Category: 8. Drink

how to roast coffee beans

January 14th, 2011 · Bambino Steps (Kimberly) ·

Today I’m going to teach you how to roast your own coffee beans. Oh yes my friends, you can DO THIS!

My husband has like, 8,000 interests. Often fleeting, one day he might be obsessed with researching home-sausage making, the next he’ll tell me how he’s going to make us a mattress. Okaaaaaay. Neat. One activity that has stood the test of time, much like home-brewing, is home-roasting. Double neat! He’s been home-roasting for over a year now and I have to say, it’s a fun activity, makes fantastic gifts, reduces packaging waste and saves loads of money. Let’s get roasting!

Supplies:

  • green coffee beans (see resources below)
  • electric air popcorn popping machine (check your local thrift shop. We found two machines for $1 each)
  • wooden spoon or other utensil – optional
  • stainless steel colander or mixing bowl
  • container(s) for storage

Step One – Prep

If you don’t want your entire home smelling like coffee, head outside. Plug in the machine and add enough beans so they spin freely but not bouncing around like mad. It’s about 3/4 cup. Now watch those beans whirl!

Step Two – Roast

The most compelling reason to roast your own beans is to control the blend and body of roast. The possibilities are endless! You can use just one type of bean in a roast or several. This particular batch is a blend of Tanzanian Peaberry and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, which was super tasty. We let our beans whirl for quite awhile, until the second crack (in the bean) resulting in a dark roast, deemed between a Full City Plus and a Vienna Roast. If this is too much mumbo jumbo for you, I assure you it’s really easy and I’ve added additional resources for you at the bottom of this post. Fist bump!

Step Three – Cool Your Beans

When the beans are done roasting, carefully transfer the beans (they’ll be hot! hot! hot!) to the colander or mixing bowl. Allow the beans to cool. If you’re making a large batch, simply transfer them to a larger container once your next batch has finished. Blowing on the beans is optional. So is wearing a lion mask. UPDATE: see Mister’s comment for more information.

Step Four - Store/Package



Once the beans have cooled simply transfer them to the container(s) of your choice. Be sure not to put the lid on! The lid needs to stay off for about 12 hours to allow the beans to off-gas; and no taste tastes for about 24 hours. It’s worth the wait. Personally, we store beans on the counter top or in the freezer and grind on demand. I’m curious to know your method! Coffee and tea rituals are super fascinating to me.

Roasting Resources:

Coffee Enthusiasm:

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pink drink

June 24th, 2010 · Bambino Steps (Kimberly) ·

So…uh….this was good. Yeah.

I had another stalk of rhubarb lying around in the bin after making all those pies and sauce the other day and recently I saw this gorgeous photo. I manically searched the comments to see if she mentioned what the beautiful brew was, and she did! Hoorah! You can find the incredibly easy recipe for this delicious rhubarb soda here. After I cooked the rhubarb down and strained all the syrup from the pot, I felt weird tossing it out. So we spooned it on top Madagascar vanilla ice cream and the best brownie in the universe and gobbled it up. Nice.

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the breakfast of champions

April 26th, 2010 · Bambino Steps (Kimberly) ·

Today I would like to share with you a healthy recipe that has quickly become a new favorite of mine. I can’t promise you that this mango detox smoothie found on wholeliving.com will make all your wildest dreams come true, but you do get to use a blender in the prep process and blenders are fun. And for whatever reason, blenders also make me feel as if I’m being productive, and having a sense of accomplishment and nourishing my body all before 8am is a win-win in my book.  Here are the ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups soy-free almond milk – if you don’t have this on hand, try this trick – blend a few tablespoons of almond butter with water to make the “milk.” Store leftovers in a screw top glass jar in the fridge. It’ll keep fresh for about a week.
  • 1/2 cup coconut water – this is usually in the beverage aisle near bottled water. The water is fairly inexpensive, but an even cheaper alternative is to visit a local Asian market (which typically sells coconuts on the cheap) and purchase a couple young coconuts, crack them open and use the liquid from there. Then you have the added bonus of eating the coconut flesh, which is pretty dank.
  • 2 leaves kale or swiss chard, coarsely chopped – I prefer lacinato kale and I usually use more like 3-4 leaves
  • 1/4 avocado
  • 1/2 cup ice
  • 1/2 cup mango chunks – I used to resort to great lengths such as hacking and ultimately squishing the fruit out in order to get the flesh off the pit and peel. Need help cutting that mango like I did the first time? According to this video, here’s how Jesus would do it.

    • Blend everything together and voila! You have enough for two servings. Share it with your loved one, save it for later, or feed it to your enemy if you think it’s gross…but I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be thirsty for more.*

*And aren’t we lucky to have such a variety of amazing food at our fingertips and the ability to have more? There’s a lot of starving people out there and I <3 this charity that strives to end hunger and poverty across our globe not simply through hand-outs, but giving hand-ups.

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