by Peter F. Ravenson

Created on: April 26, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

So, you want to know how to make a great cup of coffee. You've been sipping your cup of joe from the specialty coffee shops and been wondering, "Why doesn't my coffee at home ever come close to this euphoria of caffeine ecstasy that presently is occupying my tastebuds?"

Well, even though the big name coffee shops would like you to think that they hold the one and only way to tempt you with caffeinated beverages, there is a way to greatly improve your results in the pursuit for the perfect cup at home. You may be wondering, "What kind of secret recipe could he possibly be talking about? Could it involve sickly sweet doses of sugary syrups or a tad of a special creamer only found in some small quaint village in the out skirts of Paris?"

No, nothing like that my friend; I'll leave that kind of garbage for some of the huge conglomerate coffee houses to use. It doesn't matter whether your making a strong black cup of coffee, or an espresso drink with a name that takes five minutes to say, it always starts with the beans. That's where coffee starts and thats why we keep coming back for more. If you have poorly roasted beans or beans that are past their prime, then you'll have a very mediocre cup of coffee.

Now you might be thinking, "Are you saying I need to pay a bunch of money to get that premier brand coffee beans that certain coffee houses sell?" Of course not. A lot of those supposed premium brand coffees are owned by huge companies that would rather make a lot of coffee instead of thinking of how to do it right. The only way to have total control over the quality of the cup that you're sipping on in the morning is to roast the beans yourself.

Many of you at this point might be saying something like, "How could it possibly make my coffee drinking experience any better by roasting beans when the stuff I get from the store is not that bad?" If that is your response to my solution than you have obviously never had home roasted the same day you drank it coffee.

Commercial brand coffees can some times sit out in their warehouses for up to six months before they send it to the stores. Experts say that coffee tastes its best in the first two weeks after being roasted. Roasting your own coffee beans means you know for sure that not only are you controling how fresh the cup is your getting, but also how it tastes.

At this point some of you may be interested in a little more info, but I'm sure there are the skeptics out there that are saying, "How on earth would I possibly

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