavors to develop more fully as well as allows the beans to grow denser to enhance the complexity of their flavors.
Another important consideration is, of course, the freshness of the beans. When choosing coffee beans, as with choosing any food product to buy, it is always essential to select those that are fresh and new rather than those that have been stored for years.
Coffee Roasting
While the grade or quality of the green coffee beans is a major factor that significantly affects the taste of the coffee to produce, it still won’t matter if the proper roasting process is not observed.
There are a few different ways to roast coffee gifts at home, and these include using of a frying pan, a pop corn maker, or a coffee beans roaster. But regardless of tool or machine to use, there are just a few basic rules to follow to properly roast the beans so as to bring out their favors: roast or heat the beans between 370 and 540F; continuously stir the beans to prevent uneven roasting; and most importantly, prevent over-roasting by cooling the beans quickly once the maximum temperature is achieved.
Roasting green coffee may be a daunting process at first but it’s definitely worth all the effort it requires. It does not only allow us to enjoy coffee that’s full of fresh flavors and aroma at any time of the day, it also helps keep us in the best of health.