If you roast your own green coffee beans the difference is in the flavour -however well coffee is packaged it always not as fresh as home roasted - the difficulty though is getting the blend correct! One you have done that no prepackaged coffe will be as good.
Hello. The biggest difference, in my opinion, is the added enjoyment you get from roasting your own. It is alot of fun, and quite an educational experience.
I have been roasting for a year now. There is no doubt that the flavor is better. When you buy beans in a store, you don''t really know how old the beans are. This is why I decided to roast my own.
I just started doing my own roasting. My God... what a difference...!
I always bought whole beans, and my coffee machine grinds, taps and brews espresso all in one step... I though I was getting a great cup of coffee. In fact, one of my daughters says my coffee is better than Starbucks...
But that was before roasting. The machine I bough from Burman came with 3 sample varieties (one Brazilian, one Indian and one Sumatran, I think), so I used one third of each in a blend.
Both my wife and I reacted immediately and the same way. Outstanding !
This is a great question.
I have secretly wondered whether my roasting technique is coaxing more flavor out of a particular bean than say the folks at Intelligentsia or Stumptown. I haven't tried any yet, but Thom Owens roasts a few of his green offerings at Sweet Maria and offers them for sale. They seem to be *very* reasonably priced, and with Thom's palate are sure to be about the best you're likely to get out of a particular bean. With that in mind, however, when I offered one of my blends to a friend (who roasts professionally) his cupping response was less than enthusiastic, focusing on the immediate brightness and not on the lingering body and aftertaste. Cupping is a snapshot event in my opinion and does not provide a long enough mouth sitting to appreciate a complex blend (alternatively, I may be deluding myself that my blend is really that special).well a lot of folks like it.. Anyone have experience comparing their roast with someone elses?
Home roasting is truly a wonderful experience. You get to watch as the green beans turn to yellow then to brown. You get the freshest coffee and you get to be the way you like it not how someone else thinks it should be roasted. I have fallen in love with this hobby.
Since FRESHNESS is THE major overriding factor behind homeroasting, I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that we are now offering brand NEW '07 beans from this year's harvest. We produce only shadegrown & sun-dried pure Arabica beans - single source - direct from the farmer - me!
You can contact me directly for more information.
Hi Suzanne !!
Folks.. I can personally vouch for the freshness and quality of Finca del Seto.
The roast alone is a journey through fresh, earthy smells, toasted grass, roasted peanuts and finally that carmelly chocolate just before 2nd crack. Wonderful stuff.. not the cheapest, but well worth it.
I think the appeal to home roasting is multi-faceted. For me it's about freshness and control. I have complete control over what my coffee tastes like and I can tweak it to my personal tastes. Nowhere else can you do that, even with a roastery down the street. They are roasting to their tastes, not yours. It's a blast learning about roasting, and then experimenting with the beans to chase down your perfect cup.