About Coffee Bean Freshness, Coffee Bean Storage, How to Adjust Grinding for Coffee Beans That Are Too Fresh

A cup of rich, flavorful coffee can alleviate your physical and mental fatigue, while fresh coffee beans ensure unique flavor and rich layers in your coffee. Coffee enthusiasts know that freshly roasted coffee beans are essential for brewing a fragrant, aromatic cup of coffee. Therefore, selecting fresh coffee beans is always considered crucial.

The freshness of coffee is critical to its quality. If coffee beans are left for too long after roasting, it leads to the loss of flavor and aroma, naturally decreasing the quality.

FrontStreet Coffee has always emphasized the freshness of coffee beans, as freshness is the foremost aspect of high-quality coffee. After roasting, the aromatic compounds in coffee beans continuously dissipate over time, becoming nearly flavorless after approximately 50-60 days. Therefore, for every bag of coffee beans we sell, we remind customers that the optimal tasting period is within 45 days. To ensure every enthusiast enjoys the freshest coffee, each bag of beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee is shipped within 5 days of roasting. This means you can start brewing immediately upon receiving your order, experiencing the delicious flavors that fresh beans provide.

How to Identify Fresh Coffee Beans

When purchasing freshly roasted coffee beans, it's best to choose beans roasted on the same day. The freshness of coffee beans is irreplaceable. But how can you determine if coffee is fresh?

Characteristics of Fresh Coffee Beans

Shiny Appearance

Fresh coffee beans release oils that coat the entire bean, creating a shiny surface. The longer coffee beans are stored, the duller their appearance becomes.

Rich Aroma

Fresh coffee beans have a particularly rich and intense aroma. If the coffee you purchase has little to no smell, it indicates that it has been sitting for a long time after roasting and may have even deteriorated!

Degassing Test

Compared to the previous methods, this degassing test for coffee beans is more scientific. Place coffee beans in a sealed bag, remove the air, and seal it. Leave it overnight to see if the bag inflates the next day. If it's freshly roasted coffee, it will continuously release carbon dioxide, causing the bag to expand.

How to Store Coffee Beans?

After purchasing quality coffee beans, store them in a place away from sunlight with low temperature and humidity. Coffee beans that have been carefully dried and roasted can easily absorb odors when exposed to moisture. Additionally, avoid storing them in damp warehouses, and maintain room temperature. If stored in hot, humid conditions, ensure proper ventilation.

Coffee beans should be stored in a dry, cool place, never in the refrigerator's fresh food compartment to prevent moisture absorption. The freezer is the ultimate method for preserving coffee bean freshness. When freezing, remember to seal them properly before placing them in the freezer. When removing from the freezer, prevent any frozen portions from thawing and causing moisture in the bag. It's important to seal containers with fresh coffee beans tightly (ideally using them within 1 month of opening), and store them in a cool place away from sunlight, while paying attention to expiration dates. This storage method ensures no problems with preservation.

Coffee beans should be stored as close to the top of the sealed container as possible, and the container should be closed quickly after each opening to minimize exposure to air. Additionally, you can tighten the coffee bean's outer packaging with rubber bands before placing it in a sealed container, or divide the beans into smaller single-serving portions before storing them in the container. If available, you can also place a desiccant packet in the container to ensure dryness.

Due to their smaller surface area exposure to air, whole coffee beans maintain quality and flavor longer than ground coffee. Therefore, to preserve coffee's aroma, grind beans only when needed for brewing. For roasted coffee beans, the biggest factors affecting quality are light, temperature, humidity, and air. Therefore, controlling air exposure time, reducing temperature, maintaining low humidity, storing away from light, or keeping in sealed containers are all essential practices.

Since coffee's flavor compounds are highly unstable and easily affected by factors such as light, temperature, humidity, and oxygen, prolonged exposure of roasted coffee to air can lead to lipid oxidation reactions. Oxidation is a major cause of coffee deterioration. Roasted coffee contains approximately 10-15% fat, 75% triglycerides, and 50% linoleic acid. Meanwhile, linoleic acid can auto-oxidize into hexanal. The longer it's exposed to air, hexanal further oxidizes into volatile compounds, producing undesirable qualities and causing a decline in coffee taste.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our WeChat official account: FrontStreet Coffee

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473