Roasting My Own Coffee

My home-roasted coffee

As of this weekend, I just discovered a very nice way to have very good, freshly roasted coffee at home all the time; roast your own coffee.  Especially in Playa del Carmen, where there are no coffee roasters (as in Cuernavaca, Mexico City or Toronto.)  The best I had found here so far was a coffee from Chiapas, but was pre-roasted and pre-ground; it was good, but, you know, there's nothing like coffee that was roasted this same day. (To be fair, there are excellent grocery store brands too, but I almost never go to the grocery store, so I don't feel it's worth the time walking through the whole store, going through the check-out line, etc.)

On Sunday, having found out that the coffee vendor had moved to a new spot inside the municipal market, I went through the market to find him.  On the way, however, stopping by a shop that sells bee propolis (the pollen that the bees collect from flowers, before they turn it into honey, which is good for sore throats and colds.)  Just out of curiosity, I asked if he happened to sell coffee; I felt that since my other coffee supplier moved his shop, I was justified in shopping around.

He didn't sell coffee, but he did sell the green coffee beans, he told me.  The coffee was also from Chiapas, and it was less expensive (about $10 CDN / kg or about $4.50 a pound.)  I remembered that my wife had bought a little coffee grinder (to grind grain for the baby.)  Roasting my own coffee would be fun, I thought.  So I bought a quarter kilo (about half a pound) and was happily on my way home to roast and grind my own beans.  The result has been amazingly good coffee!

Here are pictures of the process:

The shop where I bought the green coffee beans

Another view of the shop (with me on the other side)

The green coffee beans

Coffee beans roasting - about half-way done.

Me stirring the coffee beans (about halfway done)

 

When the coffee is almost done, it will fill your house with smoke.  Beautiful smell.  My wife wasn't impressed.

Cleaning some of the left over husks off the coffee beans; I'm not sure if this is necessary, or perhaps it should be done when they're still green?.

The ground beans, ready to brew

Brewing ...

The finished product - delicious, home-roasted coffee!