Thank you Rob! This is all very helpful!

Hi Nancy, Rob here answering this one:-) In answer to your questions:

• Skillet: we use it for all sorts but clean it off with wire wool and water before and after use. It finishes our lard rendering sessions regularly so gets its coating renewed often. One layer deep to two layers but no more. Actually less is also problematic as they tend to burn. No fat whatsoever!
• Caffeine: hmm yes this one is complicated. Without owning a chemistry set or meeting a chemistry/coffee nerd I settled on the following logic. Firstly experientially dark italian coffee (either high or low quality) blows me into next week caffeine-wise. It’s a great experience but not one I can have on a daily basis! Secondly – yes greens have more but what I said on the podcast is also true! Think about it this way – One green bean has say 1% caffeine by weight for sake of argument (probably totally wrong but works for this example). If you roast the heck out of it it’ll have a bit less caffeine ‘per bean’ probably BUT each bean will have lost the majority of its weight through water content. So the same weight of dark roast coffee will have many more beans than the same weight of green. So even though roasting reduces caffeine content by volume, it increases it dramatically by weight. A nine gram shot of my coffee is therefore lower in caffeine than my local bar’s macchiato
• A note re acidity: Roasting the beans how I do will definitely result in lower acidity. I’m a lot more likely to put milk in a regular coffee than my own. Mine tastes great to me black but you have to make it really strong for the flavor to compete with milk.
• Pre-processing: I can’t see any difference from a health point of view with the processing methods. Flavor probably yes (but hard to test) but health no!

I hope that helps – let me know how you get on! I’m in the uk right now and can happily drink the milder store bought ground coffee (acidity/caffeine content-wise) but am looking forward to visiting a friend and roasting her a batch of green to drink again!

I am wondering if Rob would be willing to share any more details about his coffee roasting methods? Like how deep the beans cover the skillet? One layer deep or is the skillet full? Do you use this skillet for other things too, or is it best to have one dedicated for the task? And do you put the beans in a fry skillet (no fat in the pan)?

I think I would like to try your method, as both my husband and I love coffee and the ritual that comes with it, but are sensitive to acid, and prefer roasts with less caffeine. On that note, I was surprised to hear you say on the podcast that you felt the dark roasts in Italy have much more caffeine. I was always told that darker roasts had less caffeine, as it’s strongest in the green bean. If you have a comment on that I’d love to hear it, as I know many things I’ve been told along the way have proven untrue!

Also I am wondering if you have any preference on wet vs dry processing of beans? I know the wet processing can involve some fermentation, which sounds like a good thing to my ancestral thinking brain, but I really don’t know too much about either process, much less it’s affect on the seed and the seeds affects on the human body. Any thoughts or info you have are appreciated!

Thanks again for the podcast!