Exactly How Much Money We Saved By Roasting Our Own Coffee Beans

Our coffee roaster.  Love it, love it, love it.

Foodgoat has been roasting his own coffee beans for over a year now, and filling the house with the lovely smell of freshly roasted coffee has become a weekly ritual.  The coffee tastes delicious and  the types of beans and roasts we can try increased tremendously.   Plus, I have a much finer appreciation for the subtleties of coffee flavors and nuances.  We have a big basket filled with beans ready to be roasted, so we never run out of coffee.  It sets off the smoke detector every single time he roasts, but it's well worth it, both in taste and in price.

Recently though, I calculated just how much money we saved by roasting our own coffee.  Here's the breakdown.

How much we paid roasting our own beans:

• Cost of coffee per year, 45 lbs of coffee beans in one year, for two people = $293 (from Sweet Maria's, with shipping). 
• Cost of coffee per pound = $6.50
• Cost of coffee per day (our French press holds 51 ounces) = $0.80
• Cost of coffee, per person, per day = $0.40
• Cost of brewed coffee, per ounce = $0.02

How much we would have paid if we used Starbuck's bestselling bag of whole roasted beans, French roast (which, by the way, I cannot believe is the most popular roast, because it is AWFUL):

• Cost of coffee per year, 45 lbs of coffee beans in one year, for two people = $540
• Cost of coffee per pound = $12
• Cost of coffee per day= $1.48
• Cost of coffee, per person, per day = $0.74
• Cost of brewed coffee, per ounce = $0.03 

How much we would have paid if we used those terribly wasteful, mediocre-tasting single-serve K-cup things:

• Cost of K-Cup box from Amazon (50 servings, each makes 8 oz) = $29.99
• Cost of one K-cup, each makes a puny 8 oz = $0.60
• Cost of brewed coffee, per ounce = $0.07 
• Cost of coffee, per person (assuming 2 K-Cups for one person) per day = $1.20
• Cost of coffee per year, for two people = $876

How much we would have paid if we bought coffee at a coffee shop every single day:

• Cost of one 20 ounce (Venti size) brewed coffee = $2.00
• Cost of brewed coffee, per ounce = $0.10
• Cost of two people buying one coffee each per day = $4.00
• Cost of coffee per year for two people = $1,460.00

And just for the heck of it, how much we would have paid if we bought a fancy espresso drink (San Francisco price) at Starbucks every single day:

• Cost of one 16 oz latte = $3.55 
• Cost of brewed coffee, per ounce = $0.22
• Cost of two people buying one coffee each per day = $7.10
• Cost of coffee per year for two people = $2,591.50

So, to recap:

Cost of coffee for our household over one year:

• (Lattes) From Starbucks: $2,591.50
• From coffee shop: $1,460.00
• Using a single-cup brewing machine: $876
• Using bagged whole roasted coffee beans: $540
• Roasting our own beans: $293

By roasting our own coffee instead of buying regular brewed coffee at the coffee shop, we save $1,167 over a year.  Over $1,000!  If we bought lattes, it's over $2,000!! 

Okay, we never in our lives actually bought coffee from a coffee shop every single day.  Does anyone actually do that? 

But by roasting our own instead of buying already roasted beans we still save $247 a year - over $20 a month. 

Of course a roaster does cost money initially, but a dedicated machine costs about $150, still less than what you would spend buying roasted beans in a year, and will last a few years.   And of course, there are even cheaper, DIY ways to go about roasting. 

And maybe you want to support your local coffee shop and coffee roaster, and enjoy the relaxing coffee shop atmosphere.  Nothing wrong with that!

But roasting your own coffee beans at home will save you money, and potentially a lot of it.

Because with all that cash Foodgoat has saved by roasting coffee, he has ... well, I'm not sure what he's done with it.  I think he's bought more beer.

Hand Crank Coffee Grinder: The 19th Century Can Keep It

A couple months ago, my cousin brought over an old-fashioned manual coffee grinder. How quaint! How charming! You can find the old-timey ones not only in antique shops, but new ones online (the one above is from Sweet Maria's).

He put coffee beans in, and started grinding.

And kept grinding.

And still kept grinding.

We left and came back, and he was still grinding. He said he was almost done.

Finally, he pulled open a little drawer to reveal ... a little pile of coffee grounds.

Then added more coffee beans to grind more.

Wow, a manual coffee grinder is slooowwwww.

They're energy efficient and work well when the power is out and they are quieter, but a hand grinder would not get much play at our house. Have you seen Foodgoat in the morning before he's had his coffee? Have you tried to get to taste yogurt cheese in the morning before he's had his coffee?

Let's just say I would not want to make the coffee making processs take longer than it has to.

Ways to Ruin Coffee #83

Use Coffee Mate powdered non-dairy creamer in French Vanilla.

