Cycling and coffee are inexorably linked. Whether it's an early morning trainer session or an even earlier CRCA race in Central Park there are few better ways to start the morning than a fresh cup of french roast. This is particularly true when high quality beans are involved. Unfortunately the downside of those same high quality beans is that the cost can reach nearly astronomical levels for heavy coffee drinkers. Especially when shipping is involved as is the case with the Mistobox subscription service used by a good chunk of the team. 

So in the quest for good coffee, cheap(ish) we are exploring a new route: roasting our own beans. The premise is simple: green beans can be purchased in bulk since they don't go bad. Then for ultimate freshness simply roast the required quantity on a weekly (or thereabouts) basis. With single origin green beans going for less than $4/lb online from sellers such as Burman Coffee Traders a home roast can save as much as 80%+ versus the typical selling prices for someone like Intelligentsia. Assuming roughly one pound of coffee per week (we're heavy coffee drinkers) this adds up to nearly $800 in savings over the course of the year, all while enjoying fresher beans than you could ever buy in a store. 

Of course there is an upfront cost involved with home roasting - the actual roaster. Ranging in price from $179 for the Fresh Roast SR 500 to $330 for the larger format Behmor 1600 Plus this is no small ticket item. But in the interest of saving a few bucks over the course of the year and experimenting with home roasting we're going to give it a try and see how it turns out. Stay tuned for our experimentations in roasting on the TBD Daily.