Are Oily Coffee Beans Fresher and More Delicious? Do Oily Coffee Beans Have Higher Calories and Are They Better for Espresso or Pour-Over?

Do Oily Coffee Beans Mean Fresher and More Flavorful? Are Oily Coffee Beans Higher in Calories and Better for Espresso or Pour-Over?

Today, FrontStreet Coffee is here to answer all your questions and clear up any confusion!

Misconception 1: Oily Coffee is Fresher

Equating oiliness with freshness might seem like a smart move for roasted coffee, right? When beans have that sheen, they look so glossy and appealing! However, this isn't a foolproof method to determine if coffee has been sitting around for a while. The reason is that dark roasted coffee beans naturally develop more visible oil faster than light roasted beans. (Decaf can also be a bit tricky: due to the trauma the seeds undergo during decaffeination, they tend to have weaker cellulose.) Your best bet is to find a roast date on the beans, as there's no perfect formula to calculate how much oil might appear after a certain number of weeks or even months.

Misconception 2: Coffee Oil is Part of What Makes Coffee Delicious

Like any oil, prolonged exposure to light and oxygen (and heat) produces rancid, off-flavors, so if the oil is the result of coffee sitting stagnant, it definitely won't contribute to the cup's deliciousness. This also means you should be especially careful with your darker roasts: storing them in a cool, dark place will be your best defense against them going bad.

Misconception 3: Coffee Brewed from Oily Beans Has Higher Fat Content

Because oil doesn't dissolve in water, most brewing methods will leave the lipids behind, particularly in the filter paper of pour-over coffee. According to Karl Speer and Isabelle Kölling-Speer's 2006 report, "The Lipid Fraction of the Coffee Bean": "Filter coffee prepared with conventional household coffee machines contains less than 0.2% lipids. In contrast, during the preparation of espresso, 1% to 2% of the lipids... pass from the finely ground espresso into the beverage."

Paper filters are considered much more efficient at retaining and absorbing coffee oils during the brewing process, while perforated or mesh metals (such as in the portafilter basket on an espresso machine, or the mesh screen on a French press) have larger pores and will therefore let more oil pass through into the final beverage.

However, this primarily means that espresso (or French press) has a heavier or more creamy mouthfeel—not necessarily that the coffee itself has significantly higher calories or fat content. Filter-brewed coffee might contain 1 to 3 calories per 8-ounce serving, while a 2-ounce serving of espresso contains about 5 calories, mainly due to the amount of oil allowed into the finished beverage. (Consider that espresso's thickness comes from concentration rather than the less concentrated filter coffee.)

Important Notice :

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