This is a blog for poor students (and other frugal people) in the Boston area (and other areas). Being thrifty doesn't mean that you can't eat well. Every week, I'll show you a new way to eat well without spending a fortune. Like the Poor Student on Facebook to see the latest posts first!
If it's cold outside, one of the first things you might notice is that smoke comes out of your popcorn popper. If it smells like your coffee beans roasting, then don't worry about it. However, if it smells like burning plastic, turn the machine off and make sure the machine is not melting. The smoke should be just the steam coming out of the beans as they are roasting. After first crack, you might see a bit more smoke as the beans getting darker. Just monitor the roasting process and trust your nose.
Some air poppers roast hotter than others
I recently saw a Popcorn Pumper at the Goodwill and just had to buy it, even though I already had a Poppery II and a Popcorn Pumper. I'm glad I got it because I discovered that poppers don't all roast at the same temperature. When I used the most recently acquired Pumper, I managed to get to first crack in a shorter period of time and I was able to get a darker roast too. If you get an air popper and it doesn't seem to roast hot enough, try getting another one. If you get the poppers from thrift stores, it won't be a huge investment.
Back to the winter roast
All in all, the cardboard box technique seems to work quite well with all of my air poppers (both the Popcorn Pumper and the Poppery II).
The Popcorn Pumper in the Coffee Bean Direct box works just fine.
At first, you might see some smoke.
To increase the ambient temperature even more, flip over one of the flaps.
After I got a Poppery II from the Goodwill store, I tried roasting a batch of Sumatra beans. Initially, I thought it would be very similar to the Popcorn Pumper because the two machines looked similar on the inside. However, it was a little more difficult to determine the right amount of beans to use at first because the lower wattage of the Poppery II meant that the beans would spin slower in there (than in the Pumper). So, I ended up having to finish off the first couple of batches of beans in the toaster oven. Unlike the previous experience of using the toaster oven, this time I used my GE convection toaster oven. The results were much better because the heat was evenly distributed this time. You can see in the picture below that the beans were a uniform color. If you compare this to the results from the previous post on coffee roasting results, it's obvious that the convection oven helped to create a more even roast.
Sumatra light roast, finished off in the GE convection toaster oven
Previous uneven roast finished off in the Black & Decker toaster oven
The Light Roast is actually more flavorful!
I prepared the coffee using my espresso machine and the crema was very thick. That was already a good sign. The surprise was that this light roast actually has more flavor than the darker roasts that I had been drinking since I figured out how to create dark roasts in the Popcorn Pumper. I was able to taste more of the bean and taste the "hint of fruit" that was mentioned on Sweet Maria's site. There was also a little more earthiness in the lighter roast. With darker roasts, the smokiness often overpowers the subtle flavors of the coffee bean. While I like the smokiness sometimes, I figure I might as well taste the coffee bean too if I'm going to pay a little more for the "better" beans. Otherwise, I might as well buy the cheap beans to do dark roasts because most dark coffees taste very similar. If you plan on drinking only dark roasts and want cheap beans, go for the "Poor Man's Blend" on Coffee Bean Direct (5 lbs of green coffee beans for only $23).
To combine the smokiness with the flavor of the bean, try blending the light and dark beans. This might give you the best of both worlds.
In the end, this was a very happy accident. It was a good thing that I wasn't able to create a dark roast with the Poppery II because I can now enjoy Sumatra coffee more and taste all the flavors that are hidden in that bean.
In the next coffee roasting post, I will do a comparison of the Popcorn Pumper and the Poppery II.
Now that I've tried to roast my own beans and had a cup of coffee made from those beans, it's time to review the results. But first, I'd like to show you my popcorn pumper making popcorn. If you get an air popper from the thrift store, it's probably a good idea to try and make popcorn with it first to make sure that it works.
Ok, so now that you know that I used a working popcorn maker, here are the results of my coffee-roasting experiments.
