We like coffee around here. I mean we really like coffee. I was introduced to cappuccino by Gary Willis. Gary makes a fine cup. My son introduced me to espresso, I don't know if he makes a good one or not but he knew that Schuler's makes a good one. Schuler's is also a great place for lunch and occasionally good live music. It's always a good plce to find jazz and classical CDs, they have lots in stock and they'll let you listen to it. Don't buy them online, go to the store, look around.

But we're talking about coffee. You know how great the coffee smells when you open the can for the first time? Yeah, that's what good coffee is all about. But after that first pot is quickly loses that smell and taste. Its not bad, its just not the same. We decided that we wanted coffee like that everytime. So, like a lot of people, we started to grind our own coffee. We experimented with different coffees and everything was better. We discovered Jamacian Blue Mountain (the best) and then Guatemala Huehuetenango (almost as good as the Jamacian but $10.00 a pound instead of $50.00 a pound). Life was better. The coffee was better.

It wasn't long before we realized that although fresh ground coffee was better than the canned coffee there had to be another step up. We decided, after lots of research, that we should try to roast our own coffee. OH MY, you can't believe the coffee we drink now! Plus, we are saving a bunch of money compared to the expensive coffee store coffees and compared to cans of ground coffee. Guatemala Huehuetenango is now costing us around $3.00 a pound.

We bought a Fresh Roast Plus from Coffee Is My Drug Of Choice.com for under $80.00 including shipping and we usually buy our green coffee from the Coffee Bean Corral (be sure to check out the Coffee Library). We tend to shop around for the green coffee and buy the best deal.

So here's the process; roasting the coffee takes six minutes, really. No one believes that at first but our method is to warm up the roaster for one minute and then roast for four minutes. Our coffee pot grinds as part of the brewing process so that's basically the whole process.

Here's the funny part. Fresh, right out of the roaster coffee beans are good but day old coffee beans are better. It has something to do with the beans "gassing out." After about four days it tastes like coffee from the coffee store and after about a week it tastes like the stuff from the can.

And Lisa still makes the best cappucino I've ever had.