I recently attended a class at Mr. Green Beans in Portland, Oregon.  I had signed up on my first visit there, and was anxious for the refresher, an Introduction to Home Roasting.

Read: Profile Mr. Green Beans

I’ve been dabbling in roasting my own coffee at home for a few years now.  The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee cherry grown in hot, high-altitude parts of the world, and is green and smaller in size before it’s roasted.  There are many reasons to roast your own coffee, other than it’s way cool to do it.  Coffee is at its freshest right after it’s been roasted, so when you roast it yourself, you’re guaranteed a very fresh and flavorful cup of coffee.

The class costs $20.  For the time and expertise of owner Trevin Miller for almost two hours, and a bag of unroasted coffee to take home, that’s pittance.  

The other elements of a home roasting class:

- Five samples of coffee throughout its roasting stages, from green to dark, so that you can see how it changes throughout the process.
- A small bowl of chaff, the “skin” that flakes off of coffee as you roast it.  This is a natural by-product of roasting, so important to understand.
- A sealed jar of the same coffee that Trevin roasts throughout the class, so you can appreciate the final product.
- Takehome instructions so you remember what you learned.
- A copy of Roast Magazine, the industry’s leading trade journal.

Eleven of us showed up for a class that seats twelve maximum, a great turnout!  Trevin walked us through the various methods of home roasting, from the simple frying pan still used traditionally in Ethiopia to roast coffee.  To the popcorn popper, whose core technology is the same as those used in more advanced home roasting machines – the science after all is heat and movement of the beans, the same way we pop corn.

I think it’s always worth going back to school.  Take advantage of any coffee roaster or home roasting provider in your area that provides such instruction, so you can see it for yourself.

Since I never formally learned home roasting  until now, here were some great takeaways from the class:

- There are origin characteristics to the coffee bean depending on where and how it was grown.  Then there are roast characteristics that impact flavor from the roasting process itself.  The darker the coffee, the less of its origin characteristics you are enjoying.

- After you roast coffee, let it breathe for 1-4 hours.  There is outgassing of CO2 taking place before the beans start to expire due to exposure to oxygen.  If you seal them at this stage, you’re sealing them with the CO2 that hasn’t properly outgassed yet.

- You have to cool your beans after they roast.  Otherwise, the heat inside the bean will continue to roast it even after you’ve shut down the process.  I knew this, but was throwing the beans into the freezer to cool them down.  It’s a dramatic temperature change, and coffee will absorb the odors of what’s in the freezer.  All I need is a simple metal collander in which to shake the beans until they’ve cooled.

Question: “When did McDonald’s stop using Columbian coffee and switch to Arabic beans?” - anonymous

Arabica coffee is often confused with Arabia.  If you go back far enough, the original tree of this species did originate in Yemen but has since found ideal growing conditions across the “coffee belt” that is the Equator.  There are predominantly two species of coffee tree, Arabica and Robusta.  When a company boasts of serving 100% Arabica coffee, they aren’t making reference to coffee from the Arabic world, but to this species of coffee. 

While Arabica coffee does contain less caffeine, it is recognized as superior coffee.  As a rule of thumb, when you find a roaster you trust, they don’t generally need to tell you that their coffee is 100% Arabica, it just is.  When a company boasts of serving 100% Arabica, it more than likely is but I would question the place where you’re buying it, that this claim even needs to be made.  When you don’t know enough about where you’re buying your coffee and they don’t make this claim, you may very well be getting Robusta coffee.

• Read: Coffees of Ecuador – When friends returned recently from Ecuador with coffee they had bought from a local vendor, I noticed that the packaging didn’t specify the species of coffee.  I made the assumption in that case that it must be Robusta, until I researched where the coffee was grown and learned that coffee grown in that part of Ecuador is indeed Arabica.

Arabica’s red-headed stepbrother is the species known as Robusta, not generally sought after in terms of coffee quality.  It contains more caffeine.  When I first heard this, I felt like that would make it superior, but don’t be fooled.  If coffee helps you stay alert and concentrate, you’re getting enough caffeine from Arabica coffee.  When you buy a cup of coffee at 7-Eleven and they refer to “Truckers’ Blend” or some other “super-caffeine” coffee, it is likely Robusta. 

Robusta is cheaper to produce.  For that reason, it is the coffee generally used in instant coffees and anywhere else where “filler” is used.  It’s a larger discussion to get into, but when Vietnam received international aid to prop up its economy, it got into coffee.  Its growing conditions are ideal, but it grows primarily Robusta coffee and so much of it, that it is now the #2 producer in the world after Brazil.  One of the unfortunate consequences has been a flooding of the global coffee supply with this cheap grade of coffee, driving down prices for everybody, even those growing the finer coffees that we drink.

