Craft Your Own Coffee Podcast

Have you run the numbers on this simple financial model and realized you'll pay yourself back roasting coffee quicker than you think?  If you're "there," here are a few shopping links.

Fresnroast
Gene Cafe
Behmor
Hottop
Ailio Bullet

Also, you'll need some delicious green coffee to go with this new adventure...you've only got until July 1st (2022) to take advantage of 15% off an order of green coffee from Sweet Maria's.  Do it soon!

As a reminder, I don't get paid for any of this so there is no financial incentive here....it's all love!

Not ready to start a coffee business, but want to save some money in these tight economic times while at the same time "leveling up" your home coffee game?  Enter: Home Coffee Roasting.  I went deep into roasting coffee at home in Season 2 so feel free to go back and listen to those episodes on the "how" of home roasting.  But for today, I want to focus on the "Why" question, specifically the "Financial Why" of home roasting.  I went a little Excel-nerdy and put together a simple financial model showing the various Payback Periods/Breakeven Points where it would make financial sense to roast coffee at home.  Click here , download, and fill in the YELLOW cells with your own assumptions to calculate an estimated payback period based on your coffee drinking habits.  Hit me up and let me know if this helped you pull the trigger, and let me know if I can help!

Home Roasters:
FreshRoast
Behmor
Gene Cafe
Hottop

Before July 1 2022, take advantage of 15% off an order of green coffee from Sweet Maria's!  Use code CYOCOFFEE at checkout through 7/1/22.

Click here to check out Keys To The Shop (and follow on Instagram)

Only a few weeks left to take advantage of 15% off an order of green coffee from Sweet Maria's!  Use code CYOCOFFEE at checkout through July 1st 2022.

Links: Goldberry Roasting Company Doug's "Why": Coffee Growing Community Non-Profit
Follow Goldberry on Instagram
Contact Doug for Consulting:  coffee@goldberryroasting.com

Get 15% off an order of green coffee at Sweet Maria's using discount code CYOCOFFEE through 7/1/22!

Connect with CYOC here (IG) and craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com

Links:
Goldberry Roasting Company
Doug's "Why": Coffee Growing Community Non-Profit
Follow Goldberry on Instagram
Contact Doug for Consulting:  coffee@goldberryroasting.com

Get 15% off an order of green coffee at Sweet Maria's using discount code CYOCOFFEE through 7/1/22!

Connect with CYOC here (IG) and craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com

Thanks again to Cal Verga for sharing your time and perspective with the CYOC Listeners!  Check them out here (IG) and here (website)

Get 15% off an order of green coffee at Sweet Maria's using discount code CYOCOFFEE through 7/1/22!

Connect with CYOC here (IG) and craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com

Explore duck-rabbit's website and follow on IG
Where does the name duck-rabbit come from?

Don't forget about Sweet Maria's offer of 15% off an order of green coffee through July 1, 2022!  Use the code CYOCOFFEE at checkout

Mentioned in this episode:
Article: 59% of Americans picked up a new hobby since 2020
Article: Extreme Ironing
Article: "How to Decide If You Should Turn Your Hobby into Your Life's Work" (Natalia Autenrieth)

Call to Action:
Reach out to me with your stories of how you've taken your coffee hobby into something "more than a hobby" to possibly be featured on a future episode!

IG: @craftyourowncoffee
email: craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com

Sweet Maria's:
Use discount code CYOCOFFEE to receive 15% off a one-time order of green coffee at www.sweetmarias.com !  Offer only valid through July 1st 2022

Follow on Instagram to stay connected, or shoot an email to craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com

Find out what happens when a coffee person quits coffee for a month.  Spoiler alert:  IT'S NO FUN. Shout out to Chris Baca and Matt D'Avella for producing a cool video recap of their own 30 Days Without Coffee experiment...check it out here!

Instagram

Two weeks of at-home espresso trial and error (mostly error!) with at-home espresso have produced this week's episode.  If you missed it, check out @craftyourowncoffee on Instagram to see a recap.

