[TheForge] Coffee roaster (Was: Moloch...)

[Mike Spencer]

Bob> Got 150 lbs of green coffee beans stashed away.

There's a book I read years ago -- The Penny Universities: A History
of the Coffee Houses -- which alleged that the very best coffee, what
they referred to as "hotel coffee", was achieved by aging the green
beans for up to ten years.  I later asked a professional coffee
roaster about that and he sneered at the idea.  But the pro was a bit
of a small town (Halifax, NS) local worthy and may well simply not
have know about it.  Warehousing green beans in bulk certainly isn't
the way to maximize turnover and cash flow.

Aubrey> But, I certainly agree that "dark" roast is about as good as
Aubrey> drinking extract of charcoal.

The same book quotes a 17th c. wit as having written, "The Italians
drink their coffee rich and strong and black as soot, with a flavor
not unlike there-unto."  Considering that the 17th c. coffee houses
reputedly kept a cast iron kettle simmering in the fireplace, to which
they preiodically added water and ground coffee, I can't imagine that
the Italian version could have been all that much worse.

Sorry Aubrey, but it's dark roast for me all the way, with occasional
digressions into espresso.  We used to have a neighbor, since
deceased, who retired here after a career as a US Naval officer.  He
opened a little business across the street from my studio and kept
coffee on all the time for droppers-in.  The first time he invited
me over for coffee, I thought to myself, "Yow! The real stuff! Navy
coffee!"  Turned out, he put about two level tablespoons of Maxwell
House into a large (10 cup?) dripolator.  The result was very hot,
slightly brownish and devoid of any possible offense (including
detectable flavor) to the most sensitive taste buds.

ObSmithing: 

I can't imagine why y'all clever blacksmiths are debating the merits
of various moderny consumer-grade gas and electric kitchen appliances
for roasting coffee.  I once saw a blacksmith-made roaster.  It
consisted of:

   +  a sheet iron bucket with a forged re-inforcing rim and
      supports for the roaster itself, similar to a hand-cranked iced
      cream maker, and

   +  a raised sheet iron sphere with trunnions at the poles and a
      hatch on the equator.  You put the beans into the globe, dogged
      the hatch, put a shovelful of coals from the stove or fireplace
      into the bucket, plunked the globe into the supports on the
      bucket and turned the crank for a while, presumably until it
      smelled right.

I forget if the bucket had air inlet holes near the bottom or not.  I
wish I'd had a camera but I didn't and I've forgotten where I saw it.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^