If you’ve found a local roaster you trust, they are probably selling you Arabica coffee (not to be confused by Arabia, except in origin).  If you’re not sure, ask.  You will find Arabica to be a higher-quality, better-tasting coffee.

A year ago, I interviewed Bill Barrett of Planet Bean Coffee in Guelph, Ontario.  What started as a profile of the company’s history and mission turned into several posts, and I still think back to that interview today.

Read: Profile Planet Bean Coffee

That day, I decided to ask Bill an unconventional question.  Instead of my usual questions regarding the proper care that we should expect from a good roaster, I asked him what a bad roaster does.  Here’s what three things he had to say…

1) According to Bill, a bad roaster assumes the same characteristics in a particular coffee from lot to lot.  That roaster does not properly profile beans as unique before roasting, so that he can make the most of its unique properties.  Roasting becomes automatic rather than precise, and the roaster loses sight of the uniqueness of lots, treating beans the same.  In my first meeting at Fire Roasted Coffee a year earlier in London Ontario, owner Dave Cook made the same remark.  Ask your local roaster how they profile the beans that arrive in their roasteries.  Get a sense of whether beans are roasted to standard by lot, or mass-roasted to pre-determined settings.

Read: Profile Fire Roasted Coffee

2) Now, remember that “bad” was my choice of words, not Bill’s.  He went on to say that such a roaster is too involved in expanding rather than staying local.  Bill is a big believer in the role of the roaster in the local economy, and the ability of that economy to sustain itself locally.  The further it travels, the more freshness the coffee loses.  Expanding on that, the local roaster can have fun with blends that suit tastes in his market.  Find a local roaster that lives and breathes their community, rather than something mass-produced for everybody in the country.  I found the model of this when I interviewed Jason Griest of Old Soul in Sacramento, California.

Read: Profile Old Soul Roastery

3) Finally, a bad roaster isn’t raising awareness in his community of the corelation between consumer behavior and the possible benefits to farmers, their families, their society, and its economic infrastructure.  If you like the coffee that these communities provide for you, do your small part to sustain it and even help it thrive.  It costs little extra, and makes a big difference.  Good roasters raise awareness at the local level, “change the world in little ways”. 

Bill Barrett: “It’s key to have peers that share your values.”

A few years back, I received an e-mail from a guest to the site, asking me what I thought of roasting coffee beans at home and whether it was worth the trouble.  I was embarrassed.  I’d never heard of it at the time. 

What followed was a long process of educating myself on home roasting, the work and the reward.  That ongoing adventure brought me to Portland’s Mr. Green Beans.

Click here to Ask Marc anything about coffee.

Mr. Green Beans was opened two years ago by Trevin and Ginny Miller in the Mississippi District of Portland, Oregon.  To the best of my knowledge, it is the only company in the area, catering to the gradually growing awareness of buying green unroasted coffee beans and roasting them at home.

The Millers are do-it-yourselfers by nature, which combined with a love for the social qualities of coffee, translates into a business that helps build awareness and teach people the value in doing something new for themselves.  That something is the fun of taking a natural step back in the coffee process, and become acquainted with the roasting process.

Trevin explained to me that the Portland area is a mix of people who are familiar with -and equipped for- home roasting, and looking for somebody to help support that, and those to whom it’s new.  Mr. Green Beans takes the time to educate both sides of it.  This month, I will be attending one of their regular Introduction to Roasting classes.  Following that, an advanced class. 

And so, to answer the question I was asked years ago…if you love coffee, experiment with home roasting.  Coffee really starts to go stale after it’s been roasted, so home roasting allows you to keep unroasted green beans on-hand that won’t go stale in a week or two, as roasted coffee does. 

You also get the chance to truly prepare your own coffee to taste.  I’ve come to enjoy a combination of having coffee on-hand from great local roasters that I’ve come to rely on, and green beans to roast for myself on occasion.

Click to visit Mr. Green Beans website.

Trevin Miller helps a customer that is buying green beans for the first time, and will be roasting them himself at home in a frying pan.

I have a personal connection with Kobos Coffee of Portland, Oregon.  I spent a weekend in Portland while deciding whether or not I wanted to move here.  I arrived late one night, and checked in at the Marriott downtown.  I was so excited for the following day’s coffee adventure, that I pushed the vacuum-sealed stuff in my hotel room to the side and took to the streets of Portland.  The closest cafe to the Marriott?…the SW Market Street location of Kobos Coffee.  My first cup of coffee in Portland!

Production Manager Kevin Dibble invited me for a tour of Kobos’ roasting facility on NW Vaughn.