Trial 1:
my set-up on the balcony
Bag of green Sumatra beans
I took the scrap beans from the bottoms of the three burlap sacks and topped them off with the Sumatra Mandheling beans. The popcorn pumper has a half-cup measuring scoop that's also part of the cover. I used that to measure 1/2 cup of green coffee beans to use. Since I didn't want my whole apartment to smell like roasted coffee, I did this outside on the balcony by plugging the machine into a power strip, which was plugged into the wall just inside the window. This turned out to be a good idea because the chaff that went flying made a bit of a mess. The mistake was leaving the cover off the popcorn pumper. This meant that the temperature did not reach the right temperature and the beans didn't get to a nice color, even after 12 minutes. So, I cooled them off anyway. I went into the kitchen and thought that putting the beans on a sheet and toasting them in the toaster oven might be a good idea. I did that for about 5 minutes (until I heard some crackling sounds) and took them out to cool. That's how I roasted the beans you see in the picture below. As you can see, it's a light roast.
Fresh light roast, smelled great after 24 hours.
Nice thick layer of crema on top
Fresh espresso with thick layer of crema
The next day, I brewed this in a simple Cuisinart 4-cup drip brew machine with a paper filter to taste "normal" coffee. Then, I brewed a crema coffee with my espresso maker. I added soy creamer to both. The regular coffee tasted like Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which is pretty good when it's fresh. However, I usually drink a dark roast, so this was just not to my liking. The crema coffee was very nice with a thick layer of crema (check out the pictures above). However, the next time, I will try to roast the coffee a little darker, maybe until I see some oils on the surface.
Trial 2:
This time, I put the cover on the popcorn pumper and went on the balcony again. It was a little warmer outside, so I was hoping that using a cover and the warmer ambient temperature might help me create a darker roast. I also decided to take my camera outside and film the process at intervals. I didn't film the whole thing because watching coffee roast is like watching your dryer spin your clothes around and around. It's not great footage. Here's a video summary of what I did:
Even though the weather was better and I got the roast a little darker in the popcorn pumper, I didn't want to wait around for more than20 minutes. So, I finished them off in the toaster oven again for a few minutes (until I started hearing crackling and saw a bit of smoke coming out of the toaster oven) and got some dark oily beans. As you can see in the picture below, I got a "mixed" or uneven roast, meaning that some beans were roasted darker than others. I'd also like to caution you that the smoke doesn't smell great. If you try the toaster oven finishing method, make sure the windows are open. The whole process of roasting coffee does not create a nice smell for your home. It's not awful but it's not the same smell as you get when you grind the finished beans, which smells great.
Uneven roast
Uneven roast on the left (Trial 2), light roast on the right (Trial 1)
Trial 2 roast on the tray, Trial 1 roast in the jar
Trial 3:
After reviewing the video of the roasting process in trial 2, I thought that the beans might have been spinning a little too quickly. So, for this trial, I decided to add more beans, until they spun a little slower in the popcorn pumper. It turned out very nicely this time and I did not have to use my toaster oven. I got the beans to a nice dark roast but not enough to get oils. The solution for getting a reasonably even dark roast was to put more coffee in the chamber - up to the point where the metal meets the plastic (in the Popcorn Pumper). However, it was not much more than the 1/2 cup that I used in Trial 2. Maybe 1/4 cup more was all that I needed to put in. The whole roasting process took about 13 to 14 minutes for a medium-dark roast with no oils on the surface. After roasting, the volume came to about 1 cup. Here's a short video of the roast:
Popcorn is one of those snacks that can be bought in several forms. You can get it pre-popped in a bag, sprinkled with cheese, in microwavable packages, or just the plain popping corn either in bulk or packaged. The pre-popped stuff is the most expensive (by weight) and the plain popping corn is the cheapest. It might seem like a hassle to pop the corn every time you want a snack, but if you eat it regularly, get an air popper from your local thrift store for $6 or less and save yourself a ton of money. Besides, it really doesn't take much more time than the microwaving a bag of popcorn and you won't get scorched popcorn with an air popper. It's also easier to adjust the amount of butter and salt. If you look on the ingredient labels of those microwave popcorn bags, it's kinda yucky. Personally, I don't use my popcorn poppers for making popcorn (see below). However, in case anyone reading this actually uses their popcorn poppers for making popcorn, some models have a removable cup on top of the lid to measure the amount of kernels to put into the machine. If there is no cup, use about 1/3 cup of kernels. Turn the machine on and stop it when there are no more kernels. Cool?
Air poppers - not just for popcorn!
