S1: Episode 8: When Was Your Coffee Roasted?
This episode tackles the subject of the freshness of your coffee. What is defined as fresh coffee? How can you tell if your coffee is fresh? Can coffee ever be too fresh? This week’s FACQ explains the important difference between the ‘roast date’ and ‘best before’ dates on coffee packaging.
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week's episode is all about coffee freshness and crucially why it’s important to know when your coffee was roasted...
… and later I’ll be answering a question regarding a particular piece of information given on coffee packets that confuses many people, so stay tuned for that….
Have you ever found a forgotten packet of coffee at the back of your cupboard, made a cup and been completely disappointed in the resulting brew? I think we have all been there at some point…Coffee is a product that can be stored for years without spoiling or becoming unsafe to consume. This is because the high temperatures of the roasting process which transforms the raw coffee into something you can drink both dehydrates and sterilises the coffee. So because it doesn’t spoil it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the coffee will taste the same a year after roasting as it does the day after. But this is not true - so not true that understanding freshness is the key to raising your coffee game to improve your coffee life.
First how coffee freshness affects the brew
Coffee brewed within a month of roasting will ‘bloom’ on first contact with water. And yes, that is an industry term. What it means is that the coffee grounds puff up and produce bubbles as its initial reaction to water contact releases gasses. This is a good thing - it’s a sign that the coffee is fresh so you can anticipate experiencing its full flavour. If the coffee doesn’t bloom - and in the case of filter or pour over coffees actually appears flat or even concave in the filter paper - then it is stale. Prepare yourself for disappointment. You can try to offset staling by grinding the coffee finer, but that can only work so far. On the other hand, it is possible for coffee to be too fresh for some brewing methods. It is widely known in the coffee industry that coffee that been rested for a couple of weeks after roasting is better for brewing espresso coffee as it allows you to pull more consistent espresso shots. You should know that ‘resting’ is the industry euphemism for effectively allowing the coffee to stale a bit by degassing carbon dioxide which is produced during roasting. This is because carbon dioxide bubbles released by very fresh coffee dramatically interferes with the extraction process in the short brewing time available when making an espresso shot, which is obviously not ideal. So if you do know when your coffee was roasted, and you brew with an espresso machine its worth checking the roast date if you are having trouble getting consistently good shots…
Next freshness and the taste
Coffee brewed by any method within a month of the roast date will be lively and full flavoured. After around a month, even if kept in whole bean and ground fresh for every cup, it will become flatter, less full bodied and more bitter as time goes on. This is because the volatile aromas which produce the nuances and complexity of a coffee’s flavour are lost to the air while its non-volatile bitter compounds remain in the beans. As mentioned at the start, coffee doesn’t go bad if stored well so can be brewed and drunk months or (heaven forbid) years after roasting without making you sick, but it will lose its flavour. Eventually only its bitterness is left and if there is any flavour present it will be reminiscent of the cupboard it has been stored in.
Finally freshness and the bean
Raw, or green, coffee that is stored in a cool and stable environment can be kept for up to a year before roasting without experiencing too much degradation in its quality. If the coffee is stored in specialist packing materials the coffee could potentially be stored a lot longer and still retain its good flavours. But the longevity of the beans changes dramatically on the day that the coffee is roasted. Roasting develops coffee oils within the beans which are soluble in water and volatile in air. From the point that the coffee leaves the roasting machine the volatile components escape the beans as gasses. The rate at which this occurs is dependent on roast level, type of bean, whether it’s a natural or washed coffee, how it’s stored and crucially whether the coffee is ground or in whole bean. This is because coffee grounds will go stale faster than the same coffee kept as whole beans. As a rule of thumb coffee tastes at its best between around 3-5 days and up to a month after its roast date. So if you are keen to taste the full flavours of a coffee pay attention to the date that the coffee was roasted on - and the closer you are to the date it was roasted, the better.
Each episode I answer a Frequently Asked Coffee Question. This episode’s question is:
What is the difference between the ‘roast date’ and the ‘best before’ date?
The roast date - literally the day that it was roasted - defines when the clock starts ticking on the staling process. To appreciate the full flavour of a coffee it should be drunk within a month of the roast date. Good specialty roasters are happy to tell you when their coffee was roasted and will either put it on the bag or have that information available in the shop if you buy it loose. When coffee is bought pre-packaged, it is likely to have a ‘best before’ date on it. This is an indicator of quality not a health warning. It specifies the end of the period of time where the product is considered to be at its best. It should still be safe to consume after the date shown. A glance at supermarket coffee packets will quickly show you how this can be interpreted for the convenience of shelf life! A pro tip when buying pre-packaged coffee which only has a ‘best before’ date on it is to pick the packet with the longest expiry date as it will contain the freshest coffee ….
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about freshness. I hope you found this useful. Let me know if paying attention to the roast date of your coffee beans raised your coffee game. The next episode is about a topic that I promised I’d cover back in episode 6. Drumroll…it's time to tackle bitterness in coffee - be sure to hit subscribe so that you don’t miss it. This is a big one, so if you know someone who complains about coffee being too bitter be sure to tell them about the show and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. If you have a question about coffee or a topic that you would like me to cover please get in touch. I’m on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide or email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for sharing your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee.
The Coffee Drinker’s Guide is a Blue Sky Coffee Project