Listen in for my Top 9 takeaways from the past couple weeks as I try to level up my at-home espresso game...and hopefully help others do the same in the process.  Many of these takeaways have come from fellow Coffee People like you, so thanks for weighing in and helping me out!

1) Instagram is good for feedback
2) Making Espresso is hard
3) Data AND Taste should complement each other in seeking ways to improve the craft
4) Even bad pulls from a data standpoint can still taste yummy
5) I need an espresso-specific grinder
6) Espresso-specific grinders are expensive, so maybe I need to just get creative
7) Distributing the grounds evenly before tamping is so important and takes practice
8) Crema is important but not the most important sign of a good espresso
9) It is humbling but helpful to put your failures out there and ask for help!

Stay connected!
IG: @craftyourowncoffee
Email: craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com
Voice Message: click link below and I'll add your voice to an upcoming episode!

Decent Espresso is a game-changing espresso and technology company focused on helping amateur (and professional!) baristas figure out how to pull an incredible shot of espresso Every.Single.Time.  John Buckman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Decent Espresso and joined the podcast to share how he got interested in coffee, how his frustration with making espresso led him to the desire to create a solution, plus he gives some great tips and insights for the home barista whether you have a Decent machine at home or not.

If you want to learn more about Decent Espresso, you can check out all the socials (of course), their website, and a couple really good product reviews  (this one and that one).

Oh, and please consider voting for the Craft Your Own Coffee Podcast for a 2020 Sprudgie Award for Best Coffee Podcast!  Voting ends on January 3rd 2021.

Thanks to this sweet article/resource by Clive Coffee, we'll dig in to the first two questions first.

Thanks to Jonathan Pascual, the owner of Taproom Coffee & Beer in Atlanta GA, we'll spend most of the episode digging in to the all-important "HOW"  question.  My biggest takeaways from Jonathan's advice were:
--> Get rid of clumps!
--> Even distribution of grounds in the portafilter is probably the #1 most important technique
--> Learn the "palm tap" technique (see Clive Coffee article!)
--> Don't overthink the Tamp

Big thanks to @TaproomCoffee and Jonathan Pascual for the time he took to share such great advice.  If you're local or visiting Atlanta, you need to check them out!

Oh, and Here's another article by Barista Hustle if you want to get a little more nerdy with the science of coffee extraction!

- How a brewed coffee lover can become an espresso lover
- Why he loves manual/lever espresso machines...especially the Flair Classic
- A start-to-finish look at his espresso-making process at home
- Some of his favorite espresso-based drink recipes

Follow Justin (@fresh_ground_methods) to see and learn more from his expertise!

Also, to hear more from Justin listen (or re-listen) to CYOC Season 1 Ep 12 where he shares about how he brews coffee when he's on the road/away from home!

Practice the discipline of gratitude this week and head over to @craftyourowncoffee for how your expression of gratitude could also win you some sweet @Baratza swag!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!

How Pressure Affects Espresso Quality article

Moka Pot vs Espresso Machine article

A few Automatic/Pod options ($)
Nespresso
Lavazza

A few Manual options ($-$$)
Article with "Top 3"
Robot (CafeLat)

A few Electronic options ($$-$$$$$)
Breville ($$-$$$)
Nuova Simonelli ($$$)
Decent Espresso ($$$$)
La Marzocco Linea Mini ($$$$$)

1) Burr Grinder (recommend Baratza)
2) Something to make hot water
3) Gram Scale (here's one option)
4) Tamper (size will be determined by your espresso machine's portafilter)
5) Espresso Machine (this is the one I have...but there are LOTS of options to choose from)

Head over to @craftyourowncoffee to participate in this week's giveaway, compliments of Baratza!

Is it a bean? Is it a drink? What makes it taste so different? Is it hard to make? Kicking off this season with a brief Espresso history lesson (mad props to Luigi in Milan!) and some busting of the most common myths about Espresso.

