An Old Debate About Old Coffee
How long does freshly roasted coffee last? It’s an old debate that, quite frankly, has gone stale. Yet, the arguments rage on.
Of course everyone will tell don’t grind your coffee until right before you brew it to preserve freshness, keep it away from light, and always store your coffee in an air-tight container or bag, ideally with a one-way valve. Don’t freeze and don’t vacuum seal it either.
But if you do al that, how long does the coffee last? Coffee roasters will insist their coffee should be tasted within 1 to 3 weeks after its roasted. That sublime “fresh roast” smell full of floral, fruit and sweet aromas, which fully develops 24 hours after roast, only lasts a few days. Also, the tasting notes the roaster targeted during the roast began to shift as the coffee beans oxidize.
Scour the internet and you’ll find studies and handbooks by coffee geeks and the trades, showing “volatile compound” degradation graphs, CO2 analysis and pictures of sickly looking espresso shots. Some have researched the effectiveness of different coffee storage methods. We get all that, but we’re not talking about mac and cheese, either.
After a month, we began to notice some taste differences. Does that make it stale? Not necessarily! We think some coffee notes bloom with a little oxidization while other tastes come out from the background. After a while, acidities will mellow and top notes will fade—so you’re super-fruity and luscious Cabernet of Ethipioa but come down to show some earthy and chocolates you didn’t realize were there. That Guatemala that was all about the chocolates might start to show a little nuts and thin out a bit.
Should you just toss it out a brew a Folgers instant instead months out? We don’t think so. Keep your coffee going for months after our roast date, if you want and see for yourself how profiles change. We can’t possibly do that here given how much coffee we consume and how much we love fresh coffees, but we by no means snub those who keep their coffee around. We do think, though, then when your coffee just takes like, well, coffee, it might be time to replenish!