Taking the Plunge

After weeks of research, second guessing, and overthinking, I've taken the plunge. I've bought a coffee roaster.

Yip, I've handed over my cold hard e-cash, and expecting delivery soon.

I also ordered that other essential element of the roasting process - green beans. Specifically, four different types - from Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Colombia.

The thing is, those beans arrived Monday. But with no machine yet, I've just been looking at them, weighing them (not sure why), and smelling them.

Very like broad beans. Kinda earthy, not very coffee-ey, and certainly a long way from that gorgeous roasted bean smell that we all know and love.

My COVID housemate (22 year-old son on summer break from university) came home yesterday from hanging out with a friend, and announces:

‘My friend thinks your idea of roasting coffee is a bit weird, he doesn't really get why you’d want to do that, when you can just buy it from the store’.

‘But' - wait for it - 'he really thinks you should write a blog about it’. O.K. so I’m to start a blog about an idea that someone I’ve never met thinks is fundamentally shite.

'I’m far more interested in roasting coffee, than I am writing a blog about it’, I respond.

‘Yeah but what's really the point of it?’ he counters.

‘Well, apart from the fact that it will be fun ('and distraction is the great-uncle of invention' I nearly add), coffee from the store is old, and loses its flavour after a couple of weeks’, I advise with typical boomer rationale.

‘Whatever smokes your wheels, Putto, but it sounds like a lot of admin’. Side note: there are two things both my adult children hate. Baby boomer chat and admin.

Yesterday, said 22 year old seemed exhausted by the end of the day. 'Whats up?' I asked. ‘Admin’ he sighed. 'I’ve just sent my fifth email (for the day) and now I have to make a phone call’. He has no idea how bad life is going to get!

They keep me young!

Back to coffee roasting. I suppose I could just buy freshly roasted beans, and based on the shiteload of FB ads that have popped up on my feed over the past weeks (since I made my intentions known to the interweb) there are plenty of options out there. I could even buy from some local roasters. (I know because I've been checking them out on line).

Nope, I've decided. Decided to embark on my very own home roasting journey. My boat has set sail, and I’m praying for an offshore breeze.

I’m ready to take the plunge.