"coffee roasting" news and stories

Ristretto Roasters, located in Portland, Ore., and one of my favorite cafes in the whole universe recently launched their coffee blog. Written by the fabulous Nancy Rommelmann (wife of Ristretto owner Din Johnson) and other contributors, it's a fun read about all things coffee (and some things not.)

If you live in Portland and you haven't been to Ristretto, you must go. There is nothing like drinking coffee that has been freshly-roasted, or taking home bags of beans still warm from roasting. Any coffee lovers vacationing in Portland should put Ristretto Roasters on their "Things To Do/See/Eat/Drink In Portland" list.

When we lived in Portland, we were lucky enough to live down the street. We'd stop in every day for coffee and conversation.  Now that we are back in San Francisco, I miss their coffee (and Nancy's pumpkin muffins) terribly, but I'm thrilled to see that they now sell their coffee by mail.  I'm going to order some, how 'bout you?

Ristretto Roasters, 3520 NE 42nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon. Tel.: (503) 284-6767.

Over at Engadget, there was a post on how to convert your air popcorn popper into a coffee roaster. An interesting bit of tech work, but they definitely made it more sound more difficult than it really is. And the commenters seemed certain that trying to use an air popper to roast coffee beans was a move likely to burn down the house. Clearly, they haven't roasted coffee before. I have used an air popper to roast beans successfully, without any serious modifications to the machinery - and without burning my house down, as I cleverly thought to do my roasting outside. In retrospect, this was an excellent move, as the process produces a fair amount of smoke.

Here are some tips and instructions for roasting your own coffee.