A Great Day for a Roast

Today the weather was perfect for something I hadn't done in a long time: roast coffee beans.

But once I learned about the conditions outside (around 5pm--I don't get out much), I took my little Chefmate-voided-warranty-popcorn-popper to the back porch and let 'er rip on some Royal NY supplied Yirgacheffe. The beans were evenly roasted and had a distinct caramel note after the first crack. In fact, the smell was so sugary-sweet that I had to double-take--I thought I was making it up in my head. But both batches had that sweet smell. Makes me very excited to try the brew tomorrow morning. Also makes me wonder about the sugar content on these specific beans (just to note, no sugar was added to the green or roasted beans--I'm speaking of natural sugars in the beans themselves)--I've never smelt caramel in a roast before.

Add to this that BFC&T just acquired a roaster, an Ambex YM-5, that we are going to start roasting on in the next couple of weeks. Fresh roasted coffee all the time here in the Valley...it almost makes me want to cry.