Your Guide to Gourmet Coffee Roasters

Do you dream of waking up to the wonderful aroma of roasted coffee?  Most coffee lovers will definitely answer yes to this question, especially if the coffee were talking about its gourmet coffee.  The only problem with such wonderful dream is that for most people buying gourmet coffee on a daily basis is just not affordable, especially when a pound of gourmet coffee can be as high as $10.

So what can we do about this?  Do we throw the towel in and resign to the thought of only being able to buy this type of coffee for special occasions? Not at all! -- There are many ways to work around this problem; one of them is referred to as coffee roasting.

Roasting coffee beans is not as complex as you may think. The advantages of roasting your own beans and making a gourmet cup of Java are that it is affordable and actually becomes the hobby of many coffee lovers. If all this sounds good to you let us go ahead and mention the many methods available for roasting your very own coffee.

Air Roasting

This is a popular method that relies on hot air in order to roast the beans.  People who choose to use this method will often buy air popcorn popper machines because they are easy to use and get the job done.  Compared to other methods, air roasting can be considered the best because it produces even roasts, the only problem with air roasting is that if you use an air popcorn popper you might only be able to roast 3 to 4 ounces at a time.

Oven Roasting

Unlike the previous method this type of roasting relies on heat generated by an oven, the problem with oven roasting is that you are not able to see the beans as they are being prepared, the oven will vent smoke and the roasting can be uneven.  Some people say that uneven roasting can add to the flavor of the coffee but if the oven produces results that are too uneven it will have negative effects.

Gourmet Coffee Roasters

If you want to get a true cup of Gourmet coffee then the best decision you can make is to purchase a machine that has been specifically designed to roast coffee beans using different modes.  You can purchase shade grown Gourmet flavored beans at a very low price (2-5 dollars) and then roast them at home with your own machine.  A few examples of Gourmet roasters are the iRoast, the Nesco roaster and the Gourmet roaster created by Hearthware.

In order to get the best taste from Gourmet flavored beans it is important that you use a precision roaster such as the ones mentioned before, there are many other brands and models that you can purchase but if they do not use a precision instrument you might end up over roasting your beans and you might end up with a funny tasting cup of Java.  Most of these machines can only roast small portions of green beans (1/2 cup to 1 cup) but the results are nothing short of amazing.