Well hey. Hi everybody. I'm new here. I see there is this intro thread, and it's a sticky, and I can also make an individual hello thread. So I'll try one of each, and try not to be too repetitive.
Roasting coffee is my latest hobby. I've been roasting about three years. I've been a life long coffee lover but was always content to make a fresh pot of store brand drip grind in the Mr. Coffee when I needed some. Nothing wrong with that. But about five years ago I found myself in possession of a bunch of coffee gift cards, and thought I'd blow them on some "good" coffee, so i went and tried a few bags of different whole bean coffees. Wasn't real thrilled with the results of any of those as rendered by good old Mr. Coffee, but the hunt was on!
I got to thinking that my "good" coffee was going to waste in such a brewer, and I ought to have a better way to get all the goodness out of the coffee beans. After some research I decided to try an Aeropress, and I've been using it daily ever since. I've tried some french press, pour-over cone, and electric moka-pot brewing, but always go back to the Aeropress.
That settled, I started trying every different coffee. Nothing seemed very good at Starbucks to me except their lighter roast Veranda blend. Trader Joes had a few I thought were okay, but what I finally settled on was the bulk whole bean coffees a local Sprouts grocery store. I think the big difference was they were fresher that anything else I was getting. I liked the Organic Peruvian, which was a light roast, the best, but liked most of the light-medium roast coffees they had, single origins as well as blends.
I thought I was done because I had researched home roasters just enough to see that they were an investment not likely to happen anytime soon with our household budget, but then one day I noticed the part where it says to roast it in a popcorn popper. Had to try that! I picked up an extra Popcorn Pumper on one of my frequent thrift store expeditions, and ordered a pound of Brazilian Volcano coffee from Amazon. I was hooked instantly. I placed my first Sweet Maria's order soon after that. I kept looking for suitable popcorn poppers and assembled a small fleet of them. Some worked better than others, of course. And meanwhile, I was starting to read about how to modify them so they can really roast it just how you want . . .