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Home Roasting
For the truly rabid coffee aficionado, nothing short of home roasting will
suffice. Even with Turtle Creek Coffee’s fanatical devotion to quality,
there is no way of competing with home roasting for the ability to control
freshness.
Up until a few years ago, home roasting was a difficult and tedious task.
Some folks got pretty good at roasting beans using a heat gun and a stainless
steel dog bowl, but the margin of error was small, and many batches ended up
as charcoal sacrifices to the coffee gods.
One aficionado discovered that a certain type of popcorn popper, no longer
in production, worked pretty well for roasting coffee. If not monitored carefully,
however, fires could occur, rendering this method less than ideal.
Backyard mechanic types figured out how to combine a barbecue and a metal
drum, and roast coffee. Not for everyone, and certainly not capable of creating
the consistency roast after roast after roast that is needed for true specialty
coffees.
Currently there are a number of “Home Roasters” offered commercially.
These are simple and safe to operate, and capable of creating very nice roasts.
Quality varies, as you might guess, with price, though price does not seem
to be the only factor. My experience has been that some of the lower priced
versions actually do a better job than one of the more expensive models.
These home roasters run from around $75 for a Fresh Roast hot air, popcorn
popper style roaster, up to just under $700 for the latest digitally controlled
drum style home roaster from Hot Top.
Form, features, and capacities vary from machine to machine. If you are interested
in home roasting, please give me a call, as I am more than happy to provide
more detail. Turtle Creek Coffee is committed to helping home roasters where
possible, and offers green beans at very competitive prices.
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Remember, we are roasting right now, so don’t hesitate to call Mick at 803-361-6425,
or e-mail using
the Contact Us link, and try our fine coffee right
away.
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