Quote:
Originally Posted by skins
If you really want fresh coffee, have you considered roasting your own? I've been doing it for a year and am getting fantastic results. You can get started with a good drum roaster for a couple hundred bucks, so if you drink a lot of coffee, it can pay itself off pretty quick since green beans are roughly 1/3 the cost of roasted beans. Air/Stove Top roasters are even cheaper.
I consider myself to be a full on coffee snob and have learned that fresh beans make a huge difference. Most reputable snobs will tell you that coffee should be ground only right before brewing and that it should ideally be used within 1.5 weeks of roasting, but no longer than 1 month after. I do occasionally buy roasted beans, but never anything that has a "Best Before" date instead of a "Roasted On" date. Places like Cafe Rosso, DeVille and Phil&Sabastien are some good ones that I've found.
Good resource: http://www.sweetmarias.com/index.php
Here's the roaster I have. It's about the size of a small toaster oven. $300.
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Roasting my own has always been a consideration of mine. My one fear is the smell. I recal walking into a small coffee shop down on 14th for the life of me I cant remember the name right now. They were roasting coffee inside and good lord did it ever smell rank. That experience kinda killed the thought of roasting my own beans.
Yes grinding your freshly roasted beans just before brewing is optimal. I went out and bought a burr grinder after my $30 pos grinder broke. Im glad I did, I get a much more uniform grind now and I can adjust the grind fairly accurately now which is nice given I do enjoy various methods of brewing.
I am going to take a look through that website you linked to, the thought of relative total control over my coffee is quite appealing.
