How We Roast

Is coffee best brewed with warm beans right out of the roaster? How long will beans last on my counter? Why do coffee beans taste bad after a while? There may be some confusion about how a given coffee's roast date affects 

Coffee isn't necessarily best immediately after roasting. The process of roasting drives out moisture from the beans and caramelizes sugars, creating the bouquet of aromas and flavors you love. However, a by-product of roasting is the release of carbon dioxide from the beans, which starts off immediately after roasting, and tapers off over the course of days or weeks. Carbon dioxide is an undesirable component in coffee, and most beans are much improved by waiting 3-7 days after roasting before being used. Some quite light roasted beans may peak in flavor a month after roasting!

We typically let beans rest for 24 hours in an open container before sealing up in a bag. Once the beans are sealed, they're good for at least a month or longer, though gradually become stale. They may not be optimal for brewing hot coffee, but if coarsely ground for cold brew, they're still excellent! CB is a perfect method for using up old stale coffee beans (though the beans we typically use when making cold brew for our mobile coffee trailer aren't stale at all).

Our coffee bags contains a one-way valve that allows CO2 out, and also prevent oxygen from coming in. Note that oxygen is bad for coffee beans; it's the means by which oils "oxidize', or become rancid after a while. Coffee beans naturally contain plant oils, which you can typically see in darker roasts, where the oils are driven to the surface of the bean because of the higher temperatures used during that level roasting. As a result, beans with visible oils on the surface are more susceptible to oxidation, so are best consumed quickly. :-)

We want to be transparent about our processes, so we mark our coffee bags with a roast date, so you can monitor their age yourself. (We also keep careful notes on every batch we roast, so our bags are also marked with a batch number on each bag for traceability.) Because we've chosen to roast on-demand - only after we've received an online order - you know exactly how much the roasted beans have aged.

Freshly roasted beans, ground each day, made with quality water - the brewed coffee trifecta - can be an everyday reality with coffee from Good Earth Roasters.