S4: Episode 6: Oil Be Honest: What Shiny Coffee Beans Are Really Telling You
Coffee beans in adverts are usually shown as dark and glossy but in this episode we discover why shiny - or in other words, oily - coffee beans are not actually likely to taste that great and why they are frankly best avoided. Find out what the shiny appearance of the beans can tell you about a coffee before you even take a sip. If you are stuck with a bag of oily beans we have some brewing tips that will help take the edge off its less palatable flavours. This week’s FACQ answers the intriguing question of whether coffee ever goes ‘off’?
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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 puts oily beans under the spotlight so to speak…and later I’ll be answering the question of whether coffee goes off so stay tuned for that…
Anyone who has ever bought loose coffee may well be familiar with those retail coffee bean dispensers with a glass front that shows you what you are buying. The glass is almost always practically opaque from the coffee oils deposited on the inside and often sports a few beans stuck forlornly to it taking a slow slide to the bottom. It’s not exactly a great advert for the coffee in the dispenser which is ironic given how shiny coffee beans are made to look in actual adverts. While darkly glossy coffee beans are not something you are likely to see amongst a specialty roaster’s coffee offering, they are still to be found around and about. And for those in the know, their shiny appearance gives away some important and useful information about them which we will be getting into. But before we do, something to note is that you will only see shiny coffee in bean form - ground coffee doesn't develop visible oil spots so once its ground you can't tell if the beans were oily. A little insider tip for you there…
Firstly oily beans and the bean
Things that shine tend to look more attractive but with coffee, despite what you may see in adverts, shiny beans are not a sign of the best tasting coffee. Shiny, oily coffee beans are a sign that the beans are either very darkly roasted, old, or both! When coffee is taken to a dark roast level the oils that are developed during the roasting process begin to be drawn towards the surface of the beans before the roast is ended. The longer or darker the roast the oilier the beans become. It starts with oily spots becoming visible on the surface of the bean but with very dark roasts the beans may emerge from the roaster looking very oily indeed. As roasted coffee ages, part of the staling process is the oil being drawn to the surface of the bean where it reacts with oxygen. So oily spots that develop on beans are a visible indicator of their age. But it must be noted that there are two exceptions to the ‘oily beans must be old and dark roasted’ judgement. One is Decaf coffee which develops oily spots on the surface of the beans shortly after roasting regardless of its roast level. This is because the beans are more porous due to the decaffeination process they went through, which speeds up the process of drawing the oils to the bean’s surface. The other is coffee produced by a roasting method called Torrefacto where the coffee is roasted with sugar resulting in a glazed, shiny look to the beans.
Next oily beans and the taste
The oily appearance of a dark roasted coffee is a clear sign that the beans were roasted beyond the point of light floral and fruity flavours and into the territory of cooked sugar flavours. Freshly roasted oily beans will be characterised by the tastes of toffee, treacle and dark chocolate. The coffee is also likely to be quite bitter and may taste burnt, rubbery and ashy as well. Old oily beans will taste bitter, flat and hollow as they will be stale. This means that whatever interesting flavours were left in the coffee after roasting have vanished into the air. And on a side note darker roasts are prone to staling faster than lighter roasts as the structure of the bean is more open. This allows air to penetrate the coffee which robs it of its flavour more quickly. So while oil spots on medium roast beans indicate that the beans are old, the oily surface of a very dark roast could be a result of either age or its roast level. If you like the flavours of dark roasts I highly recommend buying the freshest coffee you can and either using it up quickly or storing it in the freezer to appreciate it at its best - and for more about the once controversial topic of storing coffee in the freezer be sure to tune in to next week’s episode!
Finally oily beans and the brew
It pays to pay attention to the oiliness of your beans when it comes to brewing your coffee so that you can tweak your brewing variables for the best brew. If the beans are oily as a result of being darkly roasted the coffee grounds will extract quickly. This is because they are more porous and will have degassed faster allowing the water to extract the remaining coffee oils faster. Also due to the longer cooking times and higher end temperatures of dark roasts the beans will be more brittle resulting in a higher amount of finer grinds that also extract faster. To minimise the resulting bitterness from these things you may want to coarsen your grind, use cooler water or speed up the brewing process. If the oiliness is a sign of age you will need to use more coffee than you would if they were fresh, as so much of the flavour will have been lost to the air. Finally while all beans regardless of their roast level leave coffee oils behind in the grinder when they are ground the oils build up much faster if you regularly grind oily beans. This can lead to grinder burrs and the discharge chute becoming gummy and clogged, leading to the grinder breaking down. So if you regularly buy oily coffee beans you will need to clean your grinder more often.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
Does coffee go ‘off'?
The roasting process dries out coffee to the extent that it is considered to be at low risk of microbial growth, so it doesn't carry the same health risks as out of date dairy products, for example. This is why coffee bags have 'Best Before' dates not 'Use By" dates on them. While not being a risk to health, coffee does go stale, as the oils react with oxygen over time to rob the beans of their flavour, ultimately making them taste bitter and flat. Leaving beans near a heat source or in direct sunlight will cause coffee oils to go rancid which could make you ill, but the smell would likely put you off from drinking it!
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about oily coffee beans. Was this episode eye opening or oily old news for you? 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. Next week’s episode is all about storing coffee in the freezer, once viewed as an absolute no-no, listen to find out why some specialty roasters are now embracing the practice. Be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss it, if you haven’t already. If you want to support my work, my Wordsearch puzzle book full of coffee words is out now and the link is in the show notes - it makes a great gift if you are out of ideas for what to give a coffee loving friend. Or you could send your coffee friend a link to your favourite episode and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. 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