How Long Do Roasted Coffee Beans Stay Fresh? What's the Best Time to Drink Coffee After Roasting?

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People always ask, how should coffee beans be stored to maintain freshness? In fact, freshly roasted coffee gradually loses its flavor over time, so we always want coffee to be freshly roasted just to enjoy fresh coffee. So how should coffee beans be stored? First, we need to understand what coffee beans fear, so we know how to avoid it.

(1) Fear of Moisture

Roasted coffee is in an active state and easily affected by external influences. In relatively humid places, coffee beans themselves easily absorb external flavors and moisture, causing the beans to develop off-flavors. For this reason, I don't recommend putting coffee beans in the refrigerator. When beans are taken out of the refrigerator, a temperature difference forms, creating condensation, and the coffee will inevitably lose its flavor.

(2) Fear of Oxygen

When coffee beans come into contact with sufficient oxygen, they will oxidize mercilessly. Therefore, moderately reducing oxygen can extend the freshness period of coffee beans.

But oxygen is everywhere, and within 3 seconds of opening your package, it will rush into your one-way valve bag. So it's actually very difficult to block air completely.

(3) Fear of Light and Heat

This doesn't mean coffee beans can't face light sources, but rather that roasted coffee is food, and exposure to sunlight can cause rapid microorganism growth, affecting coffee quality. Pleasant temperatures and sunlight are breeding grounds for bacteria. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee chooses packaging bags made of opaque kraft paper composite materials.

How Long Can Coffee Beans Be Stored?

Generally, coffee beans used for pour-over coffee are single-origin beans, meaning coffee from a single origin, which better reflects the unique flavors of the growing region. Good coffee beans are directly reflected in their flavor, defect rate, and roasting freshness. Defective beans directly affect the overall flavor of the coffee, and it's best to choose freshly roasted coffee beans. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's medium and light roasted coffee beans as an example, as a food product, the shelf life is about 6 months, but as specialty coffee, the optimal tasting period for coffee beans is generally 4-30 days, with some beans having longer degassing periods that can extend to about 45 days.

Actually, as consumers, you don't need to overly pursue coffee roasting freshness. Freshly roasted coffee beans (after completely cooling) should be quickly packed into bags with one-way degassing valves for storage. Although this is when freshness is highest, the texture is not stable - for example, large amounts of carbon dioxide will escape, so we need to patiently wait for the roasted coffee beans to enter a stable state. This process is commonly known as "bean resting."

Regarding the resting period, each bean's specific situation is different. Some can develop optimal flavor after 4 days of resting, while others need two weeks. FrontStreet Coffee recommends a resting period of 7 days. However, coffee enthusiasts can also conduct their own tests - brew fresh roasted coffee daily to observe its flavor changes, which will accurately identify the resting period node for this particular coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee once conducted an experiment where we stored a bag of FrontStreet Coffee roasted Colombia San Jose coffee beans in a sealed packaging bag with a degassing valve for 3 months before conducting a brewing experiment. We found that these coffee beans could still expand and release gas during the blooming process, and when tasted, still contained lingering flavor notes. Therefore, sealed storage is very important for maintaining coffee bean freshness.

How to Better Store Coffee Beans

1. Use Packaging Bags with One-Way Valves

Coffee bean packaging generally uses bags with one-way valves, and these containers are actually sufficient for storing coffee beans.

But when storing, don't forget to squeeze the air out of the bag and press the zipper closed. Keep the one-way valve bag in a flat state to reduce internal oxygen and slow down coffee oxidation.

2. Use Airtight Containers and Utilize Carbon Dioxide for Freshness

In addition to one-way valve packaging bags, many coffee shops and coffee bean merchants use airtight containers as coffee bean storage containers.

Although they don't have one-way valves, airtight containers can utilize carbon dioxide as a preservation tool. After roasting, coffee beans continuously release carbon dioxide, which constantly pushes oxygen out in a sealed environment. At the same time, carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen, so as carbon dioxide is released, it will wrap around the coffee beans, reducing contact between coffee beans and oxygen.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends choosing opaque airtight containers with good thermal insulation as storage containers.

Finally, regardless of which storage container is used, the most important thing is to protect from light, heat, oxidation, and moisture. Only in this way can coffee beans be better stored to maximize the retention of coffee flavor.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473