If you think an air popper only does one thing, you're wrong. It actually doubles as a coffee roaster, if you get the right kind of air popper. Look for the Poppery or Popcorn Pumper. It's important that you use the right type of air popper for roasting coffee. The point of roasting your own coffee is not really to save money because 5 pounds of green coffee will produce only about 4 pounds of roasted coffee. The advantage of roasting your own beans is that you know that will have the freshest coffee in your cup. The stuff you get at the store might have been there for months.
Anyway, we were talking about roasting coffee in a popcorn maker, right? Here's a very in-depth video of the whole process:
However, if you don't want to make the modifications, roast the coffee outside and remove the lid of the popper as this guy did:
Note: if you remove the lid, you can't do this outside in cold temperatures because the coffee won't get up to the right temperature for roasting. The lid is actually necessary to keep the heat in.
Sweet Maria's has a video too. They also have a list of the best air poppers to use.
This fellow in this video uses a "chimney" instead of the popcorn pumper lid. I'm not sure where he got it but it seems like a good idea. He also shows the entire roasting process and narrates it throughout:
And, one last resource, which is very detailed, with pictures and all that:
Where do you get green coffee beans? In the Boston area, there are two places that definitely have green coffee beans:
the South End Food Emporium on Columbus Ave. (at W. Newton St.). However, they only have Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans (I asked the guy and he said they were Yirgacheffe beans). The advantage of going there is that you can get as much or little as you want because the beans are in a container in front of the cashier and you fill your own bag. They weigh it for you and it's $5.99 a pound (as of May 2012). They also have injera bread, in case you're into Ethiopian bread.
Polcari's in the North End, at 105 Salem Street, which is parallel to Hanover. In August 2012, the two types they had were Ugandan ($8/lb) and Colombian ($6.50/lb). They also have a lot of other great things like teas and spices. I ended up buying red tea and Dutch cocoa on impulse!
If you want more varieties in smaller bags (e.g. 1 lb), Sweet Maria's is the online place to go. Their prices are reasonable and they have some other products that might interest you. However, if you want to save a little more money, Coffee Bean Direct has 5 lb bags for great prices. For example, the Sumatra is only $5.60/lb [check their website for the most recent prices!]. However, if you'd like to have freshly roasted coffee, save more money, and don't care what kind of coffee beans you're getting, their Poor Man's Blend green coffee is only about $23 for 5 pounds (plus shipping). That's as cheap as you can get for green coffee beans. If you buy that blend roasted, it's $5.65/lb. I haven't tried it yet. If anyone has, please let me know what you think of it. The fact that it's only $1 more per pound for Sumatra green beans makes it difficult for me to justify getting a bag of unknown origin beans. To make the shipping cost worth it, check out their amazing selection of loose teas, tea pouches, and other things (e.g. empty burlap sacks for $1.50 each). The shipping doesn't go much higher than $11, so if you can get a bunch of friends to order stuff with you in one shipment, that will save you even more dough. If you drink a lot of tea, you can save quite a bit of money by buying 2 pounds at a time. Their roasted coffees are good too, in case you don't want to bother with roasting your own coffee. They don't roast the beans until you place your order, so the coffee is very fresh. I've been buying from them for over 5 years and they've been awesome! Their facility is in New Jersey, so if you order from Boston, it usually takes only 2 to 4 days to ship your order. I recently ordered a bag of green Sumatra beans and a couple of burlap sacks on a Monday and got the shipment in on Wednesday. If you want roasted coffee, it'll probably be an extra day or two. [Helpful note about the burlap sacks: to remove the smell from them, soak them in hot water and air dry them (outside if possible).]
Ok, so back to the air popper. Another reason for getting the air popper at a thrift store is that any warranty is going to be void if you get it new. So, why waste the money on a new popper? Just plug the machine in at the thrift store to make sure it turns on. If it does, get it. If you try to roast coffee at home, make sure to take precautions like making sure that you can unplug the popper easily in case anything goes wrong. If you're going to roast on the porch, use a power strip with an on/off switch. Read the Coffee Geek's directions and you should be ok. I also have a blog post with a video on roasting coffee in a Popcorn Pumper.
5 lbs of green Sumatra coffee beans and a few free beans I found at the bottom of the burlap sacks!
My first batch of home-roasted coffee beans - used a Popcorn Pumper and the toaster oven to finish them off.
