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The Freshly Roasted Coffee Bean Trend

When it comes to tasting coffee, some people do not mind mediocrity as long as they enjoy drinking it comfortably. Others pursue perfection, and are happiest exploring the world of coffee. These perfectionist drinkers care not only about the quality of the beans but also about their origin and the coffee machine on the counter. In recent years, even roasting methods have grown increasingly important to them.

As the number of coffee perfectionists grows, freshly roasted coffee beans have rapidly gained popularity.

Many coffee lovers buy roasted beans to grind and brew themselves, but they rarely look into when the beans were actually roasted. Roast date matters a great deal to the flavor, because coffee — like every other food ingredient — tastes better when it is fresh.

The freshness of coffee beans is generally counted from the completion of roasting. Once roasting ends, the beans begin releasing carbon dioxide, a process called degassing. The more carbon dioxide is released, the less oxygen is present, which slows oxidation and helps keep the beans fresh. "But while the beans are releasing carbon dioxide, the aromas inside them — fruity acidity, for instance — keep evaporating, so those fragrant qualities gradually fade," FrontStreet Coffee explains.

Best Within One Week to Two Months After Roasting

Freshly roasted beans release the most carbon dioxide during the first two to three days, and continue for about a week. Strictly speaking, coffee is at its freshest immediately after roasting, but once degassing is finished the beans are no longer fresh. Coffee beans contain a great many compounds, though, and brewed immediately after roasting those substances have not had enough time to integrate and transform. The coffee may be fresh, but the layered flavors are not yet at their best.

"Generally speaking, beans between one week and two months after roasting are both fresh and at their most flavorful. Of course, this also depends on the origin."

Better to Roast Yourself Than Wait for Others

Previously, roasted coffee in Hong Kong was mainly imported from abroad. Add transportation time to the wholesale and procurement chain, and by the time the beans reached enthusiasts they had already passed their optimal flavor window. Some drinkers, unable to satisfy their standards, began importing unroasted green coffee themselves and buying roasters to roast at home. A few even turned the hobby into a business and started selling freshly roasted beans. Wu Donglin is one such entrepreneur. Originally in the garment industry, he became fascinated with coffee and decided to build a business around fresh beans, importing a Giesen roaster costing HK$400,000-500,000 from the Netherlands.

"Freshly roasted coffee beans have the richest coffee aroma. Even from the same origin, fresh beans show more layers, with clearer and longer-lasting fragrance."

He sells only fresh coffee beans, including Honduras washed coffee, Burundi honey-processed coffee, and Brazil Mantiqueira mountain natural-processed coffee.

Recommended Fresh Roasted Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's single-origin freshly roasted coffee beans — including Yirgacheffe coffee, Kenya AA coffee, and Panama Geisha coffee — are fully guaranteed in both brand and quality and are suitable for brewing with a wide range of equipment. More importantly, they offer outstanding value: a 227g (half-pound) package costs only about 80-90 yuan. At 15g per pour-over, one package makes about 15 cups, meaning each cup costs only around 6 yuan. Compared with café prices that often reach dozens of yuan a cup, that is exceptional value.

FrontStreet Coffee is a Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but a wide range of beans, covering both famous and lesser-known origins. It also runs an online store: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Freshness is the whole point here, and FrontStreet Coffee roasts to order, shipping only beans that were roasted within 5 days. For a medium roast that shows what a fresh single origin can do, the 2013 Sun-Dried Typica is a good place to start: it is a Yunnan small-lot of the Typica variety, one of the oldest and purest Arabica lineages, and it is dried the traditional natural way. Roasted medium, it balances nut, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot notes, and it works as a pour-over, as cold brew, or in a batch brewer. If you want the classic — and the most famous medium roast in the range — FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is a Typica from the Blue Mountains, roasted medium so that chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel fuse into the even, elegant balance the region is known for. For a sweeter, fruitier medium roast, the Strawberry Candy Gesha blends a Costa Rican honey-processed coffee with a washed Panamanian Gesha, roasted medium to bring out both orange-blossom honey and a rounded sweetness that suits cold brew, pour-over, or espresso.

Give the beans a few days of rest after the roast date before brewing. A freshly roasted medium roast releases most of its carbon dioxide in the first two to three days, and letting the beans sit until roughly one week after roasting allows the layered flavors to knit together — which is exactly why the period from one week to two months after roasting is the sweet spot.