My very first activity of the morning is COFFEE!

I love a good cup of coffee. If I wasn’t so frugal, I would probably be one of those coffee junkies frequenting coffee shops for a good cup. Well on my trip of learning to do more things for myself, and using my favorite site with like minded people, I learned an easy way to roast my own coffee beans.  Cathy started a topic about roasting your own coffee beans at home in a cast iron pan.  I can’t grown my own coffee here in Michigan {can I?}, but I can start from a green coffee “pea” to create my very own roast for the freshest cup of coffee that is cheaper than buying roasted beans or already ground coffee.

Of course, the first thing I did was compare costs.  I simply couldn’t see investing my time and money if buying green coffee “peas” was going to cost more than I was already spending on coffee in a blue container.  It just wasn’t going to happen!

I searched the net and landed on eBay at this shop.  I bid on and won 20# of El Salvador Arabica Organic Green Coffee Beans for $60, with free shipping.  That may seem like a lot.  And I also found through my searches you will lose about 18% of the weight during roasting.  So 1# of green coffee beans will yield about  13 oz of roasted beans.  So, even with this loss of weight, these beans cost $3.63/#.

Now, back to that blue container……WHEN DID THE 3# CAN BECOME NOT QUITE 2#  ?!?!?!   The last container I bought was $8.27.  So that’s $4.14/#.

CHEAPER!!!  And I could not see anywhere in my mind where my home roasted, home ground, home brewed coffee beans would not be better than my store bought, already ground coffee!

I can be one of those coffee junkie people enjoying that great roasted coffee right here in my own home!

My green “peas” came in the mail yesterday, right on schedule.  So of course! I had to roast some up last night so I could enjoy a wonderful cup of goodness this morning!

I weighed out 10 ounces.  I really didn’t know where to start, so I went for an even amount.

In a hot cast iron pan with the fire on low, dump in your beans.

With a wooden spoon, stir continuously!

You will go through different stages.  You will not end up with a perfectly even roast with every bean.  This is just a few minutes into the roasting.  Continue stirring.  It will start to make popping/cracking noises.  It scared me the first time it happened, but it doesn’t really do anything – not like popcorn.  You will see chaff coming off of the beans.  Right on track!  I did this for 10 minutes, even though Cathy said it should take about 15 minutes.  I didn’t want it to burn!

Empty into a colander.  Take outside and shake the colander.  All of the chaff will fly out!

See the chaff left in the pan.  It looks like the skin of peanuts.

This is what the roast looked like at that point.  Cathy said I may want to do it longer for a deeper roast.  Umm, yeah, looking back at these pictures, these do not look like roasted coffee beans!

Back into the pan they go!  As they turned darker, you could see the oils coming out more.

There’s a great chart for the color of the beans as they go from green to as dark as charcoal.

Here is my finished weight.  I lost 1 1/2 ounces, but look how much bigger the roasted bean is!

Go ahead and put them into a jar, but don’t put the lid on for at least 10 hours, they are continuing to lose carbon dioxide.  You will smell the roast and it will get stronger the longer you leave it sit!

It’s 5 a.m.!  Time to grind the coffee!  This is still the learning part for me.  How much do I need in my grinder to make a pot of coffee?!?!

Beautiful home roasted, home ground coffee!!!

AHHHHHH!!!!

Go ahead, try it!

Here's the full recipe and printable!

See all my Cooking Recipes!