Myth #1: Espresso is a type of coffee bean
Myth #2: Espresso has more caffeine than other coffee drinks
Myth #3: Espresso shots taste gross
Myth #4: You have to buy an expensive machine to make espresso at home
Myth #5: Making good espresso at home requires no skills and no practice

Send in questions, comments and At-Home Espresso advice to be featured in a future episode!
@craftyourowncoffee
craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com
Voice Message

Check out a few of the many coffee companies who are putting out some incredible "how-to" content for all of us home coffee people!
Onyx Coffee Lab
Cartel Coffee Lab
Sweet Maria's Coffee
Stumptown Coffee
Blue Bottle Coffee

See you for Season 3!

Lots of home coffee roasting goodness to unpack this week with the experts at Sweet Maria's, Thrive Farmers Coffee and Bellwood Coffee!

Links/Resources mentioned:

- Here's a list of some great coffee roaster options.  (**here's a video on the Barwell roaster...I was wrong, you CAN change the temperature**)
- What Aaron uses with his Nostalgia Popcorn Popper:  Grease Splatter Screen // Thermocouple
- Scott Rao's Coffee Roaster's Companion

Send in home coffee roasting questions and/or insights to be featured in next week's episode:
@craftyourowncoffee
craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com
Send in a voice message

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."  - Epictetus

Check out this video tutorial from the pros at Sweet Marias on how to use the FreshRoast SR540

Check out this FreshRoast starter kit that Sweet Maria's offers on their website!

**Green Coffee discount extended!  If you haven't used the coupon code yet, you've now got until May 1st, 2020 to receive 15% off your Green Coffee purchase at sweetmarias.com!  Use the coupon code CRAFTCOFFEE**

2) TIP.  If you're financially able, leave a MONSTER TIP for your barista when you order.  There are also "Virtual Tip Jars" (nationwide list // Atlanta list) out there where you can leave a tip even if your coffeeshop is not open.

3) SHARE.  Leverage the best part of Social Media by inviting your family & friends to follow your favorite local coffeeshops and support them in the two ways above.

If we all do what we can, we can help the specialty coffee industry - and all the human lives associated with it - in such a challenging time.

God bless you all!

Katie and I went to the Coffee Farmer Caravan event for date night this week at East Pole Coffee Company where we got to meet and learn directly from Colombian coffee growers and exporters.  It was such a fun and educational night and we wanted to hop on the microphone to share some of our takeaways with you while the learning was still fresh.  Although this season of the podcast is focused on Home Coffee Roasting, learning more about what it takes to grow and process coffee with excellence definitely helps us appreciate roasting green coffee at an even greater level!

Big Takeaway: if you can get your hands on some Gesha coffee, DO IT.  It's such a crazy good unique experience.
Bigger Takeaway: after hearing first-hand stories from coffee producers, Katie and I decided we need to visit a coffee farm and see it first-hand as well!  More to come on that.
BIGGEST Takeaway: a HUGE level of gratitude and appreciation to all the hard work, passion and dedication from all over the world that goes in to the coffee experience that we get to enjoy every day at home and in cafes. 

Hear several more of our takeaways by listening to this episode!

Did You Know...
- the country of Colombia is responsible for ~30% of the world's supply of coffee?  There are approximately 540,000 coffee farms across the country which produce and export over 14 million bags of coffee per year (1 bag = 60kg)
- this may be subjective, but according to Banexport they believe 50% of the flavor of coffee is a result of the growing altitude and the variety of the coffee tree.  The other 50% of the flavor comes from the processing method (washing, drying, fermenting, etc) after picking the coffee off the tree.
- there are dozens of varieties of coffee trees which all produce unique flavors in the coffee beans.  The most-sought-after variety of coffee today is the Gesha tree, which was discovered first in Gesha, Ethiopia but can also be grown successfully in Panama, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Peru, and of course COLOMBIA!

