by Keith Anderson

Created on: January 23, 2007   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

The thing that makes the most difference in the taste of your coffee is how freshly roasted it is. Coffee beans start losing the volatile molecules that make a complex tasting coffee very quickly after it is roasted. Within a week, there are changes you can taste, even if the beans are stored under optimum conditions.

There is a solution to this problem.

Roast your own coffee. Yes, you read that right, roast your own. Ask your grandparents - before the '20's, everyone roasted their own. Its not that hard. The lowest-tech method is a skillet or one of those whirly popcorn poppers with a crank on the handle and a stove. The down side is that it tends to smoke up the house. I've read about a guy that uses a steel dog bowl (that won't tip over), a wooden spoon and one of those heat guns like a hairdryer on steroids. The method I use is an electric hot-air popcorn popper ($15 at Target) on my back porch. Then there is the fancy way, a $150 (and up) electric coffee roaster.

"That is all well and good," I hear you cry, "but where can I buy unroasted coffee beans?"

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can have them delivered to your door. eBay is a great source, as is SweetMarias.com and MoreCoffee.com (I like the last one the best, mainly because they are also a home brew supply and have a store near me, so I don't even have to pay for shipping...)

MoreCoffee's website also has some great tools for matching a coffee to your taste. They even have a tool that helps create blends for you.

So, you have the roasting method of your choice and beans. Now what?

I'm going to base this next part on the assumption that you have not shelled out hundreds of bucks for a fancy electric roaster, as they will basically do all the work for you. Instead we will look at the lower-tech methods.

When you first start heating the beans, keep them moving so they don't scorch. The first thing you will notice is a steamy, grassy odor, and the beans will start to change from jade green to a yellowy color. As they keep roasting, they will go tan, then light brown.

When you get to this stage, they should start making popping noises. Is is kind of like popcorn, but not as violent. This is known as first crack, and is made by the beans fracturing inside by steam pressure. By this point, things will start to smell like coffee. There will also be a fairly large amount of chaff blown off - its papery and looks like fine confetti. The popping will die down and things will get more aromatic.

Next, you start

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