In desperate moments, it may be used in an attempt to rescue the awful (but free) office coffee, but what will rescue you then?

Ways to Ruin Coffee #21

Drink instant coffee.

How to partially salvage a cup of instant coffee: spike it with brandy.

Granted, instant coffee is an easy way to make just one cup, and without mussing with a lot of other things to clean - all you need is a cup and a spoon. And I'm finding that instant coffee is handy to have around for baking and cooking. But you have to admit instant coffee is not terribly tasty.

Ways to Ruin Coffee #67

Drink coffee from a thermos or a coffee maker that has been insufficiently rinsed after being cleaned, thereby resulting in coffee with a soapy aftertaste.

Sorry Foodgoat!

Addicted After All

Not long ago, I decided to give up coffee for a few months. I didn't drink that much to begin with - 16 ounces at the most, spaced out into tiny sips throughout the workday, thanks to my handy thermos. Usually I wouldn't even finish it. That's not much, right? So how bad could it be to stop drinking coffee for a while?

I kept a giant plastic bottle of water on my desk in the morning instead of a thermos. I sipped cold water and felt virtuous.

But it's now almost two months into cutting out the morning coffee, and you know what? I'm done. I'm so over the experiment.

I don't need the thermos, but I think I'm going to go back to coffee in the morning. It wasn't that I got headaches or got all Mr. Coffee Nerves on everyone (okay, maybe a little), but starting mornings without at least a few sips of steaming hot something just didn't feel right. I love tea, but it's more of an afternoon and nighttime thing, and hot cocoa is too sweet. Half a cup of hot, black coffee, on the other hand, is perfect.

Merry Christmas To Us!

Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution: I will make more of an effort to emerge from the wine-induced haze enough to blog more.

For Christmas, Foodgoat and I got each other something we've been eyeing for long time: the Bodum Santos coffee maker, which is an electric vacuum coffee maker. We first witnessed it in action at a Phoenix coffee tasting, but it always makes me think of that that great scene when Katherine Hepburn tries to make coffee for Spencer Tracy in "Woman of the Year". I thought it all looked very complicated as well, so I was sympathetic.

Too bad she didn't have the Bodum Santos. It's electronic, rather than stovetop, which takes out all the guesswork out of the process and is as easy to use as any automatic drip machine.

How does a vacuum coffee maker, aka vac pot, work? Magic!

Oh, all right. Vapor pressure and vacuum force.

As water in the lower chamber is heated, the gas pressure rises, pushing hot water up through the tube into the higher chamber. There, the water mixes with the coffee grounds, brewing your delicious coffee. When the heat shuts off on the bottom, a vacuum is created, and pressure, instead of pushing liquid up, pulls the liquid down through the tube in a great coffee whooosh!, into the lower chamber. The grounds are kept in the upper chamber by a filter. It's hugely fun to watch the water travel from one part to the other and then back down again as coffee.

It's an old-fashioned way of brewing coffee, invented in the 1830's, and the predominant method used prior to the 1950's. But one never sees it these days, despite the fact that it makes a delicious cup of coffee (CoffeeKid has some theories on why). We got ours at Phoenix, and all of the employees there got very excited about our buying it.

With a 12 cup capacity, we can brew up a lot more coffee than with the French press, and it seems faster and more consistent. Plus, it's a delight to watch (and to hear the whooosh!). It's been has been going on the road with us to various holiday parties, along with the Aerator, to entertain other people as well, making it quite the conversation piece.

Here, watch it work yourself:



There are some down sides: it's more awkward to clean than the French press, and other reviews have complained of a short lifespan and the company's poor customer service.

But overall, it's made our morning coffee a lot more fun. And I can have whole pots of coffee instead of just the one cup that the French press made, which has been great for the long, cold Cleveland holidays.

A Different Kind of Cold Brew

A hot cup of coffee is all very well and good on most mornings, but on those steamy summer days when it's 80 degrees in the shade by 8 am, it can be a little hard to take. But I've always been disappointed with straight up iced coffee - it just never tasted good cold, so I always went for the iced mochas or other sweetened versions.

The recent cold brew coffee article, though, piqued my interest. The technique was simple - grind coffee, add water, let sit, pour, add ice - and, although the article suggests a Mason jar and sieve, tailor made for the French press. Making cold brew coffee in the French press was just like making hot coffee in the French press - except that you use water directly from the tap, and the steeping time is 12 hours instead of 4 minutes. It was definitely easier, but how about taste?

For comparison's sake, we did a side by side taste test with the same coffee: cold brewed iced coffee vs. hot brewed coffee which had been chilled and iced.

The verdict: for iced coffee, the cold brew was by far superior - it didn't have the bitterness that the hot brewed version had.

