While living in a city we bought roasted beans and drank double latte's at our 'favorite coffee place'. Between beans, store latte's, and tips, we spent about $300 a month or $3,600 a year on coffee.
I know $3,600 +/- is an amazing figure and if one 'buys out', open a calculator and figure how much is spent on coffee; remembering, two double latte's 7 days a week equals about $2,920 per year with tips.
Trips to a coffee shop ended when we moved from the city to a remote, located, area (too far to drive for coffee) and the cost of roasted coffee beans, including shipping, was ranging between 40 and 60 dollars a month, or rounded off to about $600 a year.
I was impressed with the cost reduction, and evoked, what I term as, or call, "compensational mathematics", which allows me to spend money on things (all my coffee equipment and green beans) that ultimately save me money.
For example, under compensational math, the move to the ranch was now saving us 3,000 dollars a year on coffee.
The cost of my first year roasting beans, sans electricity and equipment, was 280 dollars => insert "compensational math" and: city = $3,600/year -> country = $600/year -> roasting my own beans = $280/year = = now saving us $3,320 per year.
Today, my cost is around $364/year because I use organic beans and high cost of fuel since 2000 (deliveries, etc.).
As mentioned before, I have used a frying pan and hot air popper for roasting coffee and when I heard about a new, inexpensive, drum roaster (Alpenrost), signed up on a waiting list that took about a year before I had it in my hands.
At first the Alpenrost did an excellent job roasting. Two weeks later it went up in smoke (burned my roast beyond 'crunchies') and died.
Alpenrost was very good/excellent about replacing the unit, which worked well for about a year, before the ??? thermostat ??? started acting oddly and I could no longer 'punch in' my standard "number 13" and get the same constant roast.
What it now involved was taking temperature readings on the porch and creating a new chart for my roast. For example, if outside temperature is above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, coffee beans require three roasts; two at #13 and one at #08. If outside temperature is below 38 degrees, coffee beans require one roast at #13. and for temperatures in-between, there were other combinations.
