Back in 1996 I periodically visited a local Starbucks. Their coffee was swill, but I did like the café lattes. After a few months, I did the math and purchased my own espresso machine from Starbucks. It was pretty easy to make a drinkable café latte. That machine performed great, and lasted until the beginning of 2010 (14 years – amazing!). Once it died, I had to do research for a replacement. Since then, I have spent over $10,000 on coffee hardware.
I can honestly say that everything I learned about coffee is based on what I read on the internet. I spent months reading discussions at various coffee web sites:
http://www.home-barista.com/forums/
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/forum.php
After a few months, I settled on a real espresso machine – a Gaggia Classic from Italy. Everyone said the most important thing was to spend MORE on the coffee grinder than the espresso machine. I did some research and bought a Baratza Vario grinder. Unfortunately the espresso from the new machine was barely palatable. But I could still make a great latte. After a few more years I spent three times as much for my next espresso machine – a Ponte Vecchio Lusso from Italy. This machine produced consistently great espresso, and the lattes are even better!
When I was researching the espresso machine in 2010, several people asked about the coffee I was using. I typically bought either Starbucks or Peet’s whole bean coffee. They pointed out the HUGE taste advantage of using “artisan roasted” coffee. For most people, this translates to home roasted coffee. The more expensive alternative is to buy coffee locally from someone who knows how to produce great tasting roasted coffee. After sampling many coffees from a local roaster, I concluded that they were no better than Starbucks. Back then they roasted their coffee too dark, which reduces the flavor significantly.
Even if you have great roasted coffee, it is non-trivial to produce a good cup of coffee. I did not know how to do this until I started doing my research for a new espresso machine. One web site that is a treasure trove of information is Sweet Marias. In addition to selling green coffee, roasted coffee, and all sorts of coffee paraphernalia, Tom and Maria Owens created a virtual coffee library on their web site:
http://legacy.sweetmarias.com/library/
https://library.sweetmarias.com/category/brew/drip_brew/
Here are their general instructions for the correct way to brew coffee
https://library.sweetmarias.com/brewing-coffee-a-framework-2/
The most important feature of a home coffee maker is to get the water to the right temperature. It should be about 200 degrees when it hits the ground coffee. Other criteria are the amount of time and the uniformity of extraction. The Specialty Coffee Association has a list of home coffee brewers that meet their criteria:
https://sca.coffee/certified-home-brewer
At home, we have four different ways to make drip coffee. I purchased a Technivorm Moccamaster in 2010, since it is the easiest way to consistently produce a pot of coffee that is brewed correctly. Some afternoons I make a single cup of coffee with a manual pourover. Other “manual” methods include using a French press, or a vacuum brewer. All four of these methods produce slightly different tasting coffee from the same roasted beans.
The next logical step was to start roasting my own coffee. To do this I had to buy my own coffee roaster and green coffee beans. The next web site I looked at was the GCBC (a members-only site):
http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com/index.php
I quickly became entranced by the descriptions of these coffees. Here is one example:
“Bali Blue Moon – Wet Hulled Rainforest Certified
Dry fragrance/Wet aroma: had a foresty smell a bit earthy, typical of the BBM’s
Flavor/depth: Some licorice, earthy I think, spice, perhaps a bit syrupy.
Overall I like this coffee there is something almost addictive to it at the end.”
I learned there are literally hundreds of ways to roast coffee. These include using popcorn poppers, sauté pans on the stovetop, cookie sheets in the oven, toaster ovens, handheld Freight Harbor heat guns, BBQ grills with special rotisseries. Most of these are easy, but NOT the optimal way to get the best flavor from the roasted coffee.
For great coffee, you need something that is designed to be a coffee roaster. Back in 2010, I started with a Behmor roaster, which is essentially a modified toaster oven. Its main advantages are that it only cost $300, and it is very easy to learn and use. The main problem is the lack of control. After two years, I hit the limit of what I could achieve with that roaster.
After doing many months of research, I bought a Hottop B-2K roaster in 2013. I knew that I would have to make some major modifications to the roaster to achieve my goal – which was to have a computer controlled coffee roaster. With the Behmor, I rarely had roasts of these coffees that excited me. After I had a great roast, I rarely got the same great result later. With the modified Hottop, I have the ability to record my roasts, fine tune them to my taste, and then duplicate those roasts.
This was only possible because of work being done by other coffee roasters from 2010 through 2012. There were engineers working on open source software that could be used with an arduino controller board, and a wide variety of coffee roasters. I learned a lot about this from two more web sites:
https://homeroasters.org/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=133
https://homeroasters.org/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=137&i=1
https://www.home-barista.com/roasting/
As I continued to roast coffee, I decided that I need a second roaster. I really did not want to spend TOO much time learning something new. I bought the newer Hottop B-2K+ model. This has a USB input to allow control via the artisan roasting software (no hacking required).
After several years, my Ponte Vecchio Lusso needed some service. I discovered that replacing the seals was impossible for me to do. I had to take the machine to another roaster who was physically MUCH stronger than I am. Then I had to do more research for my next espresso machine. I finally purchased a Londinium-R machine, at only twice the price of the Ponte Vecchio Lusso!
After several years of roasting coffee from all around the world, my favorite coffees are from Ethiopia. Some that I buy every year include Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Gedeo Worka. Just like wine, they vary between years, and some farms produce far better coffees that others.
Now I get to enjoy a different coffee every day. And Cynthia usually agrees with me about how great the coffee is!