An artisan and coffee micro roaster offers a product that has two main qualities: a quality coffee, single origin or specialty, and knowing the roast date, usually roasted immediately after order is received.
How long can coffee be drunk from the date of roasting?
As close as the roast date, but not as soon as the coffee is roasted. We must distinguish that coffee has certain parameters that make it different from industrial roasted coffee, where the taste is optimal, ie freshly roasted, but still often the roast date is not specified.
However, coffee needs time to be degassed and under no circumstances should we consume coffee on the day of roasting or 3-4-5 days after roasting.
As soon as coffee comes out of the roaster, it undergoes minor chemical transformations and does not taste good. In principle, freshly roasted coffee contains a significant amount of carbon dioxide, which is very soluble when extracted and is immediately released, which it releases in the first hours and days after roasting. To give a very precise example, espresso coffees and distinctive crema, which use high temperature and pressure for extraction, are actually soluble carbon dioxide. Although it looks good in extraction, it is one of the bitter components of coffee. However, this carbon dioxide is naturally removed by degassing. After this degassing, those floral notes, fruity, spices, chocolates are what should really feel like a coffee. As the name suggests, essential oils are excreted from coffee as time goes on, and it's time for coffee to lose its aromatic properties. It now has enough persistent aromatic components to give us a pleasant coffee taste. It is good to consume a coffee in the first month after roasting, especially if the method of preparation is espresso, the brewing method is something to do with the brewing or kettle or filter area, then the coffee can be consumed lightly and in a month from the date of roasting, because there is no emphasis on the body and that layer of cream . Essential oils, as the name suggests, become volatile, excreted from the coffee and this is when the coffee loses its aromatic properties.
How do we store coffee?
A micro roaster will always sell you coffee in a bag with a valve and a closure that keeps the bag tightly closed even after the bag has been opened. The valve is unidirectional, meaning the coffee basically removes carbon dioxide and out of the bag during the first hours and days of roasting, but since it is a one-way valve, no outside air enters the bag and the coffee is not oxidized. The bag is thermally sealed and the zipper on the top ensures that the bag is always sealed after opening.
Avoid packaging without valves and locks!
Why? Why? Because once the packages are opened, they can no longer be properly closed. It is beneficial to keep the coffee in the packaging in which it was delivered to you. Do not store coffee in a humid or very high temperature place, such as a cupboard near the hood, or in the refrigerator. Coffee stored in the refrigerator and exposed to cold air becomes brittle, in which case it loses solubility, which is one of its main properties, because when cooled, a brittle product is no longer as soluble as a porous product.