I had been showing him my Rancilio S24 and mentioned that I also roasted coffee. I asked him if he had seen green beans before and he said that in fact, he was brought up with making coffee daily directly from green. He then proceeded to show me his daily ritual.
Typically, the boss of the household in Jordan would have the responsibility to roast beans using basically a pan with a very long handle which is placed in a fire. The beans would be agitated using a wooden implement also with a long handle. For my demonstration, we used a cast iron fying pan and placed onto the dry surface around 50 grams of green. (I chose a Monsoon Malabar gold blend for no particular reason.) Apparantely, we could have roasted much more in the same pan if we had wanted to. The beans were simply stirred in the pan for around 15 minutes over a low heat using a wooden spoon until the beans were a light brown colour. This was important to prevent any beans from burning. I would equate it to the point just after cinnamon or Agtron level 65. A couple of beans went into first crack. At this point, the beans were emptied onto a plate and cooled for about 15 minutes. The smell during this roasting was pleasant and not obtrusive; almost chocalatey and nothing like the roasting smell from my popper. There was no chaff at all expended during the roasting although some waste was separated from the beans during the cooling period.
We then ran the beans through the grinder at the same setting I use for espresso blends. My Jordanian friend felt the ground beans were in fact just a little too light so we added a couple of teaspoons of an espresso blend I had just made. The reason for the lightness is actually because we chose a blend with beans having different roasting profles in the pan so we had to stop roasting a little earlier to stop some of the beans from burning.
In the meantime, we boiled some water in a small copper jug we actually use to pour cream (I can get accurate measurements later) and then poured about 4 teaspoons of the ground coffee into the boiling water along with quarter teaspoon of sugar to take the edge of the bitterness and allowed it to boil for a further couple of minutes. We then poured the brew into some espresso cups and drank the result black. It was actually very good. It was not nearly as strong as espresso but it did have a full body and a pleasant aftertaste. At this point, I have to apologise for my lack of eloquent and incisive taste descriptions. This is not my strong point
He calls this coffee "ahwe sada" which translates into "coffee pure" and it is drunk in Jordan as often as the great UK public drink instant. As he is in this country, it is difficult for him to practice his technique so he has pre-ground coffee in the style described above sent over every few months. maybe a kilo or 2, and stores 250 gram bags in the freezer which he takes out as required. He drinks this coffee every single morning.
After we drank the coffee, we went onto reading the coffee residuals, as in reading tea leaves, but thats another story.
Richard
