Is it necessary to roast your own beans before grinding them? I would like better tasting coffee beside the usual Maxwell House in the can which I normally drink but from what I've read about roasting the beans, it seems like more trouble than it's worth. Thanks.
I don't think so. Buying the beans already roasted, but not yet ground, and grinding just the amount you need right before brewing should give you a much better cup of coffee. Buying the beans green and roasting them yourself might give you a little improvement over that, but not nearly as much.
I've been roasting my own coffee for a little over a year now. It's great fun buying different kinds of beans from all over the world and roasting them different ways, but I can't say it's dramatically better coffee. At best, it's marginally better. And if I screw up a batch, it's actually worse.
If you are lucky enough to have a good coffee roaster in your neighborhood, then buying just the amount you need of roasted whole beans, say once or twice a week, would give you about as good a cup of coffee as you could expect. Roasting it yourself would offer no improvement at all, unless you prefer it roasted a certain way. Buying whole beans from a coffee shop, supermarket or some other situation requiring transportation and storage after roasting means the coffee won't be quite as good. But those vacuum bags help and I believe they help the whole beans a whole lot more than the already ground coffee.
But that's just my opinion. I think you'll find a lot more activity in alt.coffee; you might wish to post your question there.
Tim
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