We know that “fresh” coffee tastes good – but how fresh is best, and what does fresh really mean? Does “fresh” coffee make any difference to the taste?
To understand a bit more, we explore the coffee production processes, from the roaster and on to the customer, and we look at how our customers can ensure they make the very best fresh coffee.
Three critical points to get the best out of your beans:
- Ideally, use your beans between four days and three months of the roasting date, and aim to use them all within 6 months of the roast date.
- Get a grinder. Buy coffee beans, and then grind your coffee only when you need it.
- If you don’t have a grinder and don’t want to get one, consider purchasing small bags (250g is ideal) of ground coffee, rather than one large bag.
During the coffee roasting process, C02 gas is generated within the beans. Most of this C02 gas will escape after roasting and within 5 days it will have mostly dissipated, but still small amounts of C02 may be present for another few days. The darker the roast, the more C02 is generated. Whilst C02 is not harmful, it’s not needed and not desirable in your cup of coffee.
After roasting, the beans are best left for “a few” days to allow the C02 to escape, before grinding and then producing coffee to drink. The darker the roast, the longer you might want to leave the beans before you grind and drink. As a guide we leave our beans for 4 to 7 days for lighter roasts and 6 to 10 days for darker roasts. So, fresh is great, but not so fresh that it’ still oozing that C02 gas.
Our special GetMeCoffee bags have a small one-way vent on the back of the packet. The vent is designed to let the undesirable C02 gas out of the packet, but not to let air in that would impact the freshness.
The “roasted on” date is printed and clearly shown on the label of every packet of beans.
When we roast our beans, we leave them a short while to de-gas before we pack them. Often, they can be delivered to customers within 24 hours of roasting, and they can be ground and used the same day, but to get the optimum flavour we advise that you wait at least four days after the roast date.
Click the image below to enlarge and see additional detail:
