Why Fresh Is Best: An Elaboration Of Time
I used to think that coffee was just coffee, but now I know that time is of the essence in my daily ritual.
It's time for a fun fact that may surprise you: coffee beans go stale just three weeks after roasting. Two weeks is all you have to enjoy every last drop of your morning cup before it is considered to have lost its luster. Most people don't quite realize it, but their coffee isn't fresh.
When I first started to get into coffee, I could not tell the vast difference between the cheapest-value bag of coffee and something from one of those stores that rhymes with "Tar Trucks," which bothered me. There I was, putting myself and my hard-earned money out there, dipping my toe into the world of what is supposed to be specialty coffee, but all I tasted was just a bit more of a burnt aftertaste or unwelcoming acidity. That is where most people would probably stop, but I didn't.
I had to know what all the hype was about in this caffeine-crazed coffee world. So, I did some research, and here is what I found:
1: there is a whole spectrum of coffee from all around the world. Some are grown with care and love, while others are mass-produced. You can find coffee on either extreme of the scale from almost every country that exports coffee. However, the majority is often considered "commodity coffee," subpar beans grown in less than ideal conditions or with as much care invested into the crop as higher quality coffees will have.
2: Coffee beans become stale and dead in about two to three weeks. It depends on the bean and roast profile, but much more time than that, the coffee starts to taste flat and undeveloped. You see, they tend to gas off CO2 after roasting coffee beans. As the Co2 dissipates from the bean, it changes how it tastes. This is why when you receive a bag of our coffee, it may taste different from the first day you try it to the last. Most coffees are in their prime three to five days after roasting for drip coffee and seven to nine days for espresso. After that, it's all downhill from there.
3: Imperfect packaging techniques have ruined how coffee is bagged, shipped, and stored. Please look at a bag of coffee; I can almost guarantee that you will find either a one-way valve or paper packaging. Sadly, it has been the trend in coffee shops for those to be the best way to package their sweet, earthy nectar. The problem is that the one-way valve is not one-way, so even though it lets CO2 out of the package, it still allows oxygen. Let me tell you that oxygen is coffee's worst enemy, but that whole lesson is for another day.
These reasons have brought me to the conclusion that you, the customer, need the freshest coffee possible, with a better way of packaging than conventional methods. That is why we roast to order and heat-seal our kraft bags. It keeps the CO2 in with the coffee until you open it, which helps maintain its freshness for a bit longer. That way, even if it takes two or three days to get to you, it still has all the love and mojo that went into it right as it was roasted.
I drink drink fresh coffee every morning now. It brightens my day and helps me appreciate the fantastic differences that micro-lots and estates create worldwide. It makes me excited to wake up and try something new while maintaining the same ritual day after day, and I know that what I am drinking has been carefully created just for me.