Home wine makers will be happy to hear that roasting coffee beans is even easier - and the results are often as good as the pros.

A variety of roaster types are available, but even a frying pan or popcorn popper can be used. Be sure to start with ultra-clean equipment, though. Nothing spoils the taste of coffee like left over fish oils or butter.

Dark roasts contain a little less caffeine than lighter roasts, but they lack the acid taste of the latter. Be sure to start with quality beans, of course!

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That a mere beverage could generate so many romantic tales and so much hard-headed business is a wonder. Yet from its beginnings to the present, this dark and pungent liquid has fascinated, cured and enriched billions the world over.

Legends abound about the origins of the coffee plant, but the most reliable histories put its discovery in Ethiopia somewhere around 500 BC. From there, after observing the stimulating effects of its berries, travelers brought it to Arabia, where it acquired the name.

The Renaissance gave birth not only to science and art, but the commercial production and known-world distribution of what would later be called ‘that heathenish liquid’. By the late 18th century both plantations and drinking popularity had spread to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South and North America and to every social class.

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A ‘barista’ is someone who makes coffee drinks as a profession. Naturally, that experience will shape how beans are judged.

‘Cuppers’ (coffee contest judges or professional tasters) and company buyers share the barista’s goal of finding beans which produce a great drink. But it’s the barista who stands in front of the final consumer every day and receives immediate feedback on the success or failure of those efforts.

So, let’s find out what the barista thinks about a bean and its product…

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Here’s a short look at how coffee makes its way from the beans that are picked to the shelves where you can buy it, ready to brew…

From its origins over two thousand years ago, coffee bean processing has grown to a worldwide market whose output as a commodity has a dollar value second only to petroleum.

Though there are dozens of bean varieties, the plants fall into two main classes: the arabica, first cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula, and the robusta which contains about twice the caffeine.

By contrast to wine, the coffee berry (called a ‘cherry’) is not valued for its fruit, but only for the bean inside. It’s that bean that is aged, roasted, ground and brewed to make the 400 million cups per day consumed around the world.

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