How Long is Coffee's Best Flavor Period? When is the Best Time to Drink Brewed Coffee? How Long Can Coffee Be Kept in a Thermos? What Temperature is Best for Pour-Over Coffee?

What is the Flavor Window?

The flavor window refers to the optimal tasting period for coffee beans after roasting. During this time, with minimal carbon dioxide interference and while the coffee's flavor compounds haven't significantly dissipated, we can brew coffee with the most abundant aroma and obtain the most complete flavor experience.

Freshly Brewed Coffee Also Has an Optimal Drinking Time

But did you know that besides coffee beans, freshly ground and brewed coffee also has an optimal tasting time? It's actually the same principle as coffee beans. Because coffee aroma is volatile, we need to drink it before the aroma dissipates to get the most complete experience. However, unlike coffee beans, coffee is also affected by temperature. As FrontStreet Coffee often shares, coffee temperature affects our taste buds, and our perception of different flavors varies at different temperatures. Since flavors balance each other, when the intensity of flavors changes, the drinking experience also varies greatly.

Temperature Effects on Coffee

Moreover, temperature changes can also affect certain compounds in coffee, causing texture changes. Therefore, when coffee is brewed, FrontStreet Coffee generally recommends drinking it as soon as possible. But many times we can't finish the coffee quickly, so some friends might wonder: "What is the best time frame to finish brewed coffee?"

Experiment: Finding the Optimal Drinking Time

So today, FrontStreet Coffee will conduct an experiment to see what is the best time frame to finish brewed coffee!

Brewing Experiment

In this experiment, FrontStreet Coffee will brew two beans with different roast levels, then taste them at different time intervals and temperatures to see the differences in coffee under various conditions and determine the optimal time frame to finish them. Similarly, the beans selected for this experiment are a dark roast coffee bean and a light roast coffee bean. They are FrontStreet Coffee's Sumatra·PWN Gold Mandheling (left) and FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe·Gedeb (right) from FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection. The brewing parameters are as follows:

Coffee amount used: 15g
Grind size: 75%-80% pass-through rate with #20 sieve
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Brewing water temperature: 92°C (light roast) / 88°C (dark roast)
Brewing method: Three-stage infusion (30ml+120ml+75ml)
Brewing time: 2 minutes

We won't elaborate too much on the brewing process here, let's go straight to the tasting notes!

Tasting Results at Different Time Intervals

Immediately after brewing: When the coffee was first brewed, the temperature was in the 60-65°C range. Gedeb showed very prominent aroma - just getting close enough allowed us to capture floral and lemon scents. The taste was very balanced with a smooth texture, and the detected flavors included white floral notes, lemon, apricot, berries, and oolong tea. Gold Mandheling also had very prominent aroma, balanced taste, and a very rich texture. The flavor profile included chocolate, nuts, and caramel aromas, creamy sweetness, and a slight spicy aftertaste.

After 10 minutes: The coffee temperature dropped to the 50-55°C range. The experience of both was not much different from before, with prominent aroma and smooth texture. However, the acidity of Gedeb began to increase slightly.

After 20 minutes: The temperature dropped to the 45-50°C range, and the coffee began to show noticeable changes. There wasn't as rich an aroma when getting close, and we could see coagulated oils on the surface, with a relatively less smooth texture. Although the flavors were still prominent, they weren't as distinct as before.

After 30 minutes: The coffee temperature dropped to the 40-45°C range. The aroma and texture were similar to the previous state with not much change. What began to change was the taste of the coffee. Gedeb's acidity became more pronounced, and it was already difficult to capture floral notes, with the flavor profile leaning more toward sweet and sour fruits like lemon, apricot, and berries. Gold Mandheling was similar - its bitterness became more pronounced, with flavors of dark chocolate, nuts, cream, and caramel.

After 40 minutes: The coffee temperature dropped to the 37-40°C range. Both cups of coffee performed identically, having completely lost their prominent aroma, and the texture was slightly inferior, not as smooth. Although the bitterness and acidity of both coffees didn't further increase, there wasn't much flavor expression left.

After 50 minutes: The temperatures of both coffees didn't change. However, their performance in flavor, texture, aroma, and taste were no longer impressive. While not unpleasant to drink, they couldn't be considered good either. Therefore, we can conclude that 50 minutes after brewing is already the limit of the flavor window for coffee (under normal storage conditions).

Conclusion and Recommendations

In summary, we can conclude that under normal circumstances, coffee is best consumed within 50 minutes after brewing to ensure we can maintain a quality tasting experience throughout. At this point, friends who haven't followed FrontStreet Coffee before might wonder: since coffee doesn't taste as good when it cools down, can it regain its deliciousness when reheated?

The answer is naturally no! FrontStreet Coffee has shared many related articles before and conducted numerous experiments, with results consistently showing that although the taste of coffee can become somewhat more balanced after reheating, because its aroma has already dissipated, reheated coffee cannot return to the deliciousness it had when first brewed.

If you want to extend the "flavor window" of brewed coffee, FrontStreet Coffee would recommend using the methods shared in the article "Just One Trick to Make Coffee's Aroma Last Longer," such as "covering with a lid" or placing it in a thermos to reduce the rate of aroma dissipation and temperature decrease. This will help retain the coffee's aroma for a longer time, thus extending the flavor window~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473