Coffee Roast Date
It’s a common misconception that coffee tastes the best immediately after roasting. Please read on…
A brief coffee science lesson: during the coffee roasting process, a range of chemical reactions occur to transform our green coffee bean to roasted coffee bean; during said chemical reactions carbon dioxide is released (fun fact - the CO2 in the coffee is what creates the crema in an espresso).
If we use the coffee immediately after roasting, the high level of C02 in our cup of coffee will end up tasting undesirable - like ash and charcoal. The coffee needs to sit before use. In the industry we call this ‘degassing’. That is why most coffee bags have a gas releasing valve. However, it tends to differ between coffee’s, the roast profile and personal preference; a general rule is not to consume you coffee until at least 4 days after roasting.
Here comes the million dollar question…
When is coffee best to consume?! Okay… this is like asking what the ‘best’ wine is or what chocolate is the tastiest. As I mentioned earlier, it all depends on the coffee, roast profile and most of all, personal preference. Let me give you my point of view. The coffee we use at The Coffee Dojo Wanaka and The Coffee Shack Wanaka is from Flight Coffee - Thunderbolt. I find the golden window for Thunderbolt to be between 8 to 14 days. In saying that, I have had coffee that’s been roasted a month prior and it was the bomb! It all comes down to storage methods - dark, cool place in a valve releasing container. I would prefer to have old, well stored coffee then to have freshly roasted coffee.
A few general rules to consider:
Freshly roasted coffee (after the degassing period) will have higher taste notes. These being more fragile, subtle notes such as: floral and berries.
The longer you leave the coffee after roasting the more stable and predictable the coffee is to extract on an espresso machine.
The best thing to do is to keep a diary - types of coffee, day count since roast, how you like the coffee and what you taste. Sometimes it’s just a mental note but the more you do this, the more you will learn about your coffee; that’s why your barista can work magic with your coffee because we know our coffee inside and out!