Coffee - whats the situation?

don't store it in the fridge. store the whole beans at room temperature and grind right before brewing.

^^^Yes! The only way to drink it. Well, not the only way but, certainly the awesome way.

Your best bang for the buck is to buy bulk, vacuum seal your own freezer packs of whatever size you can consume in about a week's time, then pull a pack from the freezer to thaw a day before you want to start using it.

if you REALLY want the best bang for the buck, buy the coffee green and then roast in small batches that are about 7-10 days' worth

This! My small roaster gets me 3 days worth in one batch.. Always fresh and delish.

No fridge, no freezer, no absorbing moisture and odd flavors!! Stored in an airtight canister whole, ground right before brewing.

That is amazing...where do you guys buy the beans?

Your best bang for the buck is to buy bulk, vacuum seal your own freezer packs of whatever size you can consume in about a week's time, then pull a pack from the freezer to thaw a day before you want to start using it.

if you REALLY want the best bang for the buck, buy the coffee green and then roast in small batches that are about 7-10 days' worth

This! My small roaster gets me 3 days worth in one batch.. Always fresh and delish.

No fridge, no freezer, no absorbing moisture and odd flavors!! Stored in an airtight canister whole, ground right before brewing.

That is amazing...where do you guys buy the beans?

I always use http://sweetmarias.com/

The downside is that now I'm spoiled rotten when it comes to ultra high quality coffee.

One cup of coffee snob please :P

Nothing wrong with black coffee.
I prefer white or green tea with a few dashes of cayenne pepper...really wakes you up in the morning!

I usually drink a cup or two a day. AND WITH French Vanilla creamer. I am still losing weight Also, coffee is an appetite suppressant. Just sayin'

One cup of coffee snob please :P

Guilty.

Most home tabletop roasters give off very little to no smoke. And over the internet, there is pretty much every bean in the world avaiable to you green. At $4 to $8 per pound for most and more for Kona or Jamiacan Blue Mountian. Do what you like but those are not 2 valid reasons not to home roast.

ETA: You can also buy some grades, like AAAA that aren't generally available in a preroasted form.

Yeah, I've experimented, but I can't really get the roast quality with the low-smoke home roasters that I get from the places that I buy.

With that said, I'll admit that it's been a while, and I think things have improved since I last tried it. Plus, it could just be that I suck at roasting coffee.

Regardless, I wouldn't discourage anyone from home-roasting. I may go that route again -- but if I pick up another pricey "hobby," my wife might kill me.

Gotta work the cost benefit analysis. I have Fresh Roast SR500, you can adjust time and roast temp, smoke free. Cost about $170. Burr grinder, cost about $50. Total $220

I consume about to 3 lbs per week at an average price of $6 per lb. Saving of about $6 per lb x3= $18 per week.
$220 / $18 =12.22 weeks to payback. Pure cost saving from there. Better quality than you can likely buy, total control over roast profile YOU PRACTICALLY CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO DO THIS!! At least that worked on my wife. And now she would never go back. She's spoiled!!

BTW, another great supplier is Invalsa out the Boston area. They are Bolivian and carry some of the best tasting micro lot AAAA Cumbre I've ever tasted!! They specialize in coffees from Central and South America.

Gotta work the cost benefit analysis. I have Fresh Roast SR500, you can adjust time and roast temp, smoke free. Cost about $170. Burr grinder, cost about $50. Total $220

I consume about to 3 lbs per week at an average price of $6 per lb. Saving of about $6 per lb x3= $18 per week.
$220 / $18 =12.22 weeks to payback. Pure cost saving from there. Better quality than you can likely buy, total control over roast profile YOU PRACTICALLY CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO DO THIS!! At least that worked on my wife. And now she would never go back. She's spoiled!!

For me, it's less about whether home-roasting would be more cost-effective, and more about the fact that I'd want to buy 6 tons of different green coffees & roast all of them 25 ways to Sunday. I tend to get a little nuts with new toys. ;-)

And yeah, my wife's already picked up the good coffee habit.

Lolz!! I'm allowed 2-5 lb bags per purchase when we are running out of what we've got. I hear you!!

I'm having two cups as I type this. Bad part is I have to add a tad bit of sugar.

Try a lighter roast and/or a different origin. Some of my favorites: Peru, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Brazil, all light or medium at the most.

I'm glad we are having an important discussion in the forums for once....

