Why should you always check the coffee roasting date?

Pri nákupe potravín nás zvyčajne zaujíma aj ich dátum výroby, alebo minimálne spotreby. Pri kúpe kávy si však jej dátum praženia kávy (ktorý sa dá považovať za “dátum výroby”) všíma len málokto. Prečo je dobré zamerať sa aj na tento parameter si povieme na najbližších riadkoch. Ale jednu drobnosť vám prezradíme hneď na úvod – nie je to len kvôli tej nádhernej vôni čerstvo upraženej kávy. :-)

Coffee is food and freshness is important for food

Well yes, looking at roasted beans we sometimes forget about it, but the fact is that coffee is food. And not just any food. Every package you open at home is the result of a long processing process (which we will talk about more some other time), the penultimate step of which (before grinding) was roasting green beans. Green coffee can be stored (relatively) long so that it does not affect its quality. However, as soon as it is roasted, the "fight" with time begins.

Too fresh, too old? Both are possible!

When checking the roasting date, it is important to remember that there is also the possibility of too fresh coffee. The general rule is that freshly roasted coffee needs at least seven days to finish the degassing process, when carbon dioxide is released from the beans, which is not dangerous to health, but can have a negative effect on extraction and thus on the taste of the coffee. It's nothing terrible, but if you want to enjoy coffee at its greatest potential, it's good to wait those few days.

Of course, life is not simple and coffee is food (remember?), so there is also the possibility that the coffee was roasted too long ago and its best time is behind it. This does not mean that you necessarily have to throw it away, but it is good to count on the fact that individual taste nuances may have already disappeared and, on the contrary, tastes that we do not care about at all (such as astringency) may have come to the fore. It is up to you whether you determine such coffee as worthy only for compost or you accept the fact that not every cup has to be perfect.

When is coffee too old, and what to do about it?

A seemingly simple question does not have a clear answer. A lot of factors come into play. From the type of coffee, through the roasting method to the storage method. In general, most coffees are tastiest from the seventh to the twenty-first day from the roasting date. Then its taste profile begins to gradually change and degrade. However, it is important to mention that this definitely does not apply to all coffees and there are many cases when coffee is great even later. But the golden rule is that for coffee that is older than thirty days from the roasting date, it is good to count on the fact that its peak is probably behind it. And you should definitely consume it within half a year of roasting at the latest.

And what to do about it? It's simple! Don't order a lot of coffee at once. It is much better to make continuous orders approximately once a month according to your consumption. Alternatively, use our coffee subscriptions, which will relieve you of the worry of constantly reordering and you can be sure that you will have fresh coffee that will always taste fantastic.