S4: Episode 10: Coffee’s Secret Ingredient: Time
In this episode we’re exploring the impact of time on every stage of your coffee’s journey from bush to brew. From the slow development of the coffee cherry to the fleeting window when a roasted bean is at its peak. We delve into the influence that time has on your coffee and why it pays to be curious about when your coffee was harvested and roasted. This week’s FACQ reveals just when a coffee is likely to taste at its best.
Buy my puzzle book ‘Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’ on Amazon:
amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.nl, amazon.pl, amazon.se, amazon.co.jp, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.com.br
Making coffee breaks better, one wordsearch at a time!
Get in touch!
Please note that although I read all texts, I don’t have the facility to reply to them, but you can also get in touch via Instagram and email.
Email: thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com
Instagram: @thecoffeedrinkersguide
Lusona Publishing and Media Limited website: https://www.lusonapub.co.uk
-
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 somewhat abstract as I consider the influence of time on the quality of the coffee you drink…and later I’ll be answering a question about when a coffee will taste its best, taking all factors into account, so you should definitely stay tuned for that …
Chaucer famously wrote that time and tide wait for no man. I can’t help speculating whether if coffee had been around in England in the1300s, he would have included it too. “Time, tide and coffee wait for no one”. Perhaps not, but it is true. Despite our various attempts to delay the staling and aging of coffee, with time it is as inevitable as the tide. What I find fascinating is the range of timescales at play that influence the coffee bean. From the months that it takes for cherries to mature on the coffee bush to the split second decision to end a roast to achieve the best development of the bean. Many factors operating on different timescales ultimately coming together to a point in time when the coffee will taste at its absolute best - and then its gone. An ephemeral pleasure indeed.
So firstly time and the brew
You could say that time is the silent ingredient in brewing coffee. Fundamentally, before we even get to brewing the coffee it plays its part through the process of staling, influencing the flavours that are available to actually be extracted. The loss of flavour with age can be offset - to a certain extent - by using more coffee per brew to maintain its ‘strength’ or intensity of flavour. This is one reason why it’s handy to know when your coffee was roasted. Time also has a crucial role in the different brewing methods with each having their own optimal brewing time. From the 20-30 second shot of the espresso brewing method to the 24 hour steep for cold brew, time is an essential factor in any brewing recipe to achieve the best tasting brew. With methods such as filter and Aeropress different lengths of brewing time can be employed to manipulate the character of the coffee. So time itself is an essential tool in every barista's playbook.
Next time and the taste
It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that the clock is always ticking on flavour. Your chance of experiencing the coffee at its absolute peak of flavour comes down to when you are tasting it in relation to when it was harvested and when it was roasted. At its peak the coffee will be full flavoured, fresh and lively. Beyond its peak it will be at best dull, and at worst, musty and woody. If your coffee doesn’t taste amazing - before you blame the barista, the brew method or the beans - consider whether time may have had a hand in it.
Finally time and the bean
I find it fascinating that in its green and roasted states coffee behaves similarly but over different timescales. It’s almost fractal in a way. You are probably wondering what on earth I’m talking about. Bear with me. Green or raw coffee needs to settle after harvesting and processing for a period of 2 to 6 months depending on how the coffee has been processed. After this point it should behave consistently when its roasted and taste at its best for the following 4 to 6 months. A year after harvesting (even with good storage) it will begin to age meaning it will lose its bright fruity acidity and take on papery, woody even baggy flavours which only get worse as time goes on. The term baggy is used for coffees that taste like the coffee sack they were stored in for too long. Poor processing and poor storage will bring all these stages forward in the life of the coffee. When the beans are roasted they go through a similar progression in flavour but over a much shorter timescale. After roasting the coffee needs 4 to 5 days to rest and degas. During this period it will be inconsistent from cup to cup when brewed. From 5 days to 3 weeks after roasting it should taste at its best and brew consistently. Toward the end of this period and from the fourth week onwards after roasting, staling becomes more noticeable as it loses its bright fruity acidity and begins to taste flat and dull. As with the green beans, poor storage will result in coffee going stale faster. I did say it was a bit fractal!
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
So at what time is a coffee likely to be at its peak in term of flavour?
This will be around 7 to 8 months after harvesting and around three weeks to a month after the roaster has begun roasting it, when they have got a handle on how it cooks. If you brew such a coffee around a week after it’s roasted using freshly ground beans - that’s when a coffee should be at its absolute peak. For you to experience this you need to look for coffee from a roaster who is open about both the age of their green beans and the date when the coffee was roasted.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about how time affects coffee. I hope you found it both interesting and useful. Let me know on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. The next episode is the last for this season and I’m taking a different approach on this one as I put myself in the shoes of a supermarket customer when I try to pick out a good bag of coffee based on nothing but the information on the packet. Wish me luck! Be sure to tune in next week to find out if I did find a good coffee and discover my top tips on how you can buy better coffee at the supermarket. If you know someone who would find this useful why not tell them about the show and as always please rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. Don’t forget my puzzle book ‘Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious’ is out now and the link is in the show notes to grab your copy. 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 taking 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