Iced Coffee

Add about 1/3 cup of ground coffee + 1 1/2 cups of water into the French press.
Let sit overnight.
Pour into an ice-filled glass. Add a little cold water if it's too strong.

Brew Matters

Why, hello, I don't think we've met before ...
Why, I'm espresso. I'm in every coffee shop you've been in.
No, that's a bitter, harsh drink. That's not you. You're strong but smooth. And what a delicious crema you have on ....

On Monday night, Foodgoat & I trekked over to the Phoenix Coffee roastery for their Brew Matters seminar. We pulled into a dark, hidden parking lot, rang a shrill doorbell on an nondescript building, and walked into ... ahhhhhhh. Smells so yummy! We were walked through the roastery, which was just a room with bags and bags of coffee beans, enveloped by the delightful aromas of roasted coffee and freshly brewed coffee. Mmmm!

Phoenix Coffee is owned by the same guy who started the Arabica Coffeehouses in Cleveland 30 years ago. This is more import to Foodgoat, for whom the Coventry Arabica looms large as an icon of his youth. He still mourns the closing of the Coventry cafe and overall decline of Arabica since its acquisition by new owners.

Anyway, armed with an espresso cup, a bottle of water, and a helpful guidebook to 5 different coffee brewing methods, we went around the room to try Columbian coffee brewed 5 different ways by Phoenix baristas. First up, the French press, the method we use at home, and still the best way to brew coffee in my opinion - it's not only very easy, but a breeze to clean up and you're quite able to control all the variables. One thing that did surprise me - the amount of coffee he used. It looked like a full half a cup - quite a bit more than what we use, which is quite a bit more than what other people usally use.

Next was the Neopolitan style, which I'd never heard, and which I'm unlikely to ever try a home, as it seemed complicated, messy, and while it was strong and fine, it didn't taste all that much different from other methods. Something that requires flipping a container of boiling water is not something I need to try, considering I routinely trip on things that aren't there.

Then there was the stovetop espresso, which inspired the above passage. I know I've had straight-up espresso before, but it never impressed as this one did. Usually if I get an espresso drink, it's eased in with milk and chocolate, but this method didn't need any of that. The barista made a crema with a spoonful of sugar, and that added a lovely touch of sweetness that made it even more delicious. Now I must to get one of those stovetop things.

Next was the pressure brewed espresso, from the steam-making machines such as they have at coffee shops these days. Instead of pouring out samples, they gave us a bare drop to taste using a tiny straw. Considering that there were only 4 of us in the group, they could have poured some out so we could really taste it, but whatever. Still, I did learn that the machine requires a certain level of artistry, which might further explain why the coffee made at the coffee stand at work stinks.

On to automatic drip brewed coffee, where we learned about the golden cup, and more importantly, got to tour the roastery. Of great interest to me: the garbage can full of roasted coffee bean shell, which they just chuck, and yet is still perfectly good for composting and mulching.

Last but not least ... the vacuum pot, which wins the prize for the method that is the most fun to watch (and used to great comic effect by Kate Hepburn in Woman of the Year). Foodgoat and I agreed: WE NEED THIS, if only for when company comes over.

Overall, a fun experience in which I learned a lot. None of the Phoenix's are conveniently located to me, especially since the one in University Circle closed, but Phoenix employees clearly know what they are doing (at least with coffee ... I've been mightily disappointed in their bubble tea though), so I'll certainly head there much sooner than I would to Starbuck's.

Next Coffee

Time to try another Fair-Trade coffee - Colombian
let me have a slip...smooth
second slip.   Mild  good
not as commanding as the Costa Rica I had earilier.
I think this would make a great everyday coffee, or something one should serve with dessert.  For it doesn't bite at all - which is good - when you want your coffee to accent a dish and not overwhelm the tastbuds..

Fair Trade Milestones

Currently over 200 coffee roaster and importers from all over the country are licensed to sell Fair Trade Certified™ coffee and it is available in more than 15,000 retail locations across the US.

Fair Trade Certified™ coffee has been in Europe for about 14 years.

In 2002 worldwide sales of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee grew by 46% percent.

Fair Trade Certified™ coffee imports have almost doubled in the US each year since it was introduced in 1999.

Fair Trade consumer education campaigns have been conducted in New England, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

Fair Trade and the plight of coffee farmers has received major press coverage.

In September 2003, Procter & Gamble, one of the world's four largest coffee companies, announced that it would introduce Fair Trade Certified™ coffee products through its specialty coffee division, Millstone.

from Oxfam

Even a conservative campus like Case now has fair trade coffee. Let that be a lesson to you.

It's getting to be that time of the night when everyone else is asleep, my mind's not quite as sharp and crappy movies like Jaws 2 is on TV, so I'm reduced to watching a documentary on transvestites in India. Of course, transgendered people deserve safe and sustainable working conditions and compensation too.