De Salas Coffee Roasting Co

How do you roast the perfect beans? Well the answer is surprisingly simple according to Miguel, who has now perfected bean roasting to the second pop (called the Continental Roast – I think). You guys thought I was a bit nuts about coffee, well apparently it runs in the family.

All you need is a heat gun (about 50 bucks in your local hardware store) and old or second-hand breadmaker from you local tip (around 10 bucks), a metal stand with a clip and a bit of knowledge you can easily find on the web..

The thing with coffee beans is that so long as they are green they will keep almost indefinately but as soon as you roast them they lose their flavour fairly quickly, about 3-4 days out in the pantry and they’ll be out of date.. you can put them in freezer like I do but everytime you take them out water condensates on them and they get more oxygen so they degrade slowly …

Here is Miguel showing us his the roasting process he uses to make sure the beans are perfect every time.. Kids: if you do this at home make sure its OUTSIDE as the peelings from the coffee beans will start flying everywhere.

Step 1) Drop the green beans into the breadmaker (no lid) and turn the timer for about 20 minutes so they start going round and round.

Step 2) Switch on the heat gun on max and point at the beans.. The hot air comes out at about 650C so in a few minutes the colour will start changing from green to yellow and then darken slowly into chocolate.

Step 3) First pop. The beans make a popping sound when they are roasting.. this first pop is louder than the second pop which is more of a crackle..

Step 4) Second pop.. By this time the colour will be dark brown. Switch off the heat gun and drop the beans out to a tray so that they cool down.

Step 5) Grind, press and run them through the espresso machine… Preferably with a bit of full fat milk heated to 60C to make the perfect cappuchino or single shot espresso with milk (my fave).

Step 6) After all that TLC you put into making a cuppa better take some time to sit down and ENJOY!




By the way: Fuzzbutt says to say MEEOW.