Roast Your Own Coffee Beans With A Home Coffee Roaster

To a coffee lover, there's nothing like the smell of roasting coffee beans. To be honest, the average coffee drinker feels more than willing to leave the roasting of the coffee beans to the staff of their local coffee house or their preferred coffee producer. Of course, roasting one's own coffee beans has not been an option until recently with the creation of the smaller computer driven roasters. Commercial coffee roasters are not as user friendly as these newer roasters, and they come with a hefty price tag. Add to this the difficult process of roasting to insure that the beans retain their flavor, and it is no wonder that people are not lining up to roast their own coffee.

So the question is who needs a coffee roaster?

Well, there are the coffee enthusiasts who are just as in interested in all aspects of making that perfect cup of coffee as they are in drinking the perfect cup. If you are this person, then these new, smaller, computerized coffee roasters would be a perfect addition to your home. Now you can not only choose the type of bean for brewing, but can determine the right roast to obtain just the flavor you desire. The household coffee roaster makes it easier to control the amount of heat applied to the beans, and the length of roasting time.

Buyers beware though. This is still an arduous process that can leave even the most robust bean devoid of flavor. However, with a little practice and know how, anyone who considers coffee brewing not just something that they do as a morning ritual, but rather as a hobby, can take this one step further and create their own roast.

Though these roasters are not as complicated as their commercial counterparts, roasting coffee beans is time consuming, thus is still not for everyone. For those of us who are happy with the brand of coffee we purchase already roasted and ready for grinding and brewing, we can still head on over to our local supermarket or gourmet coffee house. The perfect cup of coffee can still be created without having to involve ourselves in the entire process. However, it is nice to know that there are options out there for people looking for something more than just a quick cup of Joe.

If you find yourself concerned about having the perfect bean for brewing, and would enjoy getting more involved, then owning your own roaster is defiantly the way to go. Lower cost and smaller sizes make it easier than ever to bring roasting to any home that desires it. Not only will you be able to enjoy drinking your coffee but creating it as well.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as flavored coffee at http://www.gourmetespressoandcoffee.com

flavored coffee http://www.gourmetespressoandcoffee.com

gourmet coffee trivia

Interesting gourmet coffee facts:

• The Boston Tea Party was planned in a coffee house – the Green Dragon Coffee House
• 27% of U.S. coffee drinkers and 43% of German drinkers add a sweetener to their coffee.
• The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees. Colombia comes in second with around two thirds of Brazil's production.
• Hard bean means the coffee was grown at an altitude above 5000 feet.
• Arabica and Robusta trees can produce crops for 20 to 30 years under proper conditions and care.
• Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.
• In Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with the drink could be divorced by her!
• Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee in terms of volume at 16 pounds per person. Second to the United States at 19 pounds per person.
• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.
• The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil the coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• Up until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.
• Each year some 7 million tons of green beans are produced world wide. Most of which is hand picked.
• The popular trend towards flavored coffees originated in the United States during the 1970's.
• Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee is the most satisfying cup of coffee - it donates all its profits to children.
October 1st is the official Coffee Day in Japan.
• The first coffee tree in the Western Hemisphere was brought from France to the Island of Martinique in the 1720's

curious coffee facts coffee is the second most traded product after oil

Coffee is part of our daily lives and we definitely love it, but were things always like that? How popular was coffee during its first days in the Western world? Among the first coffee facts that have been preserved over the centuries it is impressive to know how it was banned from the Christian world as the devil's drink.

Coffee actually reached Europe as a result of the flourishing commerce the Venetians had with the Eastern countries, and they brought it from Constantinople where it was kept very high in esteem as being an incredibly tasty drink. Christian priests at the time argued against any positive coffee facts that it was a drink given to the infidels by Satan as a substitute for wine which had been forbidden to them.

Historic coffee facts indicate that it wasn't until the 16th century that this now so popular drink was blessed by the pope and commerce started to develop. At the end of the 1500s, Europe actually saw the creation of the first coffee houses, and the former banishing of this drink remained in the past and the subject of popular anecdotes.

Coffee facts show that presently this drink has gained such a great prominence that people are actually celebrating a special coffee day; moreover in terms of commercial importance we need to say that coffee is the second most traded product after oil. Among the many curious coffee facts we need to mention that there are hundreds of coffee varieties growing all over the world, nevertheless, only two are largely cultivated for economic purposes: Arabica and Robusta.

A fully-grown coffee tree will remain in production for up to forty years once it starts to produce coffee beans, not to mention that it only takes five years to become fertile. Though, Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, there are plenty other geographical areas suitable for the cultivation of this very important tree: Java, Mexico, some Caribbean islands, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Tanzania, Kenya or Cameroon.

Among the most surprising coffee facts we should mention here, one is related to the increased flavor of the coffee beans that results from the roasting process. The secret behind the exquisite taste lies in the presence of sugar within the internal structure of coffee beans; during the roasting process, this sugar gets caramelized which intensifies the overall flavor and delights every coffee lover.