Coffee lovers understand that stale coffee beans are a disservice to their brewed coffee and that they’ve infiltrated grocery stores and big box coffee chains for years. Up until now, consumers who were unaware and complacent about this fact have been drinking subpar coffee and fail to realize that coffee can offer them a richer and tastier experience. To protect consumers against stale coffee, the coffee industry recommends that consumers follow these golden rules:
(i) buy coffee beans that have a roast date printed on the packaging
(ii) consume coffee beans within 1 to 3 weeks after roasting for peak freshness
(iii) purchase only enough coffee so that it doesn’t sit around for longer than 3 weeks after its roast date
(iv) buy wholes beans instead of ground and grind fresh at home
Roasting Date
Coffee sold at grocery stores will often sit in storage and on shelves for months before it’s consumed. Instead of a roast date, most have a ‘best before’ date printed on the packaging that is 12 to 24 months after the date of roasting. While coffee this old is safe to drink since it’s considered shelf stable, it’s well past its prime date. Coffee should be treated as a fresh product since, after all, it’s the seed from a fruit (the coffee cherry). Not knowing the exact roast date, you are very likely buying coffee that is stale and has formed unpleasant flavours. Local roasters know the importance of consuming fresh roast which is why they print the roast date on each bag. In addition, to limit the shelf life of each bag, local roasters only roast in small batches to ensure they are only selling fresh product.
The Science
You don’t’ have to be a coffee connoisseur to know why coffee beans are best consumed when fresh. The smell alone can convince anyone that there’s a considerable difference between coffee roasted fresh and coffee sitting on shelves for months. As soon as you open a bag of fresh roasted coffee your senses are hit with an explosion of aromatics and scents that transport you back to the best café experience you’ve ever had. The reason why the smell and taste of fresh roasted coffee is more vibrant is similar to other fresh food products and can be explained by science. For too long, coffee drinkers have ignored the fact that the quality of coffee begins to deteriorate after it’s been roasted. Even the best packaging techniques can only limit the staling process and can’t stop it. The staling process is exacerbated every time you open a bag and that’s because there are two main stages to this process: aromatic departure and oxidization. Firstly, the aromatic compounds that give coffee its smell and flavour are slowly released from the beans after roasting and escape every time you open the bag (this is why the scent is so powerful every time we squeeze or open a bag). As the coffee gets older, this steady loss of aromatics causes the coffee to lose its character and complex tastes (coffee tastes flat and woody – typical big box coffee shop taste). Secondly, similar to how fresh produce and vegetables go bad when exposed to the air, coffee beans are also adversely impacted. When a bean is roasted it undergoes hundreds of chemical reactions that alter the anatomy of the bean. Internal oils caramelize and a browning reaction ensues, physically the bean grows in size and changes porosity, colour and density while stored moisture is vaporized. After roasting, each bean starts to expel carbon dioxide through outgassing. It’s only when the rate of outgassing drops that oxygen is able to find its way into the bean through its pours and this is when the oxidization occurs. This process replaces positive flavour molecules with inferior compounds causing the bean to dramatically lose flavour.
Similarly, it’s important to grind coffee beans just before brewing. As soon as beans are grounded, the surface area exposed to air is multiplied making it even more vulnerable to the effects of oxidization. The flavours and aromatic compounds begin to immediately escape and so the longer you wait to brew after grounding the poorer the quality of the brew.
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My Local Coffees was built to help consumers unlock the secret behind fresh roasted coffee. Get fresh roasted coffee shipped direct to your door. Its the better coffee experience. Find out why we say “It’s better and it’s local”.