How Long Should Coffee Beans Rest? Can Coffee Beans for Pour-Over Be Stored Completely Sealed?

Understanding Coffee Bean Resting: Why and How Long

For those who brew their own coffee, you might have some concept of the term "bean resting." For friends who haven't heard of it, don't worry - let's explore why coffee beans need resting and how long it should take.

When brewing coffee, the moment water touches the coffee grounds, the coffee begins to swell. "Watching the coffee slowly expand and bubble up" is a scene everyone loves, but without proper bean resting, the blooming process will likely result in chaotic gas release with countless large bubbles emerging.

Most people (especially Cantonese people) insist on fresh ingredients - everything must be consumed while fresh and hot. However, when it comes to coffee beans, patience is absolutely essential. When coffee beans first come out of the roaster, they don't have much aroma yet, only emitting roasting smells. At this stage, coffee beans contain rich carbon dioxide and are very active (like a child running around everywhere, unable to stay still).

When brewing at this stage, you'll encounter significant obstacles. If the coffee grounds haven't released sufficient gas during blooming, it will affect the subsequent extraction of flavor compounds. During later extraction, the coffee bed will continue bubbling and releasing gas, creating turbulence and causing uneven extraction. This makes it much more difficult to brew a delicious cup of coffee.

After about 4 days, roasted coffee beans will release 60-70% of their gas. After this point, gas emission becomes less urgent, slowly releasing small amounts over time. The coffee beans will then stabilize (like an adult man - calm, mature, and charming). At this point, the coffee beans' flavor will be infinitely close to its peak state, after which the flavor will gradually diminish as gas continues to slowly release.

The swelling of coffee bags indicates that the coffee beans are releasing gas.

Gas release is a continuous process. Once all gas has been released, it means the coffee beans are no longer fresh, and naturally, the flavor is almost gone. Therefore, the flavor development of coffee is closely related to the gas release process. After intense gas release, coffee flavor reaches its peak, then gradually declines as gas release slows. Bean resting is precisely about allowing coffee beans to reach their peak flavor expression.

How to Determine When Coffee Beans Reach Peak Flavor

So how can we know when coffee beans have reached their peak flavor? There's no exact data for this. Even roasters' suggestions are merely recommendations and don't guarantee that flavor will be best after 7 days (it might be day 8 or day 9).

The length of the resting period for coffee beans is influenced by three factors: the degree of roast, the coffee roasting style, and the heat conduction method used during roasting.

First, let's discuss how the heat conduction method affects coffee resting time. Methods are generally divided into direct fire, semi-direct fire, and hot air. Among these three roasting methods, direct fire typically requires the longest resting time, followed by semi-direct fire, and finally hot air.

In terms of roast degree, light roast coffee generally has a shorter resting period than dark roast. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's semi-direct fire roasting as an example, medium-light roast coffee beans need approximately 4-7 days of resting, while medium-dark roast coffee beans require about 7-10 days to achieve optimal flavor.

Coffee roasting style is like a coffee roasting competition - using the same beans, each competitor's roasted coffee will have differences, which is the roasting style. Regarding its effect on coffee resting periods, some coffee roasters prefer fast-paced roasting, while others like to slow down the process. The resulting beans might have the same primary flavors, but subtle flavor differences will exist, including differences in resting periods.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's mentioned 4-7 day resting period doesn't necessarily apply to all coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's conclusion is based on their own roasted coffee beans and should theoretically apply to FrontStreet Coffee roasted beans. However, this still needs to be determined based on actual circumstances.

How Consumers Can Determine Coffee Bean Resting Periods

So as consumers, how should we determine the resting period for coffee beans? First, as consumers, you must clearly understand that each roaster's style is different, so don't rigidly apply Store A's resting recommendations to Store B's beans. Then, you must know the roasting date of the coffee bag.

If it's coffee beans from the same roaster, then the roasting style is consistent, allowing you to deduce based on patterns. First, we need to understand that the fundamental purpose of resting coffee beans is to enjoy a cup of coffee at its peak state. This requires starting from reality and using your senses to explore.

When encountering unfamiliar coffee beans, you can brew a cup daily to taste its flavor and compare today's taste with yesterday's.

When you notice the coffee flavor improving day by day, and suddenly one day the aroma and flavor slightly weaken, that turning point is the resting period limit. You can use this period as a reference for similar coffee beans in the future. You don't need to taste every bag every day thereafter,毕竟每次打开咖啡袋也会影响咖啡豆的状态。

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473