Learn more about:
Cafe Imports
Banexport
East Pole Coffee Company

**If you're enjoying the show, please consider leaving a rating AND a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Remember that coffee I roasted last week with my neighbor Robby?  Find out how we did with that roast in today's episode, as the professionals at Thrive Farmers Coffee evaluate and score my coffee.  (FYI, there are only a few thousand licensed Q Graders in the world, and you'll get to hear from one of them in this episode).

I'd never been through an experience like this before.  It was new.  It was objective.  It was educational.  It was a little nerve-racking.  It smelled GREAT.  

Because of the length of the evaluation process, this is a much longer episode than I typically put out.  However, listen all the way through...there are some clutch takeaways near the end.

The team at Thrive Farmers were warm and hospitable, they created a great environment for learning and I'm grateful for the time they gave to all of us through this experience.

Enjoy!

My Home Roasting Process (as played out in the episode)
1) Preheat ("charge") roaster to 420 degrees (internal temp of roaster)
2) Set final roasting temperature at 374 degrees (temp of bean)
3) Once preheated, add 300g green coffee into roaster (full batch)
4) Turn fan to 100% for 60 seconds once green coffee temp begins to "rise"
5) Reduce fan speed to 10%
6) When internal roaster temp reaches 400 degrees, reduce heat to 90% and increase fan speed to 20%
7) With every additional 10 degree increase in roaster temp, reduce heat by an additional 10% and increase fan speed by an additional 10%
8) Eject beans when bean temperature reaches 374 degrees (assuming first crack is complete and bean color is what I want)
9) Allow to cool in cooling tray for 5 minutes
10) Get rid of as much chaff as possible
11) Lay coffee beans out on cookie sheet for an additional 30-60 minutes
12) Put roasted coffee in mason jar or sealable bag (with one-way release valve)
13) Wait 3-4 days before brewing!

Don't forget to take advantage of 15% off your order of Green Coffee at www.sweetmarias.com between now and 3/31/2020 using the code CRAFTCOFFEE

Links/Resources mentioned:
- Hottop Roaster
- Orens Daily Roast
- Zabar's Coffee
- The Coffee Roaster's Companion book (Scott Rao)
- Pew Research Center article about neighbors

Also included in this episode:
- a coffee story from one of our listeners (thanks, Aaron!)
- some new roasting terms (which will get explored a bit further in future episodes)
- a couple pieces of roasting and brewing equipment that Aaron (listener) uses at home:  FreshRoast SR540, Thermocouple, Bialetti Moka Pot, Artisan Software

Byron Dote is the head of Marketing for Sweet Maria's based in Oakland, CA.  I sat down with Byron at Sweet Maria's HQ for a fun and interesting conversation about home roasting, specifically how to get started.  Enjoy!

Don't forget to use the promo code CRAFTCOFFEE at sweetmarias.com to get 15% off your purchase of green coffee and roasting gear between now and 3/31/2020!  Big thanks to Sweet Maria's for being a supporter of CYOC Season 2.

Please send in Home Roasting questions, comments, ideas, feedback to potentially be featured on a Q&A Episode later on this season:
--> Email: craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com
--> Instagram: @craftyourowncoffee
--> Voice Message: click here to send!

Great News!  Season 2 of the CYOC Podcast is supported by Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting, who is generously offering podcast listeners 15% OFF anything on their website by using the promo code CRAFTCOFFEE.  Get started on your home roasting journey by taking advantage of this huge offer between now and March 31st, 2020!

CALL TO ACTION: I want to hear from you!  Send in your questions, comments, insight and ideas about Roasting Coffee at Home for a Q&A Episode towards the end of Season 2.  Interact with me via Instagram (@craftyourowncoffee), Email (craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com) or by sending in a Voice Message.

Links: "Coffee's Origins" (part of larger published work: The History of Coffee in Guatemala by Regina Wagner)

Check out @bellwoodcoffee on Instagram for the goods!

