Coffee has come a long way. Long thought of as a shelf stable product that sat in your pantry for years, it is now talked about as an agricultural product with seasonality, lively flavors, and freshness.
But since the freshness of coffee is still a relatively new concept, it can be easily misunderstood, leaving many with questions. What constitutes fresh coffee? How long is coffee fresh? What happens when it goes stale? And does freshness really make a big difference in taste?
To tackle some of these questions, we will look at coffee in a few different stages. Coffee’s long journey from farm to roaster to your cup means that freshness can be ensured or compromised in several spots along that path.
Farm
The first place to start is the farm. When we talk about farm fresh coffee, it is green coffee that is purchased and roasted as close to off-harvest as possible. But, it also implies more in terms of quality than just harvest seasonality. When roasters work hard to get coffee from farmers shortly after harvest and processing, it’s because the very nature of that coffee is worth drinking as fresh as possible, expecting it to have a range of flavors, bright acidity, and general tastiness.
So, getting it as close to off-harvest means all its natural tastiness can be enjoyed. Once received, roasters will work to use fresh harvests within a calendar year. After a year or more, raw, green coffee can start to get “grassy” flavors or become “flat”, so the clock starts ticking to go through green coffee as soon as it lands. Storage also plays an important role in ensuring freshness of green inventory so roasters pay attention to factors like temperature and humidity, which can both age green coffee faster if non-ideal conditions exist.
Roastery
The next step in ensuring freshness are the practices of the roastery. Roasting in smaller batches as well as to order means that roasted coffee won’t be sitting around in bins waiting to be put in packaging, a common practice for some roasters. (but not us). We package hot from our roaster into your bag to keep that freshness integrity.
Air is the enemy of roasted coffee, a two-way valve on quality retail bags, such as ours, allows CO2 gases to continue emitting from the newly roasted beans while keeping air out. A “ Roasted On Date” is put on all our bags so you can always check how many days it’s been since it was roasted. Note - this is not the same as a “Good Until Date” that can sometimes be seen on coffee bags. Those dates are usually anywhere from 3 months to 2 years from roast date, depending on the company policy.
Your Home
Once in-season, just-roasted coffee arrives in your home, freshness can be ensured by observing roast dates and proper storage. We recommend using coffee within 10-14 days off the roast date but it can still stay “fresh” for 1-2 months after that if stored properly. Beans should be stored on the counter in an airtight bag, like ours, or coffee storage container, such as the Fellow Atmos Vacuum Container.
You can easily tell if coffee is still fresh during brewing, if the coffee “blooms” while brewing. This means that there is still CO2 in the beans, which will ensure your coffee will be lively and flavorful. The older the coffee becomes, the more “flat” it will be during brewing - if there is no interaction when beans interact with hot water, the coffee will most likely taste bland or bitter.
One note on storage—Do not store in the fridge, which can add condensation to your beans, staling them faster. Also, do not store in the freezer unless it is for long-term storage. In such a case, seal beans in airtight packaging, place in the freezer for up to 3 months, once removed, store it at room temperature, using it in its entirety.
And lastly, the best way to ensure a regular flow of fresh coffee to your home is through one of our coffee subscriptions, which you can check out here.