Day 7 | 100 Days of Coffee

It has been a minute since we last posted our Day 06 article, and we are now on our final day of this coffee.

I’d like to take a few minuets to talk about coffee aging and its flavor quality. This coffee has been roasted 25 days ago. There is a common misconception with “fresh is best” for coffee and to get as close to the roast date as possible. The truth is, coffee needs a few days, weeks, or even a full month of resting in a closed, oxygen-free bag to reach its peak flavor.

As more roasters are starting to roast lighter, they’re finding that the higher density of the roasted bean releases its carbon dioxide gasses from roasting a lot slower than a bean roasted much darker. What does this mean? We cannot extract fresh coffee as much when the coffee grounds are constantly releasing carbon dioxide. These gasses are often pushing the solvent (water) away from them, preventing extraction to take place. So, the less gasses, the higher and more even the extraction, the better.

The problem with resting (letting you coffee degas unopened in the bag) is there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Since every coffee has different densities and every roast and roaster will be different, it’s hard to say. The thing we can do is use your taste and get a feel for how your favorite roasters coffee tastes 5 days off roast, 10 days off roast, 14 days, and if you know they like to roast light or are from a Scandinavian country, you may even try 3-4 weeks of waiting for that coffee to degas. Higher storage temperatures, light, and higher humidity will also increase the rate of degassing, but will deteriorate flavor quality significantly. No clear containers!! As soon as you open the bag your coffee came in, the flavors will start to drastically diminish after 7 days. So drink it fast.

Flavor of a “too-fresh” roast: Sharp acidity, fizzy/sparkling water finish, empty finish, unbalanced acidity, reduced sweetness. Why? Carbon Dioxide from the roasted beans will mix with the water creating Carbonic Acid.

I’ve had great luck with pulling a medium roasted espresso just 3 days off roast. There was so much cherry acidity it was unbelievable and tasted amazing. I tried this again with other roasts of that same coffee and it didn’t taste nearly as good as this. Usually you’ll want to wait about 10-21 days for espresso, since you want much less gasses to extract everything evenly in a very quick 20-30 second time period. But sometimes you will luck out. I definitely don’t recommend such a short 3 days of resting time for espresso. Maybe if it’s a really dark roast, but you shouldn’t even be worried about your coffees flavor with a dark roast anyways!

Flavor of a “too-old” roast: Lack of acidity, stale, boring, not complex, bitter.

This is a major concern for people that buy their coffee in the supermarket. Best By dates do no good in quality control for the consumer. If it doesn’t have a roasted on date, leave it on the shelf.

I’ve also had great coffee 3 months after roast and about 2.5 months after opening the bag. It had a very heavy, red wine-like flavor and thick body. Though the bright acidity wasn’t there at all. This was a very lucky cup, as you’ll find many coffees will never taste as good as this with such a long time oxidizing.

How To Get The Best Flavors Out Of Your Coffee:

Filter Brewing: rest for at least 7 days after roast, 14-30+ days for very light roasts.

Espresso Brewing: rest for at least 10-14 days after roast, 21-30+ days for very light roasts.

Don’t open the bag until its been well rested.

Keep coffee in the bag it came in - the beans near the bottom of the bag are more protected from oxygen.

If your bag doesn’t have a zipper seal, place bag in a very low or at-least contained oxygen environment.

After opening the bag for first use, use all coffee within 7-10 days. Flavor will start to decline after around 7 days.

Store you coffee in a light-free environment, and definitely don’t let it oxidize in your grinders hopper. Coffee left out like this will be bad the next day.

Plan you coffee buying ahead of time to let it rest, especially if you’re making espresso.

These are all priorities for every cafe representing a quality product. This is the most overlooked section for home coffee brewers and will be detrimental for maintaining that high quality flavor grade of 80 points or above for specialty coffee. If you overlook these steps, making great coffee at home will be difficult for you.

Once you can properly take care of storing your coffee, all you need to do is use water meant for coffee (Third Wave Water…make sure to give that gallon jug a good shake too!), a burr blade grinder, and know how to find good specialty coffee roasters. Honestly, brewing recipes and devices should be last on your list. Once these come together, you will be brewing great coffee in no time.

If you’re one of the few people that take brewing more seriously and control all of these variables, good coffee will come easy. If not, you will have an incredibly hard and inconsistent time getting a decent cup.

Welcome to the world of specialty coffee brewing.

Back to that coffee!

I just cupped it again after 25 days off roast and 8 days after opening the bag, and it lost most of its complex flavors. Cupping makes sure your brew recipe isn’t the variable holding your coffees flavor potential down + I am using quality water and know their chemical makeup for optimal extraction + I know which grind setting I can cup at which gives me optimal, even extraction, so I can safely say the coffees flavor is declining due to aging. I get nuttiness, some fruitiness, but much less bright complex acidity and unique flavor character this coffee once had just a few days ago.

Time to get more coffee!

-Connor