Ripe coffee cherries on the vine.

Picked for processing.

To extract the seeds which are the coffee beans.

Bag of coffee greens!

You don’t need expensive equipment to roast coffee at home.

You can roast green coffee using a $5 hot air popcorn popper from Goodwill or even on a stove top using a skillet. Just keep in mind that there will be a lot of chaff and smoke so I strongly recommend roasting outdoors.

There are also many commercial home units for roasting that can sit next to your other kitchen appliances like your toaster and blender.

The two most important events during roasting are:

1st Crack

Your beans will start popping as they approach 400 degrees Fahrenheit. It will sound like popcorn popping or twigs snapping. You may stop your roast anytime once 1st crack has completed and quickly cool your beans to stop the roast.

2nd crack

Your beans will start sizzling like rice krispies in milk. Reaching 2nd crack means that you’ve already achieved a very dark roast and are rapidly approaching the upper threshold. Coffee roasts are stopped somewhere between end of 1st crack and partially into 2nd crack, depending on how dark a roast you want. I do not recommend going more than 30s into 2nd crack or your beans may scorch or even catch fire.

Once you’ve roasted your beans, you want to wait a couple days for your beans to “degas” or release CO2. I like to roast just enough to last my household two weeks so that I always have fresh coffee on hand. In Part 3 I will talk about grinding your beans, which many people consider the most important part of coffee preparation!