Getting Roasted as a Newbie

scotchale

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May 11, 2009
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I don't know how much of an addict coffee drinker I am compared to those I've looked at on this forum? I've gone from 2 cups of coffee with my father every Saturday at various breakfast gatherings when I was about 12 or 13 years old, to a 5 cup pot daily and worse on Saturdays. Other 'childhood coffee' was mostly canned milk with a 'touch of coffee' at my Grandmother's when I'd visit with her as a child, and it was instant at that !

I will remember one of my most enjoyable cups of coffee in the middle of Louisiana about midnight on a drive from New Orleans to Houston about October 1990. It had the chicory blend in it, and the aroma was really good. I stopped for gas on that trip and the convenient store had just brewed that particular pot. I had lived for one year as a kid in Lake Charles in the mid 70's, and my parents would have that "red bag" of chicory every Sunday, but wouldn't let me have any, "It's not good for you !" But it sure smelled good, so I thought. For whatever reasons, that late October cup of coffee back in 1990 awoke me to a new pleasure for coffee. In general, I've liked dark roasted coffees, small amount of sugar and coming from my Grandmother, a little bit of the canned evaporated milk (childhood leftover).

I got into buying whole beans over the years and grinding my own off/on, but in the last year, I've become interested in doing my own roasting. I got into Beer Brewing years ago, and I would notice the Brew-Suppliers were also getting into selling coffee-roasting products, ranging from beans to roasters. I'd look at the products, but never really got interested in investing 300 or so dollars to get started. I was chatting with a fellow brewer one day and commenting on the roasting supplies from the Brew-suppliers and inquired if he'd ever been interested in roasting his own coffee? Turned out he'd just started roasting with an air popper. That just flabbergasted me, but I looked into it. Eventually I got hold of an air popper and a supply of beans from a Dallas area supplier and started roasting about this time last year. I've had satisfactory results from the air popper, but I was getting interested in doing larger roasts and on the grill outside.

My wife found this 1 pound roaster on an ebay sight that attaches to the rotisserie and gave it to me as a gift for my B-Day recently. I had an extra propane BBQ grill, bought a rotisserie and dedicated the grill for the coffee roasting. I have roasted about Five batches so far. I've had interesting results, but now it is turning into another hobby or I should say "Another Iron in the Fire." Thus I'm now exploring forum groups such as this one for roasting questions, which is how I got here.
 
Scotchale,

A fine coffee story indeed. I liked the Louisiana part the best. In fact, my current avatar is from a photo of me in New Orleans at my G'pa's house. :D

Thank you for sharing and Welcome to Coffeeforums.com!
 
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