Founded in 1973 by David and Susan Kobos, it is not only older than both Kevin and I, it is a pioneer and stalwart of the coffee scene in Portland.  Only one other roaster has been at it longer.  The result is that their wholesale relationships in the area are entrenched, and the loyalty of their customers speaks volumes.  Kobos has seen so many trends come and go, that Kevin laughed about a 30-year old picture they have of a pourover coffee maker, before it became fashionable to make coffee in this way.

In fact, Kobos unseated Starbucks at every coffee outlet in the Oregon Health and Science University, whose campus as Portland residents know, is virtually a city within a city.  It reminded me of a similar victory of Old Soul in Sacramento, CA who at the mayor’s request, bought and made a success of a closed Starbucks location.

Read: Profile Sacramento’s Old Soul Roastery and Bakery

It’s very telling when a company has been such a directing force in a local market for as long as Kobos.  In short, it means they’re doing something right.  In the world of coffee, it means they’re making good coffee.  In the Portland coffee market, it means they’re making exceptional coffee.  I took home a half-pound of Organic Peruvian coffee that I’m enjoying as I type this.

Lots of unroasted green coffee from around the world.

The original Kobos roaster, still operational, and on-hand when the capacity is needed.

Kobos' 160-pound roaster. Here, the beans have finished roasting and are in their cooling stage. Without this stage, the heat generated in each bean would continue to roast and burn it.

Not a jar of beans, it's a jar of stones extracted from the coffee after it arrives at Kobos so that you don't find it in your bag of coffee.

Question: “Hey you said not to buy whole coffee beans from grocery stores but what if they sell starbucks whole coffee beans would that be ok? or should I go to starbucks and buy from them?” - Isaac Shrader

Answer:
This is an excellent question, and as Isaac will attest, it took me a little while to properly answer it.  In fact each time I tried, the scope of answering the question got more and more out of hand.  Like any of us, I used to buy all of my coffee pre-ground from the grocery store.  I’ll answer this question with another question: what makes coffee taste good?

Like anything perishable, coffee tastes best when it’s fresh.  Wherever you buy coffee, it’s at the end of a supply chain that started in a coffee growing country, and ends where you buy it.  The care shown at each stage throughout the supply chain will determine how fresh the coffee, and how good it will taste in your cup.

Before Fire Roasted Coffee Company started selling their coffee through the local grocery chain Loblaws, I would have never suggested that you buy coffee from any grocery store.  Better that you find a local roaster who is roasting small batches and very recently before you buy it – this is as fresh (and delicious) as it gets.  However, by making local supply arrangements, Fire Roasted was able to ensure freshness for customers and the continuation of its strong name and reputation.  They did it by their proximity and agreement with the grocery store.

I took a trip to my own local grocery store to see if whole bean coffee sold there provides any indication of how recently the coffee was roasted.  Starbucks coffee sold in either grocery stores or through their retail outlets does not indicate when exactly it was roasted.  That means you should be able to do better, either by buying from a local roaster or buying coffee from a grocery store where the same care has gone into freshness as Fire Roasted Coffee arranged with its wholesale customer.

This image is of a coffee mass-roasted locally in Portland, Oregon and distributed to grocery stores in the general area.  It’s considered fresh for the same reason that Fire Roasted could ensure the same with Loblaws.  I took this picture in January 2012 and the label indicates that it’s best sold nine months later.  The coffee is vacuum-sealed so I assume it doesn’t get any more stale that it was when sealed, provided you don’t open the packaging and let air in.  I’ve heard some criticism of vacuum-sealing affecting coffee freshness, and you won’t find local roasters sealing their fresh-roasted coffee in any way before it’s sold. 

I found this one even more interesting.  I’m a fan of Peets coffee, and here, they are clearly trying to ensure a quality standard to the coffee they sell in grocery stores.  They want to ensure that coffee is not sold any later than 90 days after it was roasted, but the same label shows it was roasted on September 19, 2011.  I also took this picture in January 2012, past the 90-day mark.  In other words, Peets has set a standard, but its grocery store partner isn’t monitoring or following it!

Isaac, a long-winded answer to your question.  Coffee flavor comes from coffee freshness.  Coffee starts to go stale as soon as it’s been roasted from it’s original green form.  Don’t buy coffee if you don’t know when it was roasted.  And, don’t buy coffee that wasn’t roasted recently.  I wish I could point you to a grocery store that handles coffee properly.  Coffee sold at a Starbucks outlet is a better option than the grocery store because it at least came direct from some centralized Starbucks roasting facility.  But you will find even this is no substitute for coffee purchased from your local roaster, or any other source that can show you that it was recently roasted.