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And you thought coffee was bad for you!
I am sure that if you are a coffee enthusiast, you have heard this, but if not let me state it here. "Coffee is good for you!"
Recent research has shown that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet. Antioxidants, are...
Coffee For Your Health
Go Ahead…Have Some Coffee… Many of us rely on coffee to get us going in the mornings, wake us up in the afternoons, and prepare us for that special business meeting. Go ahead, have a cup of coffee. It’s much healthier than you may be thinking right...
Nicaragua Coffee History
In Nicaragua coffee cultivation began early but it did not dominate the economy as in Guatemala and El Salvador. Coffee cultivation began in the lands in the southern uplands in earnest in the 1860’s where the transition from other commercial...
Take the effort out of Coffee making with a krups coffee maker!
Preparing a good cup of coffee is easy with a krups coffee maker. But, do you simply combine ground beans with water until the brew is drinkable with a krups coffee maker? Of course not, to make that exquisite cup, one needs to follow a virtual...
Types of Coffee Machines
When you are craving a delicious, smooth, rich cup of “Joe”, you may want to research and take note of all of the different types of coffee machines on the market. Coffee machines can be found in homes, dorms, offices. You’ll even be able to find...
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Roasting Coffees at Home
Roasting Coffees at home is a passion with many coffee
aficionados, and there are even societies, special interest
groups and online mailing lists dedicated to this hobby. But
with so many options for pre-roasted, pre-packaged supermarket
variety coffee, why would anyone in their right minds want to
take the trouble of doing it all themselves?
First, with a little practice you can soon learn to do it just
right, to perfectly suit your taste buds. Secondly, you know
exactly what goes into your coffee, without needing to depend
upon the small print on shrink-wraps. Thirdly, there is of
course the satisfaction of being able to roast good coffee
yourself, and enjoy the rich taste of a pure home brew. Finally,
there's the fact that green coffee beans cost about half the
roasted variety. Even if you decide to buy dedicated equipment
like a coffee popper instead of using the good old-fashioned gas
oven, you can soon recover the hardware costs with Roasting
Coffees at home.
Choosing the right beans is a very important step. There are
numerous varieties of green coffee beans available; you need to
read up a little and also experiment with different kinds before
determining what's good for you. How much relative importance
you attach to the smoothness, thickness, weight, flavor,
complexity or body of your coffee will be the factor behind your
choice. For Roasting Coffees at home, always buy Arabica beans
rather than Robusta. Arabica, though costlier, is certainly more
savoury, and has more richness and complexity.
Depending on whether you prefer a bright, acidy taste or a
full-bodied flavor, vary the roasting temperature of your gas
oven. Preheat a perforated pan to between 500 and 540 degrees
Fahrenheit. Lower temperatures will yield more body, while the
higher range tends to produce coffee with more pungency,
brightness and acidity. Buying some sample roasted beans of your
favourite flavor is good
for comparison study in the early
stages of your home coffee roasting.
Arrange the beans one-layer deep on the pan and insert in the
oven. In about 7 to 10 minutes after you begin the coffee
roasting, you should begin to hear the beans popping. Starting 2
or 3 minutes after that, keep peeping in every minute or so, to
find out whether the beans are approaching the colour and
texture of your sample variety. You'll see that coffee beans
nearly double in size during the process, and develop an oily,
dark texture.
Conventional wisdom has it that you need to wait for at least 4
hours (and up to a day) after coffee roasting, before you can
grind and enjoy your drink. However, fresh roasted coffee
directly from the oven is also delicious. Use a conical burr
grinder for grinding if possible, because they use an optimal
revolution speed. Other grinders that rotate too fast can
generate excessive heat, thereby compromising the taste and
flavor.
Roasting Coffees at home is easy to do, and you should get the
hang of it after only a few trials and errors. In addition to
being cheaper and more customizable than supermarket varieties,
Roasting Coffees also recaptures some of the romance about this
passion that has been forgotten since the coming of mass coffee
production and large scale advertising.
If you want to really get into roasting your own coffees, you
could purchase a Coffee Roaster. At any rate, your coffee will
be much fresher and better tasting if you choose to roast and
grind your own coffees.
About the author:
© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.
Randy has more articles on coffees and coffee beans such as
Coffee Enemas. You can also sign up for the Free Coffees
Newsletter at Coffees Newsletter.
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