As one of the most popular Houston coffee roasters around, we spend plenty of time talking about the ins and outs of making great cups of coffee. Most people know about matters like sourcing of beans, and different roasting methods – but surprisingly, a lot of people don’t realize just how important it is to keep track of when their coffee beans were roasted!
People tend to assume that coffee beans need to be quickly roasted, when then locks in their flavor. But if anything, it’s the exact opposite: “green” unroasted coffee beans actually last a long time without losing much flavor, while timing is everything after roasting happens!
Why the Roast Date of Your Coffee Beans Makes A Big Difference
They’ll tell you when the beans will be best, because the best time to grind and drink them depends on the chemistry that’s happening.
First, you don’t want to make coffee out of beans immediately after roasting. The roasting process causes some chemical breakdown within the beans, and this creates carbon dioxide gas within them. This gas will slowly leak out of the beans, but it generally takes a week or so. If you try to grind and roast beans before they’ve “de-gassed,” they’ll taste bitter.
Many roasters will deliberately not put beans out for sale until a week or so after roasting, because of this. Or, if you’re having the beans custom-roasted, the roaster will usually tell you to wait a week before making coffee.
The coffee will be at peak flavor and freshness at the point the de-gassing processes has finished, after about a week. This is the perfect time to drink!
After that, however, the coffee will start to go stale. The beans will slowly begin to oxidize, with oxygen eating away at the oils which contain so much of the coffee flavor. Now, you’ve still got a month or two before this process really becomes noticeable, but fundamentally, it’s all downhill.
So, by buying from your local Houston coffee roasters, you’ll know exactly when the best time is to make and drink your coffee. That’s a guarantee you can’t get when you’re buying pre-roasted coffee off the shelf.
Enjoy Mitalena Coffee
To experience this for yourself here in Houston, just shop Mitalena Coffee!
The post Do You Know When Your Coffee Beans Were Roasted? You Should first appeared on Mitalena Coffee.