Hi - I've taken the coffee bait. If you like a dark roast, then it may not matter which bean you get as, once dark roasted, they pretty much all taste like....dark roasted coffee. Light to medium roasts is where the differing regions and climates shine thru. The one big stand-out for me is Indian Monsoonal Malabar - bold, strong, but equally light on bitterness; this bean produces a syrupy, velvety crema. Just avoid the robustas (stick to Arabicas) - they are real nasty unless you want to blend some in your roast for increased caffeine kick and crema (bought some at $4 per kilo - and dumped the lot after a roasting sample - was like turpentine meets tobacco).
If you're going to roast your own, just buy a popcorn popper and go from there. The biggest challenge is locating green beans - not many delis stock them, but one near Aldis at Southland Melb has them at maybe $10 per kilo?
As mentioned in the past, Aldi beans in the one kilo bags represent fantastic quality and value. But they recently changed their packaging, and maybe their supplier at the same time - the difference was enough to get me to roast my own once again. If you want more info - go to coffeesnobs.
There's lots of ways to roast - it's not rocket science, but others would have you thinking it is. You can roast the green beans by stirring them in a pot over a gas flame - just do it outside/garage due to the smell. Some put them on a tray and into an oven, but the roast is not that even due to no stirring. Heat and stir - simple as that. They start making a cracking sound at the 70% stage - keep going until they are evenly roasted, which is often at the start of the 2nd/rolling crack.
Green beans will expand, but lose about 15% in weight after being roasted, so you need to weigh up the economics. But if it's satisfaction you're after, then the price you pay is irrelevant.
This is a dark roast of mine, but it's the Indian Malabar that needs to roasted well into the 2nd crack to bring out the wonderful, rich flavours. The trapped moisture expands, sometimes too rapidly, setting off little explosions with the end result beings craters smashing off some of the beans. From go to woe, these beans stand out from the others.
