Make-at-Home: Roast Your Own Coffee Beans

I consider my dad to be somewhat of an expert on coffee. He roasts his own beans and keeps a notebook of the different roasts and the roasting times - it almost strikes me as an art form. So, when it came time for the Stovetop Baristas to do a video post I thought, who better to help me out?

While I was home over Thanksgiving break I asked my dad if we could do a how-to video with him on roasting coffee beans. He agreed, but then he had an idea - why not do a video on roasting coffee beans in a hot air popper? Because, after all, we are the Stovetop Baristas and we're all about creating coffee without the fancy machines. Great call, Dad. So here is our video on roasting coffee beans in a hot air popper!

(As a note, when roasting coffee beans don't forget you have to start with the green, unroasted beans! You can order them online or check a coffee store near you.)

Just in case anyone was wondering, the coffee beans turned out great. I had some lovely  homemade coffee in my apartment a couple days later! Special thanks to coffeegeek.com where I found the basic instructions!

-- Alissa and Becky

Related articles

• Roast Your Own Coffee (patspapers.com)
• Home roasting coffee in a popcorn popper (cookinginmexico.com)

Make-at-Home "Snowflake Lattes"

The weather in Bowling Green has been pretty typical of Ohio lately - it's 64 degrees one minute, and 45 the next. So with the onset of cold weather and winter, we have been dying to make peppermint mochas because what better to welcome one of the more brutal seasons with?

We decided to consult our handy "I love coffee!" book, and discovered a recipe for a "Snowflake Latte." We made it in our kitchen as per usual so we could share it with you here. We hope it warms up your day (or night) as much as it did ours . . .

What you'll need:
-Vanilla-flavored syrup
-Peppermint-flavored syrup (or peppermint extract and sugar, we'll get into that later)
-A strong pot of coffee
-Milk
-A stovetop and some pots (of course!)

Make-at-Home Irish Coffee

Our make-at-home posts have been all about rescuing you from those mid-week doldrums. We didn't want to stop now. Although, while our first make-at-home was comforting (pumpkin spice lattes) and the second was all about a burst of energy (chocolate-covered coffee beans), we thought we'd kick it up another notch. So to cure this week's case of the blahs why not try some Irish coffee?

We found the steps online here, and they even organized it into a nice little picture slide show which we loved. So let's get started!

Make-at-Home Cappuccinos

Continuing in our make-at-home series, this week we tackled cappuccinos. And we put together a nice, little slideshow to walk you through making them yourself . . . You're welcome.









--Becky and Alissa

Make-at-Home Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans

We found another cure for those dreary days when getting out of bed seems impossible, or you need that midday pick-me-up: chocolate covered coffee beans. Not only are they quick and easy to make, they taste delicious and give you a little extra boost. And we're all about that.

So let's get started . . .

First, you have to create a double boiler on your stovetop. We used a pot filled with water and placed a bowl on top. Once you have that set up, pour some chocolate chips into the bowl or top part of your boiler. You can use as many chocolate chips as you'd like, but we found out it doesn't take too many.

Make-at-Home Pumpkin Spice Lattes

We love fall. The sweaters, the scarves, the leaves - it's a lovely season. What we don't love about fall though is those cold, dreary days that, in Bowling Green, are often accompanied by rain. But we have the perfect cure for those days that make you want to stay in bed - pumpkin spice lattes. It's one of our favorites at Starbucks, so we thought we would research ways to make it ourselves, Stovetop Baristas style.

We found a recipe online, which you can also find here. It was really simple to use and what's better, the extra ingredients we didn't have on hand (pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and whipped cream) only ran us about $10. Plus, if you don't want to spend the money on pumpkin pie spice you can substitute with cinnamon.