Freshness the overlooked aspect of coffee

In my last blog, I discussed the different types of roasts and how they affect the flavor profile Choose the Right Roast. Freshness is another ingredient in making an exceptional cup of coffee.

Coffee is ultimately a fruit byproduct and like all fruits, coffee has its optimal ripeness.

Think of the last peach, banana or avocado that you bit into that wasn’t yet ripe. It was hard, tasted funky and wasn’t a pleasurable experience. Coffee also has a period in which it is to be enjoyed. Unlike the fruits mentioned above, the coffee bean is roasted but after it is roasted it has a property similar to those unripen fruits. In this case it has a large amount of trapped carbon dioxide.

The roasting process causes a chemical reaction in the beans that traps large amounts of carbon dioxide. Never fear, it’s not trapped in the bean forever; it slowly leaks out or ‘degasses’.

This degassing happens quickly in the first few days after roasting and then the release slows as the beans age. Adding water to the coffee will cause the carbon dioxide to release instantly, this is what causes bubbles in your coffee and doesn’t bring out the true flavor in the bean.

Just like fruit, coffee goes bad or stale. Stale coffee loses its flavor and smell. This occurs because all of the goodness leaks out and like wine it oxidizes when exposed to oxygen and moisture. Stale coffee will give you a moldy or even cardboard like taste, definitely not what you want in your coffee.

Now that you have this information, how do we put it into practice when buying and storing coffee for ultimate freshness. Here are a few of my tips:

Buy coffee with a roast date

Make sure any coffee you buy has a roast date printed on the bag. If it only has a use by date, run away fast!

The bags below have a roast date on the bottom right, which allows you to understand how long ago the coffee was roasted thus how much degassing has occurred and how much time it has had to stale.

Pick the right date for your use

Do you want to use the beans today? If so, pick a roast date with a little age on it. Essentially greater than 7 days ago. However, don’t let that roast date be too far in the past. Looking at the below image, on January 13 I wouldn’t pick the brown bag as it was roasted December 13. That bag is very long in the tooth and starting to stale.

If you have time on your side, buy either the day of or a couple days after the roast. Then let the beans rest in the packet while they have had time to sufficiently degas.

Packaging

Given coffee degasses it is important to let that gas out of any sealed package, however you also don’t want the oxygen to get in. Make sure any coffee beans you buy have a one-way valve on the pack. The carbon dioxide will be released from the bag and no oxygen will get in. The one-way valve is the circle present on the bag that you can see in the middle.

Storing

Your coffee should always be stored in a dry, dark and air-tight container. For those that keep coffee in the freezer, immediately remove it. You are killing your coffee.

Once your coffee gets to the right age, open it from the bag and store it in a resealable air-tight container. I personally use a product called Fellow Atmos Vacuum Canister that comes in a number of sizes, colors and most importantly is resealable. A link is attached to the photo below.

Now that we have reviewed what elements decide freshness, how to identify the right roast date, and how to properly store your beans - test these lessons out during your next purchase.

Next up: Brew ratios