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Permalink Reply by Jason Haeger on July 30, 2009 at 7:28am

Coffee does tend to prefer some time to let off some CO2 before being brewed.

How much time depends on the coffee itself. I've had some that were prime at 14 days out of the roaster. (even 18, but that's far more rare)

Most folks will say 2-ish days for non-pressurized brewing and 3-4 days for espresso and other pressurized brewing (like aeropress or moka).

Generally speaking, coffee is pretty well staled by the end of 2 weeks. This depends on the coffee, and can be sooner or later. It's nothing set in stone. You just have to know your product well. (you should anyway, right?)

That having been said, your roaster should be able to give you some specific guidelines and parameters for their coffee. If they can't, then what does that say about how well they know their own product?

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Permalink Reply by James "Cosmo" Cramer on August 1, 2009 at 12:06am

Jason thanks for your posting it was helpful.

Jason Haeger said:

Coffee does tend to prefer some time to let off some CO2 before being brewed.

How much time depends on the coffee itself. I've had some that were prime at 14 days out of the roaster. (even 18, but that's far more rare)

Most folks will say 2-ish days for non-pressurized brewing and 3-4 days for espresso and other pressurized brewing (like aeropress or moka).

Generally speaking, coffee is pretty well staled by the end of 2 weeks. This depends on the coffee, and can be sooner or later. It's nothing set in stone. You just have to know your product well. (you should anyway, right?)

That having been said, your roaster should be able to give you some specific guidelines and parameters for their coffee. If they can't, then what does that say about how well they know their own product?

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Permalink Reply by Banks Thomas on August 1, 2009 at 9:20am

I agree, two days for drip coffee and 3-5 for espresso.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on August 1, 2009 at 10:29am

Agreeing with 2ish days as the early end, as well as 3ish for espresso and a 2ish week end date.

On this subject, I ran across a Cooks Illustrated article that covered freshness. In addition to the above referenced 10-12 day max lifespan, they cited a much longer 90 day window for beans vac-sealed in an aluminized bag, attributing this to George Howell... I knew you could maybe stretch things a bit with pre-packs, but 90 days sounds like wishful thinking.

I haven't done any experiments yet, but what are the thoughts on this?

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Permalink Reply by Eyal Rosen on August 1, 2009 at 2:35pm

This varies from roast to roast. Ask your roaster. They should give you a full profile, optimal brew range (in days) included.

Eyal /ROASTe.com

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