What's the Difference Between New, Old, Aged, and Vintage Coffee Beans? What Does "New Crop" Coffee Mean?

As we all know, the freshness of coffee beans affects the flavor of brewed coffee, with fresh coffee beans producing fuller flavors. Therefore, "freshness" has naturally become the primary goal for people! This is also true for green coffee beans, except their determination isn't just about time!

Understanding Coffee Bean Classifications

"New beans," "old beans," and "aged beans" are the names people give to green coffee beans of different freshness levels. Therefore, what FrontStreet Coffee wants to share in this article is how exactly new, old, and aged beans are distinguished?

How Are New, Old, and Aged Beans Determined?

New beans (New Crop) are actually quite easy to understand - as the name suggests, they are "coffee beans from the new harvest season"! Generally, to distinguish whether green coffee beans are fresh, we look at whether they belong to the new harvest season. However, this involves a significant misconception: many friends think that "new harvest season coffee beans" refer to green coffee beans picked in the current season. This is actually not the case!

Since most of our specialty coffee beans need to be imported from abroad, the entire process from picking, processing, to transportation to our hands takes nearly several months. Short as two to three months, long as more than half a year. Many coffee-producing regions have harvest seasons from October to January of the following year. According to the most conventional maritime transportation, we can get the green beans in our hands at least by April-June of the following year. So this period has already spanned a year according to the timeline, but in fact, what we get and drink are the latest produced coffee beans. Therefore, everyone's understanding of new beans and new harvest seasons cannot be confused with normal timelines!

After understanding new beans, old beans (Past Crop) are very easy to understand~ Old beans refer to green beans harvested in the previous season or stored for more than a year (365 days). Their biggest difference from new beans lies in their moisture content! Freshly picked green coffee beans, after processing, have their moisture content controlled between 11%-13%. Because in this range, green coffee beans can be stored for long periods. If it exceeds this range, the beans become prone to mold, which is not friendly for beans that require long-distance transportation! As time passes, the moisture content will gradually decrease! When the moisture content of green coffee beans drops from the original (11%-13%) to (10%-11%), it indicates that they have become old beans~ Then after some more storage time, when the moisture content drops to (9%-10%), they become aged beans (Old Crop)! Aged beans mean that this batch of green beans has been stored for more than two years, with weight and quality greatly reduced compared to the previous two! Therefore, the roasting time will be very short, and the flavor performance is not optimistic! Of course, except for some specific aged coffee beans, which although stored for a long time, still have outstanding flavors! Because they are like cured meat, deliberately extended storage time by people!

Aged Coffee Beans - Not Just Old Beans

Aged coffee beans, abbreviated as "aged beans"? The storage time of aged beans mostly exceeds three years, but! They do not belong to old beans, and their taste is not worse than old beans. As mentioned earlier, they are like cured meat, the result of deliberate treatment by people! Conventionally processed coffee beans are extremely prone to rot and mold after three years of storage. Even without rotting, the flavor has long since disappeared. Aged beans, after special treatment, three years of storage is just the beginning. So, the differences between new, old, aged, and vintage beans are like this~ Everyone should not mistake a bean's age for it being an old bean; aged beans and old beans are not the same type. As for aged coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee will slowly explain them next time~

- END -

FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province