Coffee bean prices are not going to get cheaper any time soon because people all over the world are beginning to realize that coffee is very much like wine - different beans from different regions each have a unique taste, just as grapes grown in different places each have their own characteristic flavor, aroma, etc. When I was in Japan in the late 1990's, people there were already willing to spend quite a bit for Blue Mountain coffee because they knew that it tasted better then other varieties. As more people from other parts of the world discover these "better" beans, the prices for good coffee beans (e.g. Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona, etc.) are going to keep rising. Recently, it has been reported that coffee inventories are at their lowest levels in 50 years. As a result, coffee shops are going to have a good excuse to jack up their prices. So, if you want to continue drinking coffee without spending more money, learn to make your own coffee at home.
If you live with room mates who also drink coffee regularly, check out Coffee Bean Direct for their 5 lb bags of freshly roasted coffee (they have coffee beans and ground coffee). You'll save quite a bit and be able to taste some amazing coffee. Freshly roasted coffee beans really make a huge difference. The stuff you buy from a store varies in the amount of time they've been sitting on the shelves. At CBD, they don't roast them until you place your order. Since you have to pay a flat $7.50 for shipping anyway, check out their other items on their website. You can get free shipping for orders that weigh over 25 lbs but that's quite a lot of coffee! I like buying the loose tea, tea pouches (for brewing loose tea without making a mess), and empty burlap coffee bags (for bathmats or planting potatoes). Currently (March 2012), they have some new tea-making products and the Ekobrew that substitutes for K-cups in Keurig and other single-cup brewers.
Brewing Coffee
While there are many ways to brew coffee, I'm just going to mention the three that make strong coffee because I'm assuming that you want to drink coffee that has flavor. If you don't care how your brew tastes, boil some water and put some instant coffee in it or use a drip coffee maker that you can probably find in a thrift store for under $10.
Krups espresso machine, stainless steel French press, and burr grinder (behind the press)
Method 1:
The cheapest way to brew flavorful coffee is by using a French press because the press itself is the least expensive and there is no paper filter. Using a drip coffee machine with a permanent filter seems like a good idea but the drip process does not give you a flavorful cup unless you use more coffee beans per cup. The other advantage of the French press is that it doubles as a tea maker. While it's possible to make tea with your drip coffee machine too, you can't control the strength of the tea as easily as with the French press. With the French press, you soak the coffee grounds to let the coffee extract more flavor from the beans.
The trade-off is that most French presses do not have good insulation or a "keep warm" function as drip machines do. However, there are some new stainless steel presses that will keep your coffee warm for at least a few hours. It won't be steaming hot for long but at least it will be warm enough to melt the sugar (in case you take your coffee with that). It's also a little more messy because you can't just dump out a paper filter with the grounds in it. If you want a whole pot of strong coffee sitting by your desk, this is the cheapest way to go.
Method 2:
If the coffee from a French press is not strong enough for you, the next step is the espresso machine. The steam machines don't do a great job because the end product you get will be bitter coffee with no crema. That's just not tasty. Look for a machine that has a 15 bar pump. That will make a nice espresso with crema on top. I have a refurbished Krups machine that I found on eBay and it has been working for at least 3 years. To make the freshest tasting coffee possible, you'll need a burr grinder. I used a regular blade grinder for a couple of years and noticed that the espresso machine would seem to get clogged and sometimes brew very slowly. As soon as I started using coffee ground with my burr grinder, the brewing process has been much more consistent. One place you might find a good deal for an espresso machine or burr grinder is overstock.com. They generally have good deals and their customer service is pretty good too.
The trade-off is that you can't have a whole pot of coffee ready to go as you're studying. But, you'll be able to make espresso or any fancy coffee drinks in the comfort of your own home. It's great for the winter months when you really don't want to trek to the coffee shop for their espresso or other fancy drinks. And, you'll save a lot of money on lattes!
Method 3:
The third way is quite new. The Aeropress came out in the past few years and some people think it's great. There are a few youtube videos of people using it. They seem to make espresso without much crema. It also involves boiling water, which seems like the coffee would probably come out like the stuff from a French press. However, I think the point is that pushing the water through a filter will make the coffee more like espresso. Since I already have an espresso machine, the Aeropress is probably not for me, unless I find one at the thrift store or my espresso machine breaks. Here's a video in case you'd like to see for yourself:
