I've been roasting for over 20 years. Started with a Freshroast and have had a Behmor for probably 10 years. All my beans have always come from Sweet Maria's. One great reason to buy from them is that Tom (the owner) travels around the world to source beans and he pays way more than Fair Trade prices to the farmers. He pays directly to most growers and has long-term relationships around the world.
I agree with most every comment so far. Roasting is WAY cheaper than buying good roasted beans. Most Maria's beans are about $6+ a lb (order in bulk and shipping only adds another $0.50 a lb). Note that beans lose some of their weight during the roasting process, so your 16 oz. roast may net at 14 oz. I never tried the popper/heat gun/economical methods. Here's how I would make the decision. Buying a Behmor breaks even at roughly 50 lbs of coffee (figuring $6/lb between roasting and retail. Maria's sells it for $369 which includes 8 lbs of beans). So, if you use a pound a week, it'd be a year or so. BUT... if it's not something you decide to do long-term, you can easily sell a used Behmor on eBay for probably 75% of what you paid for it. So that's the math. As for the "experience"... it's not exactly set and forget. I used to roast small batches frequently because... the coffee police say beans need to be... perfect and perfectly fresh. Some years ago I decided that it just didn't matter that much. Most times when I drink coffee, I just drink coffee and don't think about whether it has hints of dried fruit, molasses, and dense chocolate, or it's floral with citrus overtones. My ritual now is to roast 3 lbs of beans consecutively in one pound batches (that I throw in the freezer). I do not wait an hour for the Behmor to cool down. I don't pre-heat. I don't check voltage and I don't vary from the automatic program. I hit the 1 lb button and start. When I hear the first crack I press the C button. This batching method takes about an hour (20 mins a roast). I do it outside. The Behmor has two quirks, both of which are irritating. One, as mentioned, is that it won't work in low temps. I live near Boston, so that is a pain. Second, there is an insanity inducing requirement to press the Start button when the roast is 75% done, otherwise the machine shuts down. The purpose is so you don't walk away from the machine during a roast because it can catch on fire (which I can attest to). But there is no audible alarm, so it's a pain. Another "chore" is cleaning it. I use a Dustbuster to clean out the chaff between roasts. And every 5 lbs you need to Simple Green the inside. Have I convinced you it's too hard? Hope not. I've been doing it for 20 years and I am not a coffee snob. I do it because... I love good coffee that is not overroasted (which means no Starbucks, etc.). The coffee I like costs $12-15/lb. retail, which kills me. I also enjoy the process of roasting beans. I read or listen to music for the hour or so it takes. I don't mind cleaning the machine. I also love my own coffee enough that I rarely buy a cup retail (I used to buy a to-go cup or two of coffee at least once a weekday... that was probably $1000/year). After 20 years, I have probably saved at least $5000 on the roast side and $15-20,000 not buying to-go coffee. That's not an exaggeration. The money I didn't spend was invested in the stock market. Someone else can do the math, but I figure roasting my own coffee for 20 years just paid for my new car and then some. Finally (I know, you thought this would never end)... I live near George Howell who is a coffee legend. I met him at his company and among other things told him I liked my beans best after resting 5-6 days, not 2-3. He agreed. But it doesn't matter what I like. Roasting will consistently give you $12 results for half the price. But only if you enjoy the process. On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 7:28:13 PM UTC-4, Deacon Patrick wrote: > > I’ve toyed with the idea of roasting my own coffee. Then Kellie goes and > mentions Sweet Maria’s and I find this: > > https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/heavy-gauge-stovetop-popper-with-ss-base > > Experiences and recommendations? Is it practical to roast your own coffee? > Benefits? > > With abandon, > Patrick > > www.CredoFamily.org > www.MindYourHeadCoop.org > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
