What is fresh coffee?
What talks about when buying roasted coffee is its freshness. Why is it so important when the shelf life of coffee is usually quoted as a year or more? If you also thought that coffee is a raw material that lasts in the pantry for a long time without losing its flower, you are now going to be disappointed. Rather than rice stored for months in advance, it pays to treat coffee as such a packaged pastry with a better shelf life from a quality perspective.
If we're talking about fresh coffee, it's a package with a roast date of max 1 month ago. Fresh coffee (from the point of view of the raw material itself) is therefore freshly roasted coffee. The first days after roasting, the coffee beans are still settling. The processes of chemical and physical changes in the beans caused by roasting are maturing and CO2 is being released from the coffee. For preparation, coffee is at its best just 14 days after roasting. This is fresh coffee.
How do I know if the coffee is fresh?
- I find the roast date on the coffee packet (we use the expiry date to find out the roast date)
- I notice the inflation of the coffee bag.
- the coffee is blooming and the espresso is creamy
- the aroma of the coffee is not flat, without a hint of rancidity
- the taste of the coffee is not dull, stale and sour, paper-like
Roasting date and expiry date of fresh coffee
While stating the date the coffee was roasted is a crucial indicator of its freshness, the expiration date says almost nothing about the coffee. Yet the actual time for consuming coffee to enjoy its taste at the same time is relative. It depends on how you handle the coffee and where you store it. The roasting day is the starting point when buying coffee. Once you open the package, how long the coffee lasts is purely in your hands. For better storage without air access, try a vacuum canister.
The freshness of the coffee is mainly compromised by oxidation. Which means you need to prevent air from getting to the coffee. It does not thrive at too high a temperature and, because of its ability to absorb moisture and odours from its surroundings, it is a good idea to protect the coffee from these influences. Practically, you just need a sealable coffee container that you won't leave out in the sun. Alternatively, leave the beans in the original packaging you receive from us. This protects the coffee, but only if you always seal the bag carefully.
Blown coffee packaging = fresh coffee
If you leave a sealed packet of fresh coffee on the shelf, you may notice that it has inflated. This effect is particularly noticeable with the freshest coffee, days after roasting. Why do coffee bags inflate? The reason is the escaping CO2. This gas is produced naturally during the roasting of coffee . Roasting makes the coffee bean more fragile and porous. This structure of the roasted bean holds the CO2 within itself, which is then gradually released over the following days.
This normal behaviour of roasted coffee is to be expected. That is why we have a so-called one-way valve on the coffee bags. This allows the gas to escape out so that the packet does not burst when inflated, but instead lets nothing in to the coffee. An inflated packet can thus clearly indicate that CO2 is coming out of the beans, i.e. that it has been recently roasted and is fresh coffee.
Fresh coffee will bloom
The effect, known as blooming, is particularly well known in pour-over coffee brewers such as the Hario V60, Chemex or other drippers. As the espresso extraction process happens inside the machine, it remains hidden from the eye. However, even here it is possible to work with the technique of coffee pre-steaming or blooming. During blooming, CO2 is visibly released from the ground coffee in the presence of water. At that moment, the coffee looks as if it is blooming by the protruding bubbles of gas on top of the moistened coffee bed. So the freshness of the coffee is again announced by the CO2. (What does Blooming look like ?)
Why does coffee bloom little or not at all? This problem indicates that most of the CO2 has already escaped from the coffee before the water is roasted. Either the beans themselves are already old, have been stored poorly or you are storing coffee already ground. Grinding breaks the coffee bean down into particles, and this also breaks down the pores in the bean structure where the CO2 was held. Therefore the gas escapes more quickly from pre-ground coffee. At the same time, however, grinding also results in an extreme leakage of other aromatic compounds and the coffee loses its quality of aroma and taste. Also, the roasting method can affect the amount of CO2 in the coffee and the rate of its release
When 'blooming', the coffee bubbles and looks as if it is blooming.
Crema on a fresh espresso machine
Rich foam on the surface of an espresso... it's like a catchphrase from a coffee advert, isn't it? Some may already know that crema is not a strict indicator of the quality of coffee. Crema can be weaker or stronger, lighter or darker, and it all depends on many factors of espresso preparation. What coffee you use, how it is roasted, what water you have, and how the grinder and coffee maker are set up. She crema is made up of coffee oils foamed by the presence of CO2.
So if you are used to a thick crema with the same type of coffee and now it is not forming, you are probably using old beans. Because, where there is no crema, there is no CO2 and as we already know, CO2 disappears as coffee ages.
Where to buy fresh coffee?
Make sure you keep your coffee in an airtight container that you close honestly. Take the necessary amount of coffee that you have just freshly ground before brewing. This way, you ensure a longer shelf life for your coffee and a great taste in the cup. However, freshly roasted coffee must be at the input of this entire process. So buy where they don't roast it for months in advance. Or where it doesn't stick around for months on the shelves. But where they know the importance of freshness. Usually these are roasters with small batch production, which is what we represent at GreenPlantation.
Large-scale coffee production is commonly associated with a preference in quantity rather than quality of product. Large roasters are focused on roasting at very high temperatures for a short period of time and often prefer dark roasting. Such beans are inherently prone to faster release of substances and problems with coffee rancidity. On the other hand, you can also arrange regular coffee delivery or your own coffee subscription at your local roastery. This way the coffee arrives straight home from the roastery without any hassle.
We never send coffee older than 14 days from the roasting date! Try our espresso roasts or our coffee blends.
