Cuppa Joe

For some of us, it's a treat.  For the rest it's a necessity. Coffee.  Whether hot or cold, it serves a purpose.  Comfort, caffeine or confection, it's part of the American story. Studies are showing that it's for good reason, as well.  Yup, medicinal value just puts the frosting on the cup.

So how to cope when a cup may be hard to come by?  How about roasting your own stored green beans?  I looked for a 'deal' on canned beans for several years. The few places I found were no bargain, often $20 a pound or more.  Not very frugal, for sure.  But now, Costco has begun to carry the green beans at a great price. They sell them at $90 for a 22.5 pound case, delivered, here:

http://www.costco.com/Rainforest-Alliance-Green-Unroasted-Arabica-Coffee-6-x-3.75lb-Cans.product.100054969.html

In case you don't feel like doing the math, that's $4 a pound.

Why store green coffee?  Mostly because you need to really be on top of rotation for roasted coffee, even if not ground. Given your conditions, you may need to rotate every few months. Not so much with green coffee. The beans, especially canned, can last a decade.

The Costco beans are environmentally friendly and come with roasting directions on each can. We roasted some and the recipe works! I'd add that if you use a cast iron skillet like we did, keep the coffee 1 layer deep until you improve your expertise.  We'll try the old-fashioned popcorn popper next.

For grinding, we used a Kyocera ceramic hand grinder. It was great. In addition to being non-electric and adjustable, you can screw the grinder on to any regular size Mason or Ball jar.  If you break the nice jar it comes with, you are not out of business!.