Really Making Coffee Coffee

REALLY making coffee

jveitch 16 years ago

I live in Queensland, Australia, and grow my own coffee beans. Coffee is a relatively new agricultural crop here and is on a very small scale. However there are lots of people like me who are growing coffee bushes in their back yards for fun. Now the problem is (and it really is a problem) what do you do with the coffee beans when you harvest them? Turning a coffee bean into a smok'in cup o'joe is not as easy as you might think. If anyone is interested I might natter on about my experiments in coffee refinement. I certainly would like to hear from others on how they go about the process on a small scale. By small scale I mean I presently have two coffee bushes that produce beans year round. At peak season I can get about a pound (half kilo) of raw beans. That is small scale. But it is lots of fun to turn them into a turgid, second rate cup of coffee.
P.S. I'm growing about 30 more coffee plants from seed and they should come on line sometime in the year 2012 so stand by, I'll be exporting by then. In the mean time I can share growing tips and would like to hear the same from others.
Ta.

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coffeebean53 16 years ago said:

Growing them at home how do you go about roasting the beans? What type of climate are you in? What kind of soil? LOL Lots of questions.

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zena824 16 years ago said:

This sounds interesting....Never thought about growing my own beans... How do you get started doing this... Where do you buy the beans at?

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jveitch 16 years ago said:

Sorry for not checking back sooner. I live in southeast Queensland (that's in northeast Australia). The climate here is subtropical. Warm, humid summers, cool, dry winters. It never freezes here and even in the depths of winter the days are warm and lovely.
I used to live in the US and I would think you could grow coffee in North Carolina and Arizona but you would have to protect them during the winter (like bring them inside or put in a warm green house). The soil in my back yard is rubbish, lots of clay but I make nice soil for the bushes to grow in. I don't think coffee bushes are too temperamental. The bushes can get tall, up to 10 or 12 feet but they also are quite happy when trimmed down to a large pot plant size. The bush is attractive (I think) with glossy, vivid green leaves. Mine produce little flowers most times of the year and are constantly putting on new beans. I know coffee is grown in Hawaii so you may be able to source plants or seed beans from there. Coffee is slow growing, like 4-5 years before they are big enough to bean but they are still fun and a conversation piece.

Now to the cooking part of all this, for this is a cooking not a gardening site. Go to a good little coffee shop and buy some green beans. If they really love coffee they should be happy to share the experience with you. Once you have the green beans you now need an air popcorn popper. The type of popcorn popper that blows hot air on the kernals and pops them. All you have to do is put about a table spoon of green beans into the popper and keep a sharp eye on them. I cann't tell you how long to let them swirl around, it depends on humidity, etc., etc. Watch them and smell them (they will smell great). Experiment. Once roasted to the perfection that only you as a newly annointed master roaster can give, let them cool, grind 'em up and enjoy.
I've found that the beans blow out easily so look in your cupboard for a tin can that will fit right onto the top of the popcorn popper heating cavity. Remove the top and bottom of the can, wash, dry and put on top of the popcorn popper. This extension will stop the beans from blowing out.
Roasting your own coffee is (for me) a hit and miss operation. I guess I'm not methodical enough. But the results can be surprisingly good. It is easy to over roast the beans. I like expresso anyways. Overroasting happens because it is so cool to watch the beans swerle around and smell so great. The operation is, however a great party trick. Roasting your own coffee after a fine meal with friends generates all kinds of interest and excitement.

If there is futher interest in all this mumbo jumbo I may get into the cleaning and processing of the raw beans. Now there is a real hassle! It might be easy on an industrial scale but on a small scale its labor intensive.

Ok, hope you've found this interesting and helpful.

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coffeebean53 16 years ago said:

And my grandkids think that I'm going to be making popcorn with that new hot air popcorn maker. ahaahaa silly grandkids.

Thanks for getting back to us on this. It's really fascinating and I'm going to try to give roasting my own a try.

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dixiejet 16 years ago said:

This sounds really interesting ! I now rue the day I got rid of that air popper when I moved to North Carolina !

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coffeebean53 16 years ago said:

Same here but I plan on getting another one real soon.

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zena824 16 years ago said:

I got rid of an airpopper too... Geesh...... Id love to make my own coffee....

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