Home roasting raw coffee greens is one of the most common reasons people look to buy green coffee. Whether a beginner or regular home roaster, our Himalayan sourced Mt. Everest Supreme raw coffee greens from Nepal are a versatile and delicious bean that can be roasted in a number of ways to meet a wide variety of taste profiles.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, we recommend checking out our first post on green coffee, which walks you through the Fundamentals of Raw Coffee, why people are clamoring about it, and what exactly you can do with it.
In this post we’re going to dive a bit deeper into home roasting with raw coffee in the convenience of your own kitchen. If you’re still relatively new to the world of coffee this can seem a bit intimidating, but most of what you’ll learn here is straightforward and easy to do.
All things coffee, just like anything else, takes practice and repetition, but follow our tips and in no time, you’ll be roasting like a pro!
Home roasting raw coffee greens
Coffee is science as much as it is art, and the scientific process starts with your green coffee.
When you roast coffee, essentially you are applying heat to a fruit that is loaded with moisture, and nutrients. Heat slowly causes the extraction of water and other nutrients, the beans slowly dry out, darken, and ultimately resemble what many of us recognize as coffee. So how do we get from coffee green to coffee bean without any fancy roasting equipment?
What you’ll need to try home roasting is...
- 1 bag of coffee greens
- 1 metal whisker
- 1 cast iron skillet or frying pan you don’t mind scratching with the whisker
- 1 colander (plastic or metal for the cooling)
- A well-ventilated kitchen / or a small fan to keep the area clear of any smoke
- Fire extinguisher (at least know where yours is, just in case!)
Now for the fun part…
- Start by preheating your pan on a low heat for about 1 - 2 minutes.
- Maintaining low heat throughout the process, put your coffee greens in the pan and start whisking
- Your arm might get tired but whisk lightly the entire time to ensure even heat application from start to finish.
- Pay attention to First Crack. Notice the smell and look of the beans throughout the roast. As you roast, moisture leaves the raw coffee and expansion causes a cracking sound (think popcorn popping) to signify you’ve got yourself a light to medium roast!
- Second Crack is usually associated with dark roasts and French Roasts, though we don’t recommend this until you have some more practice under your belt.
- At this point, we want to start the cooling process. Remove your pan from heat and continue whisking until cracking has stopped.
- Pour your roasted beans into your colander and gently swirl them until the beans are cool to the touch. You’ll notice a dry, flaky skin coming off the beans. This is called chaff and you will want to get rid of as much of it as possible, by gently rocking and sifting the beans back and forth.
- Your beans now need to be stored (opaque container, dark, cool cupboard) for about 24 hours, why? As freshly roasted coffee cools, natural gases from roasting are still in the bean and take about 24 hours to release before being ready for consumption. This part is called
Finally, enjoy! Learning how to home roast brings out the science fair kid in all of us, so have fun with it, experiment, and embrace the challenge! So pick up a bag of our Mt. Everest Supreme Coffee Greens from the Himalayas of Nepal and get roasting!