A few years back my DH and I befriended a young couple. These kids were just starting out, hadnÂ’t been married all that long and were sinking all their money into two coffee shops. They were the cute little ones in the parking lots. They look like log cabins and around here that goes over pretty big. His dad was a coffee roaster. Now DH and I like our coffee and we really like supporting local so we just bought our fresh roasted coffee from them. Next they expanded, no problem still great coffee. Then his dad quit roasting. Now due to where his dad lived, in another town, and their own businesses  they did not take over the roasting. Bad news, the new roaster is yuck.

So DH and I decided we are going to try this roasting ourselves, just for ourselves. So I have been researching beansÂ…lots and lots of beans. I have decided to buy free trade, shade grown, organic after that I am not so certain. I am thinking a Sumatran or an Ethiopian. I did find someone who is selling me some sample packs. Next comes the actual roasting part. I tried to put DH in charge of that but no go looks like I will research he will just roast. LOL I thought of a roaster but I want to be able to see and hear the beans as they roast so I donÂ’t want a little machine to do the job. And they are expensive. I think I am going to have DH build me a copper-roasting pan shaped something like a wok. He built he a great outdoor cooking station a few years back. It's next to the bbq, it is a 4-burner gas unit. I have read that roasting beans is smoky so I am going to do this outside to start with and see what happens. When it is all said and done this should cost us about $4 a pound including shipping so if this works I could cut our coffee bill down even more. That is one area where we budget high because it is our splurge.

So the beans should be here today and my pan isnÂ’t done yet. I may get desperate and roast them in a stainless frying pan.