Cup O' Joe

We live about 200 yards from Starbucks. Espresso frappuccinos and caramel machiattos are at our fingertips nearly any time we want one. That is...if we're willing to foot the bill for it.

That quickly got too expensive for our coffee budget. Plus, a pound of coffee beans at Starbucks in China is about $30, so even doing a coffee drip at our place felt expensive.
With Brandon's three-cups-a-day coffee habit, we had to figure out something different.

Enter: Brandon's newest hobby, roasting his own coffee beans.

On those rare evenings where we collapse into the couch after the kids are in bed and I Pinterest it up, Brandon researches roasting coffee beans. Thank you youTube for educating my husband on the mechanics of coffee roasting, brewing, and all things caffeine related.



So for his Christmas stocking I surprised him with 15 pounds of green (un-roasted) coffee beans from Sweet Maria's.* What I did NOT surprise him with was the $1,000 drum roaster he had his eyes on...because he'd already figured out a cheaper way we could roast our own beans.
Remember those old-skool air-popper popcorn machines? Thanks to taobao, we ordered one for $10, and thus, his new hobby was born.



That's one passionate-about-his-coffee, good-lookin man, roasting Rwanda coffee beans. (one of our favorite flavors!)



The orange bowl is for catching the chaff so it doesn't fly all over my kitchen. 2-3 minutes in the air-popper and your coffee beans are roasted...don't forget to turn on your vent hood!!



Dump em out into a metal strainer to let them cool off and get ready to roast yourself another batch. The golden flecks are the chaff, which are tasteless and a byproduct of not having a $1000 drum roaster. :)
After they're cooled off, store them in a sealed, cleaned, leftover strawberry jelly jar (or whatever sounds more normal to you.)
By morning time they'll smell delicious and you'll want to coat them in chocolate and eat them straight up.



When you wake up in the morning, put a scoop of the beans-of-awesomeness into your hand grinder, or if you're fancy shmancy, a machine grinder.



Poor your coffee grounds into your Aeropress...



Poor hot water (205 F to Brandon's exact specifications :) over your beans and stir around gently with what else but a chopstick.



Cap it with the Aeropress, and let it sit and brew for a minute or so. While it's brewing, don't forget to revel in the magic of these moments.



Grab your camera and take a picture of your youngest.



Now that your cup-of-gold is almost ready, press it into your favorite mug.



Add a splash of milk and a dash of sugar, and let your morning begin.

That, my friends, is an awesome hobby for your husband to enjoy!

*We enjoy buying from Sweet Maria's because we think they're coffee tastes great but even more so because they go above and beyond Fair Trade standards. You can read about their "Farm Gate" standards and the measures they take to make certain that the people they buy coffee from are being paid and treated fairly, or even more so. Because the coffee trade is often supported by child or slave workers, we enjoy contributing to a company that does its part to practice Fair Trade and invest themselves in the workers where we buy our coffee.