Saturday 24 May 2008

Microwaved Coffee Roasting pt.2

So after a quick revision of the rum used, i've switched to a thicker plastic container, which has been used many times for heating up my sons baby food, and therefor shouldn't melt (should it?!)

This time the whole was placed in the base of the container with the lid affixed after the raw coffee is inserted.  Don't know if you can see them, but i've also cut small holes into this container.



This time I roasted for 2mins checking the roast every 30 seconds.

I hit the first crack at around 1:30 and finnished the roast at 2mins exactly. This is what came out.



By no means perfect, but no too bad for a second attempt. This however, is what the container looked like.



Clearly some more work is needed here, but the coffee didn't look all the bad. So I removed the obviousely scorched beans and ground the rest in the k10, set for a cupping.



As the coffee was some really old green beans that had been lurking in the back of my coffee cupboard, i'll save you from any tasting notes as they'd really be of no use, suffice to say that the coffee tasted like coffee. Just as it should. Nothing deeply culinary about it, but not too bad at all.

The next step will be getting some fresh green whose profile I understand, and so will be able to compare against. And yet another revision of the drum. It seems that it was the direct heat from the actual beans that melted the plastic, and not the ambiant heat of the atmospere or gas. Consequently i think the next revision will be cutting out some silicon based bakeware to fit into the plastic drum/container and thus, remove any direct contact with the plastic. Hopefully this'll help distribute the surface heat more evenly and result in less scorching of the beans, but only time will tell.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you need a cooling system for the coffee after the microwave roast i've got ya covered lol.
www.coffeetrek.blogspot.com

ozzyaaron said...

Would you be able to use some sort of Pyrex container or pyrex like container ? Plastic must leave a residue on the beans plus there is all teh talk of the carcinogens that are released into food when the plastic is microwaved.

Sorry I don't know anything about roasting, I just thought pyrex will put up with the heat and is better for you.

Anonymous said...

i know this is an old thread, but try using a glass purex container! the plastic ones wont be able to withstand the heat thats required for roasting. coffee should be properly roasted around 450-530 degrees Fahrenheit, and if its reaching that, which im guessing it is, then its no wonder the plastic is melting.