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Comment by mililani | Hacker News Reader

$18/lb??? What a rip off. If anyone is wanting to get into great coffee without spending an arm and a leg, please look into roasting your own coffee beans. There is a place called Sweet Maria's in Oakland that can ship it to you; however, I often find shipping kills the deal. I found a really cool local roaster that is willing to sell me any of their green beans for $7/lb. After roasting, you lose some weight so that it comes out closer to $8/lb. And, it's really fresh. The freshest anyone can get.

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Former commercial roaster here.

"Fresh" has to be qualified. Beens are going to be gassing CO2 for ~3-4 days after roasting, and ideally during this period you won't be consuming them. If they're bagged at a roaster immediately after roasting (after cooling, naturally) in bags w/ 1 way valves though, the gassing will displace oxygen, and the C02 will be a protective barrier against oxidation. Oxygen alone is the killer of coffee. Oxidation is hastened by heat and light, which is why people are encouraged to store coffee (and oil, wine, etc) in cool, dark places.

I _have_ roasted at home (frying pan), and while the experience was a treat (I encourage anybody who has any interest to go for it!), the results are nowhere near what a decent commercial roaster produces. I haven't used an air-popper for roasting, nor Alpin (?) or other more sophisticated roasters.

To be honest my fantasy setup would be some Jabez Burns sample roasters[1], but I'm not there yet...

[1] http://www.cafeimports.com/photos/images/lab/espresso_tastin...

Fresh isn't always what you want. Many African varietals need two days rest before they really get good, though Latin American beans typically need just one day.

One of the best shots of espresso I've ever had was a Rwandan roast pulled at fourteen days. Incredible.

Yeah, for sure. Actually, you're supposed to let most freshly roasted beans to sit for a couple of days before grinding to allow off gassing. But, what I meant was, if you WANT the freshly roasted possible beans, this is the way to go. It's cheap, you can control the rest time before grinding, and it's fun and easy to do.

Just curious, do you know of a good reason for this effect? Do roasted beans ferment after time?

Roasted beans give off CO2, which is displaced by oxygen during the off-gassing process. Fresh roasted beans are full of CO2, which mask the aromatics/lipids. The first day or two, most of the off-gassing is all CO2. After the first day or two, the aromatics themselves start to off-gas, taking flavor with them.

It's basically oxidation and enzymatic breakdown after that. So they don't ferment, they just oxidize (a lot of the flavor in coffee comes from aromatics and oils/lipids, so it's similar to butter getting bland if it oxidizes for a while).

They don't ferment. I think the primary chemical reaction would be oxidation, which one normally tries to prevent. Perhaps with favorable conditions, it can produce a "better" flavor though

Intelligentsia offers free shipping on orders over 25 bucks but yes in general the price is on the high side. I did a quick cost comparison though to still show you are saving money vs buying at Starbucks.

That said -- I have not gotten into roasting my own. I am willing to try on artisanal and quality grounds (pun). However I am skeptical on the time involved as I am pretty busy and dont necessarily want to spend a couple hours a week roasting beans.

It's really not that bad. I spend probably 15 minutes a week to roast a lb of coffee. Just get a small, stainless steel pot (I use a 1 qt KitchenAid) with a thick even heat base. Then, warm up the pan for 3 minutes, add coffee beans, and continuously stir with a metal whisk or wooden spoon. There are videos online of how to do this.

The biggest sunk cost, though, is practicing it. It takes some time to get this down. And, you may lose some $ in the process of learning. But, if you're really into coffee, I think it's worth it.

I live right around the corner from the original Intelligentsia store here in Chicago and even without shipping, the ~11% tax we have here is a killer on my expensive coffee habit.

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