Has anyone else here participated in an Ethiopian Coffee ceremony? It's not really a "ceremony" as much as a social event that revolves around roasting and brewing coffee in a traditional way.... It was always served to me with lots of sugar. It was amazeballs.

don't store it in the fridge. store the whole beans at room temperature and grind right before brewing.

This. And enjoy it. I drink coffee everyday.

Your best bang for the buck is to buy bulk, vacuum seal your own freezer packs of whatever size you can consume in about a week's time, then pull a pack from the freezer to thaw a day before you want to start using it.

if you REALLY want the best bang for the buck, buy the coffee green and then roast in small batches that are about 7-10 days' worth

If you REALLY, REALLY want the best bang for the buck, buy the coffee green and roast in small batches. Then once you freshly grind it, just eat the grounds without the whole time consuming brewing process. :laugh:

I'm glad we are having an important discussion in the forums for once....

Has anyone else here participated in an Ethiopian Coffee ceremony? It's not really a "ceremony" as much as a social event that revolves around roasting and brewing coffee in a traditional way.... It was always served to me with lots of sugar. It was amazeballs.

I'll have to check it out. I currently don't have any Jiracheffe but might order some next round. Haven't had it in awhile.

And your are correct! A truly important and valuable discussion in the forums for once! :drinker: (think of him as drinkng coffee)

I drink 2 cups of coffee every morning with regular half and half and have been the same weight for 9 years. It has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss...in fact if I didn't have my coffee I wouldn't have half the energy to plow through my intense morning workouts.

I'm having two cups as I type this. Bad part is I have to add a tad bit of sugar.

Try a lighter roast and/or a different origin. Some of my favorites: Peru, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Brazil, all light or medium at the most.

Love Gutemalan Pea Berr! Contrary to popular belief, the darker the roast, the lower the caffiene. I tend to like a city roast and no darker as it brings out the complexity of the bean but some coffees just ask to roasted darker to get the best out of them.

To the OP, nothing wring with a couple of cups of coffee per day from a weight loss point of view.

Yep, Sumatran is one that I think is a little better roasted darker, and Colombian, since I'm not a big fan of the taste otherwise. Just to name a couple. But I typically don't drink them solo; I may use them in an espresso blend to add body or a more complete flavor profile.

Dark roasts having lower caffeine thing is true, though barely noticeable (~0.06% difference). You can more greatly impact your caffeine levels by changing your brew methods, dosing, grinding, water temperature, etc. Caffeine levels can fluctuate from crop to crop, origin to origin, and obviously species to species. You can roast the hell out of an Ethiopian bean but it'll still have more caffeine in it than a light-roasted Yemeni (by almost 0.5%).

If you want the most caffeine possible, they should take a light-roasted robusta from Benin or Togo, grind it fine, and brew it in a slow drip brewer, or brew for a long time in French press, or probably Turkish style since I believe you boil it and it's ground to practically powder.

On the otherhand, if you want less caffeine, there are some great decaf beans out there, you just need to look for them and not cheap out. Roasting your own is a good way to end up with a great-tasting decaf. Alternately, you can cold-brew some coarse-ground Indian or Yemeni beans, or use a fast brewing method such as espresso, which reduces the caffeine by about half compared to drip.

As I notice caffeine affects me negatively, I try to stick with 1, MAYBE 2, cups per day, and the rest I drink decaf because I love coffee (for the taste, not the jolt). And I get a lot of use out of my Gaggia espresso machine - long black (like an Americano, but way better) is my go-to when I want a cup that will last me more than the 20 seconds I take to enjoy my double shots.

This thread has probably changed my life.

Before this thread I did not know that you could buy unroasted coffee beans, or that you could and it would cost nearly 50% less than the already roasted beans I currently buy. And you can roast them in a popcorn popper! My mind has been blown wide open! I cannot wait to start this new "hobby" of mine when the sampler from sweetmarias.com arrives.

Thank you, Taso!

You won't regret it! But a lot of people don't recommend getting a sampler pack, but rather pick one origin and get at least two pounds of that and then experiment until you get it right. That being said, I may be less picky than those people, because I got a few pounds of four different types and haven't tossed any of my roasts - it all tastes great! Better than anything I bought pre-roasted, anyhow, but the options in my neck of the woods are kinda slim anyhow.

I drink 2 cups of coffee every morning with regular half and half and have been the same weight for 9 years. It has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss...in fact if I didn't have my coffee I wouldn't have half the energy to plow through my intense morning workouts.

Coffee doesn't really give you energy - MAYBE 2 calories per cup, if you're lucky. The caffeine does stimulate your central nervous system, however, that is completely different.