09-01-2007, 03:35 PM
Yup, Carey, that's the drill pretty much. I just picked about a gallon and half of red coffee cherries this afternoon. I'll sit and read a book while pinching the red stuff off (there should be something that can be made from the cherry skins - wine? Jelly?) Then I just soak the beans in water for a day or two then rinse off the slime. Then they get spread out on a couple of baking sheets and I put them in our gas oven where the pilot light will dry them out over several days.
I think if you get a five gallon bucket of parchment beans you can take them to the Hilo Coffee Roaster folks and they will hull them for you. Otherwise, you can pick the hulls (parchment) off the beans by hand. Really tedious but do-able if it is just a small quantity.
To roast the stuff, you can use a cast iron skillet on the stove top or a very hot oven or a hot-air popcorn popper. The poppers which have the side heat inlets instead of the one at the bottom work best. Roast it on a high heat stirring occasionally until it turns really dark brown and starts to make popping sounds. The beans should be shiny and oily looking and there may be smoke during this process, so you may want to disconnect the smoke detector until the coffee is roasted.
Then grind the beans and finally make coffee. How in the world did folks manage to figure out how to make coffee in the first place?
I think if you get a five gallon bucket of parchment beans you can take them to the Hilo Coffee Roaster folks and they will hull them for you. Otherwise, you can pick the hulls (parchment) off the beans by hand. Really tedious but do-able if it is just a small quantity.
To roast the stuff, you can use a cast iron skillet on the stove top or a very hot oven or a hot-air popcorn popper. The poppers which have the side heat inlets instead of the one at the bottom work best. Roast it on a high heat stirring occasionally until it turns really dark brown and starts to make popping sounds. The beans should be shiny and oily looking and there may be smoke during this process, so you may want to disconnect the smoke detector until the coffee is roasted.
Then grind the beans and finally make coffee. How in the world did folks manage to figure out how to make coffee in the first place?
Kurt Wilson