Coffee - yesssssss. Growing and Roasting.

 Somewhere back I wrote about being somewhat of a coffee snob. But still I set out grow and roast my own and I did it on my first go. Totally surprised but it is really good. 

Here is the video of the process

1. Growing. I started without any knowledge, I just saw a coffee tree at a nursery and thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the little tree was actually a miniature so it less than a meter high after 3 years but is covered in fruit. I started out with the tree planted in a position where it just got too wet and the leaves all fell off. I then moved it to a dryer position which is actually under the drop line of a huge gumtree. 

2. Pulping. You just squeeze the berries and the seed covered in a slimy substance shoot out. Derrrr keep the seeds and feed the skins to the chooks. 

4. Fermentation. It should be called simply, soaking. Toss the seeds in fresh water and leave them for around 2 days - 18 to 24 hours.  Don't be too particular you can feel the regular if you worry a lot but the slippery coating come off the seeds.

5. Drying. I just drained the seeds and tossed them into a baking tray and lay them in the sun for 4 to 5 days. In fact I forgot about them and they were there for 6 days. Give them a shake every now and then but you will hear the seeds when they are dry start hitting around on each other. They feel dry and feel light to hold. 

6. Hulling. I used the most basic method of all, just rubbed them on concrete tiles. You will notice when looking at the dry beans there are little rough bits on them, little bits of skin on some others. What you doing here is just giving them a rub to get those little bits off. A few minutes of gentle rubbing is all you need. 

7. Roasting. Now this is something I recommend you do sitting in front of the oven and it is a matter of taste. I spread my beans out on a baking tray so there was only one layer. I then put them in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for 12 minutes. I stirred them every few minutes while they were in there. The coffee beans when dry are a yellow/green colour and you going to be watching them turn brown, roasting. The darker the brown the stronger the taste. For me, I don't like strong coffee so I roasted my beans to the were a caramel colour. 

8. From here I just put them in an electric coffee grinder then into a stove top percolator to make my coffee. 

I fell over, it was so easy and tasted wonderful when I was expecting to have to spit it out. I'm very proud to offer visitors a taste and I've since planted 3 more full size trees.