We sell freshly roasted coffee, with no more than 14 days elapsed since roasting. This is our principle.
How long can roasted coffee be stored? You might be surprised, but even after a few years, it will still be coffee that you can brew. However, the original flavor will be reduced to just the coffee taste.
As strange as it may sound, coffee must be fresh. That's right, it should not be older than a couple of months after roasting.
Starting from the third month, coffee loses about 40% of its freshness, and the taste deteriorates rapidly.
We recommend purchasing only freshly roasted coffee; otherwise, you are paying the full price for coffee with only half or less of its original taste. Old coffee has a flat, unimpressive taste with an unpleasant bitterness. This happens because coffee quickly loses its flavor and ages when exposed to air.
Coffee can be compared to fresh bread. The longer it sits after baking, the worse it tastes. Unlike wine or whiskey, coffee becomes less tasty as it ages.
Let's explain why this happens.
Processes in Coffee During Roasting
Green, unroasted coffee is not flavorful. To give coffee its delightful taste, it needs to be roasted. During the roasting of coffee beans, three important stages that change the taste occur:
- Drying, during which coffee beans lose moisture. If you load 100 kg of green, unroasted coffee into a roaster, you will get approximately 80-84 kg of roasted coffee. The moisture content of green, unroasted beans is 10-12%, and it reduces to 3% during roasting. As moisture is lost, the bean becomes porous and light.
- By the way, there is a belief that the darker the roast, the less caffeine in the coffee. But caffeine does not burn during roasting. Since the overall weight of the bean decreases, the concentration of caffeine increases.
- At around 100 degrees Celsius, the Maillard reaction begins, during which coffee starts to acquire flavor notes like fruity, berry, and floral. The Maillard reaction is one of the main reasons for the color, taste, and aroma of coffee. During this reaction, amino acids interact with sugar, resulting in the formation of hundreds of aromatic compounds. The most important ones include furans, which give coffee a sweet, caramel-like taste; pyrazines, responsible for floral notes in the taste; ketones, contributing to an oily taste; and coffeeol, giving coffee its distinctive aroma.
Caramelization begins at around 170 degrees Celsius, during which typical aromas such as chocolate, nuts, spices, and caramel are formed.
Processes in Coffee After Roasting
After roasting, carbon dioxide starts to be released inside the beans, several liters in the first day. If coffee is immediately packaged, the package can burst. That's why all our coffee packages have a degassing valve. It is one-way, allowing coffee to release carbon dioxide and preventing oxygen from entering the package.
If you buy coffee in a package without a degassing valve, it means the coffee sat exposed to the open air for several days, losing its taste and aroma before being packaged. Furthermore, roasted coffee is highly hygroscopic; it quickly absorbs and releases moisture, along with any foreign odors when exposed to oxygen.
Why is oxygen bad for coffee? When in contact with oxygen, coffee starts to oxidize and loses its essential oils responsible for flavor and aroma.
How Long Coffee Can Be Stored
During the first four days after roasting, coffee should not be consumed. Chemical processes are still occurring, and the taste changes every hour, sometimes significantly. Around the seventh day, coffee reaches its peak flavor and remains close to ideal for the next two months. After the third month, coffee begins to deteriorate, and we do not recommend drinking such coffee.
Fresh coffee has a bright and pleasant aroma, while old coffee does not smell as good. Even by the aroma, you can sense the bitterness.
So, what should you pay attention to when buying coffee?
- It should be packaged in an opaque bag with a degassing valve. This guarantees that the coffee was packaged immediately after roasting, not left exposed to the open air for days, absorbing foreign odors.
- Coffee should not have been roasted more than a month ago. This gives you another month or two to enjoy fresh coffee.
- We strongly discourage purchasing pre-ground coffee. Even if it's freshly roasted, it retains its taste potential for only 1-2 days after opening the package. Coffee beans act as a container preserving the natural flavor imparted by nature. Grinding coffee results in the rapid loss of essential oils, so freshly ground coffee significantly enhances the quality of your coffee. Do not buy pre-ground coffee!
