How Long Should Coffee Beans Rest After Purchase? What is the Rest Period and Flavor Window? How Long Should Light and Dark Roast Espresso Beans Rest?

At FrontStreet Coffee, there's a dedicated corner for displaying coffee beans, as it's well known that our primary business is selling coffee beans. Therefore, customers who visit for their daily coffee often see a continuous stream of people coming to purchase coffee beans (we'd like to think so) and engaging in conversations with FrontStreet Coffee about various bean-related information. The production date is one specific piece of information that these customers frequently request.

Why Don't Many Coffee Bean Buyers Check the Expiration Date?

This puzzles many people - why do these customers focus only on the production date? The expiration date should be equally important! Why don't they ask about the expiration date?

The "expiration date" refers to the period after a product is manufactured during which it can be safely consumed. Therefore, as a health-conscious measure, the principle that "food past its expiration date should not be purchased or consumed" has become a fundamental guideline taught in every household since childhood. However, for coffee beans, its importance is not as high. Relatively speaking, people pay more attention to its production date. Unlike most other products, the production date for coffee beans refers to its roasting completion time. So why is it more important than the expiration date?

Two Key Reasons Why Production Date Matters

There are two main reasons! First, coffee's expiration date is typically one year long. Under normal circumstances, coffee beans rarely reach their expiration date unless they truly don't taste good! Otherwise, we have numerous ways to prepare and consume them. The second reason is that we want to experience the peak period of these beans - when they perform at their best. For this purpose, we need to know when the coffee beans were roasted!

In today's specialty coffee culture, people drink coffee not just for caffeine intake but also to experience the various flavor characteristics that emanate from coffee. To achieve this goal, people invest more time and effort in every step from seed to cup, hoping to experience more coffee flavors in the final cup. The shift from dark to light roasting as the mainstream choice is also for this reason.

The Science Behind Coffee Aromas

However, most of the flavors we perceive from coffee are associations triggered by aromas. Aromas continuously evaporate, and when coffee enters our mouth, these aromas travel into our nasal passages due to evaporation, where they're captured by our sense of smell, leading to flavor associations. Unlike tastes such as sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, aromas can only be captured by our olfactory system because of their volatile nature. But it's precisely because they have this volatile property that we place greater emphasis on coffee freshness.

From the moment roasting is complete, flavor compounds begin to continuously release. If we brew the coffee after all the aromas have evaporated, the resulting coffee will only have its inherent sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes, with minimal aromatic properties, making it difficult to associate any flavors. Therefore, we pay more attention to the roasting date of coffee beans.

Freshest Isn't Always Best

It's important to know that coffee beans are not necessarily better the fresher they are! When coffee beans are freshly roasted, they contain a large amount of carbon dioxide. The presence of these carbon dioxide molecules hinders hot water's ability to extract flavors from the coffee, making it more difficult for us to extract flavor compounds. Additionally, extremely fresh beans carry a harsh quality that creates an unpleasant throat-catching sensation when drinking coffee. They need a period of rest to release and reduce their impact on extraction and the coffee itself. Therefore, coffee beans are not always better when fresher!

Understanding the Optimal Coffee Timeline

So, what's the optimal time after roasting for coffee beans? If coffee beans are stored conventionally after roasting (kept at room temperature in a cool place, sealed storage), their aromatic compounds typically dissipate within about two months. After roasting is complete, coffee beans need approximately 5 days to release significant amounts of carbon dioxide and eliminate harshness (depending on roast level). Therefore, theoretically, the period from 5 to 60 days after roasting is the optimal time to experience the full spectrum of coffee flavors (ideally within 45 days, as storage isn't always perfectly sealed). For better understanding, this period has been termed the "optimal tasting period," while the days needed for degassing and eliminating harshness are called the "resting period."

Making Informed Coffee Purchases

Therefore, when purchasing beans, we can use the above information as reference. If you want to start drinking immediately, you can purchase beans that are several days past their production date. If you don't want to start drinking right away and prefer to store them after purchase, then buy the freshest coffee beans~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473