Tuesday, December 31, 2002


home roasting

long-time readers may recall that due to my particular circumstances, i don't have the liberty to roast at home. and i'm fortunate to be able to source good, fresh-roasted specialty coffee nearby or by mail order.

but i'm aware that not everyone lives in an area where specialty roasters are easily available, and many sensibly balk at the cost of mail ordering coffee every week or two. for these people, home roasting may be appropriate. you can easily roast your coffee at home. in fact, until the depression, home roasting was the norm in the u.s.a.

there are several devices available for home roasting. some people do it just a plain-old hot air popcorn popper. but there is a little smoke, a little paper-y dust (called "chaff") that comes from the beans, and an intense scent of toasting. other appliances -- like the fresh roast, alp, the rosto, and hearthware roaster -- are well-known but they don't always deal effectively with the smoke, chaff or strong toasting odor. further, some of these devices have a history of breaking down.

thus, i was intrigued to hear about the new zach & dani's home roaster. it has an attached catalytic converter and chaff collector. early adopters on alt.coffee report that it emits very little smoke, almost no odor, and is in fact chaff-free. the zach & dani roaster is being sold via infomercials on foodtv, which immediately aroused all my suspicions. however, the early adopters report that the company seems trustworthy, and quickly responds to comments and problems.

since the early adopters are very positive, so i watched a bit of the infomercial this morning. hmm. interesting. if i ever were in a position to roast at home, i would consider the zach & dani roaster -- but i would call to ask for the roaster alone.

you don't need the cheap little grinder they give you (you long-time readers already have a good grinder at home, yes?) or to buy green beans from them. there are many fine purveyors of green coffee beans on the net, particularly sweet marias.

posted by fortune | 2:40 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments