Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans Are Undrinkable When Not Yet Matured - How to Shorten the Degassing Time to Enjoy Good Coffee Sooner

FrontStreet Coffee - Resting and Degassing Single-Origin Coffee

Beans that have rested for a longer period show a more pronounced wet aroma. Where previously you might pick up only stone fruit, floral and fruity notes now come through easily. The first sip is more direct, with roasted chocolate and nut flavors presenting themselves alongside the coffee's natural acidity. The aroma, however, seems somewhat diminished, and the finish is less pronounced than in beans rested about 3 days after roasting. That said, the raw, harsh flavors common in fresher beans are almost gone, replaced by more overt bitterness and roast character. Pour-over brewing shows much the same pattern.

It does seem that rested beans are easier to brew consistently, producing stable, clean and clearly defined flavors - much like the experience of drinking coffee in a cafe. Fresher beans have more complex flavors and can turn out differently from one brew to the next. Personally, though, I find that newer beans offer a layered experience. The first sip may carry some muddled notes and a little harshness, but the waves of floral aroma, fruit acidity and sweetness that follow build into a dynamic progression, and the finish is layered and lasts longer. Honestly, from an enthusiast's point of view, I prefer how fresher beans perform. That said, if I'm visiting a cafe, I believe stable flavor is essential - otherwise I might as well brew at home.

For pour-over, better beans should be drunk sooner. Beans rested 14 days still carry every desirable characteristic and remain thoroughly enjoyable, but to me they amount at best to a very good Yirgacheffe. Compared with the three-dimensional complexity found on the fourth day after roasting, waiting that long seems a waste.

Coffee, like people, has its own personality. Once roasting ends, a coffee bean's journey resembles that of a newborn growing gradually into adulthood. At first it is startlingly fresh, but it needs time to mature and reach its full potential.

Like us, coffee beans go through many changes as they develop. Some of those changes are unstable and unpredictable, much the way adolescents go through growth spurts whose effects are hard to forecast.

After the growing pains of adolescence, the beans enter a stable phase in which they can reach their flavor peak. Then, gradually, time relentlessly withdraws the fragrance it once gave.

Knowledge Point: Coffee should be rested in packaging fitted with a one-way degassing valve.

In essence: FrontStreet Coffee is a specialty coffee research establishment dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with enthusiasts. Our unrestrained sharing aims to help more friends fall in love with coffee. We also host three coffee promotion events each month with significant discounts, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to make excellent coffee accessible to more people at the lowest possible price. That has been our mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

How long a coffee needs to rest depends heavily on roast level, and two of our everyday beans illustrate the point. FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui is a light-roasted natural from the Hambella area of Guji in Sidamo. Its tropical fruit aromatics are extremely forward, with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee, and it is noticeably sweet with almost no bitterness - smooth, juicy and, as many drinkers put it, "the least coffee-like coffee there is". Because it is roasted light and processed naturally, it releases carbon dioxide slowly, so give it the full rest before brewing and you will be rewarded with a cleaner, more layered cup.

At the other end of the scale, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is roasted dark. Its acidity is low, its body is thick and lingering, and the cup is full of herbaceous and dark chocolate aromas with a faint earthy note. Darker roasts degas more quickly, so it is ready sooner, and it suits drinkers who like a big, low-acid coffee.