Sunday evening I was in the midst of preparing our after-dinner coffee when I discovered to my dismay that the coffee packet was all but empty. I started running through the options in my head — Instant? Ew, no … tea? But I want coffee … I wonder if someone would run to the store? — when Olof reminded me that we still had some packages of unroasted beans from years ago, when we made a brief foray into the world of home-roasting.

At first I balked at the idea, but then I couldn’t resist showing off a little, so I set Olof to digging in the depths of a seldom-accessed cabinet for the popcorn popper while I hunted up the beans. It’s really no big deal roasting beans, but it does take a little time, and it’s smokier and smellier than I’d remembered. All told, it took about a half-hour to roast enough beans for a pot. I had to do two rounds of beans, and each round took three or four five-minute-ish intervals (I just run it until the popper overheats and stops running, then stir the beans around and wait a few minutes until it cools enough to start again.

Once the beans are roasted, I spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet and let them cool almost entirely. Then all that’s left is to grind, brew, and enjoy. It’s easy enough that I could do it every day, if it weren’t for the smell. I remembered halfway into the first round the reason I had tired of the do-it-yourself roast all those years ago. The smell is pervasive. And it lingers. Once the snow is gone I might move the enterprise out to the balcony, but until then, we’re back to drinking store-bought.