Understanding Coffee Bean Resting and Degassing: What Is Coffee Bean Resting, How to Rest Beans, and For How Long

Understanding Coffee Bean Resting and Awakening

"Freshly roasted coffee beans need to rest, or awaken, before they taste good." Most coffee enthusiasts have heard this. But coffee beans are not quite like wine, and in this article FrontStreet Coffee explains why they need a resting and awakening period.

Ultimately, both resting and awakening are processes of releasing carbon dioxide, which affects the stability of coffee extraction and the release of flavor compounds from the coffee.

The Science Behind Coffee Bean Resting

During roasting, the internal structure of the coffee bean keeps changing as heating continues, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide. The moment a bean leaves the roaster, thermal expansion and contraction make it shrink instantly, "re-absorbing" a significant amount of carbon dioxide that becomes locked inside. After roasting, the beans slowly release this gas on their own.

The upside of this carbon dioxide is that it helps preserve the coffee's flavor and aroma. The downside is that too much of it destabilizes extraction. So there is no rush to drink freshly roasted beans: let them rest in their original sealed packaging with a one-way degassing valve for several days, allowing the beans to release carbon dioxide naturally through the valve (which lets gas out but not in).

Resting Times by Roast Level

Every bag of coffee needs a different resting, or awakening, period, and different roast levels change the timing. FrontStreet Coffee currently offers coffee beans at three roast levels: light-medium (milk chocolate color), medium (cinnamon color), and medium-dark (dark chocolate color).

The darker the roast, the more carbon dioxide the beans hold. FrontStreet Coffee therefore recommends 3-4 days of resting for light-medium roasted beans, 4-5 days for medium roasted beans, and 6-7 days for medium-dark roasted beans.

Storage and Preservation

All coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee ship within 5 days of the roast being completed. When your beans arrive, check the roast date on the back label to decide whether more resting time is needed. Once properly rested, beans can be stored in their original packaging or in an opaque, airtight container.

Some might wonder why certain coffee shops keep their beans in transparent containers. It is because baristas want to display the beans to customers, but strong sunlight or artificial lighting speeds up the loss of flavor. If you do not drink coffee particularly fast, FrontStreet Coffee still recommends opaque, airtight containers. If you do use a transparent one, remember to keep it in a cool, dry place.

Optimal Flavor Period

Although roasted coffee beans have a shelf life of one year, their aromatic compounds gradually dissipate after roasting. The optimal flavor period for freshly roasted beans is therefore within 30 days after the resting period.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you are resting your beans by roast level, FrontStreet Coffee's medium roasts are the ones that want 4-5 days. Medium is also the most forgiving point on the scale: deeper roasts turn progressively more bitter and heavier, lighter roasts more sour and lighter, and medium sits in the balanced middle.

For a gentle start, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate is a yellow bourbon from Brazil. Medium roasted, it shows cream, peanut, chocolate, toasted bread, and sugarcane sweetness, and it works equally well as pour-over, in a moka pot, or in an espresso machine.

If you prefer fruit, the Strawberry Candy Geisha blend pairs a Costa Rican honey process with a washed Panama Geisha for tangerine-honey and rounded sweetness; at a medium roast it suits cold brew, pour-over, and espresso. The 2013 sun-dried Typica offers a softer Yunnan profile of nut, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot.

And for the classic balanced cup, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1, a medium roast Typica, folds chocolate, roasted nut, cream, and caramel together -- a fine candidate to rest a full 5 days before you open the bag.