If you enjoy the show, please consider adding a Rating and a Review on Apple Podcasts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

1) Call to Action for the "Coffee Curious":  try tasting some different beans!  Here are 2 places to start exploring & sampling:
Mistobox
Trade Coffee Company

2) Call to Action for the "Coffee Lover": send your curious friend to a local Coffee Cupping!  Google it!

Steeped Coffee (+ Counter Culture example)
Trade Coffee Company
Hand Ground Burr Grinder (Justin uses this at home)
Hario portable hand grinder (Justin brings this on the road)
Porlex portable hand grinder (Joel brings this camping)
Aeropress with Travel Bag
Cloth Filter Pour Over device
Third Wave Water

Want to try it at home?  You got this!  Here's a list of what you'll need:

1) Gram scale
2) Burr Grinder
3) Pour Over brewing device (Chemex // V60 // Kalita Wave + Server)
4) Paper filter (Chemex filter // V60 filter // Kalita Wave filter)
5) Gooseneck kettle

Have fun!

1) Gram scale
2) Gooseneck Kettle (Jordan uses this one with built-in thermometer // Joel uses this electric one)
3) Grinder (Baratza Encore is niiiiice!)
4) Clever Coffee Maker or French Press (one of a million different French Press machines)
5) Standard #4 Coffee Filter

Drip brewing resources:
Great overall coffee-brewing tips from Atlas Coffee Club!

Cuisinart Grind & Brew machine user guide

Check out a list of SCA-Certified Drip Machines

Call to Action: send in a Voice Message or IG follow & comment @craftyourowncoffee with your best By The Cup tips and questions!

Shout out to this killer Washington Post article for helping me out with content for this episode.

Here's another article with some K-Cup tips (including adding a pinch of salt to the cup???)

Keurig finally getting smart on environmental impact

Bellwood Coffee website

IG: @bellwoodcoffee

IG: @craftyourowncoffee

Bellwood Coffee website

@bellwoodcoffee

@craftyourowncoffee

Guess who's on the show?  It's my bride of 12 years, Katie!

· Call to Action:  Start figuring out your own coffee “recipe” for whatever way you are brewing hot coffee. This will require getting a gram-accurate scale if you don’t already have one. (

Would love to hear your thoughts on this episode:  @craftyourowncoffee // craftyourowncoffee@gmail.com // Send a Voice Message

Links/Resources:

Here’s a cheap Gram Scale on Amazon

Cupify: App for easy conversion between Volume/Mass/Weight

Specialty Coffee Association (SCA)

Send in a Voice Message with your ideas/questions/thoughts to be featured on future episodes!   

Call to Action #1 (free): Grind 3 days worth of whole-bean coffee.  Use 1/3 of it for today, seal the rest.  Use 1/3 tomorrow and 1/3 the next day.  Do you notice a difference in the taste in your cup?

Call to Action #2 (expensive): If you don't have one already, buy a burr grinder!  I guarantee grinding whole-bean coffee with a burr grinder will take your coffee game to the next level.

**Articles/Resources mentioned in Episode 3**

 This is the grinder I use!  (Baratza Encore)   HuffPost Article: Don’t freeze your coffee!
Example of drip brewer that helps you monitor Hold Time (Breville Precision Brewer)
Oh, and shout out to Bill Nye the Science Guy (click for a blast from the past) and the Periodic Table of Elements for being awesome and helpful for life and for coffee.

Call to Action: Beans...look for "Roast Date" the next time you purchase a bag of whole bean coffee.  Buy a bag that was roasted within the past 1-3 weeks for the best possible flavor!

Click Here to Send a Voice Message! Share your home coffee ideas/thoughts/questions with the community.

**Articles/Resources mentioned in Episode 2**

1) Article on Water from Business Insider

2) Cool Company Alert: Third Wave Water (@thirdwavewater)

3) Article on Arabica & Robusta

Call to Action:  Send in a Voice Message with ideas/thoughts/questions; we may feature YOUR voice on the podcast on a future episode!