Receiving 90-100 day old coffee from my roasters
hey all,
I have been in the coffee industry for about 5 years or so and managing my first coffee shop.
First thing I noticed was that the coffe we are getting from our supplier is about 90-100 days old (after roasting). Other coffee companies I have worked with get their coffee to me within 2 weeks of it being roasted. Seems strange.
They insist that their coffee is stil fresh after 90 days because of their packaging but everyone I have spoken with disagrees. Some of the vaccum sealed bags I recieve has deflated and the coffee is hard. I have fought tooth and nail with the company but nothing I do seems to be working to get fresher coffee.
Does this seem right to anyone? I want to switch coffee companies but my boss loves them. Help!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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This is crazy. Regardless of packaging, it was long dead a 2 months before you got it.
I hear these claims about miracle packaging often, and they are half-truths. Inert gas purging, barrier packaging, and one-way valves block degradation due to light and oxidation, but coffee aging is far more complicated than that. To claim that the product is still fresh weeks later is simply not true.
Please tell me what exactly your boss loves about a supplier that makes a common practice of selling you expired inventory? Hopefully they are not charging you normal wholesale rates for this?
I would not recommend dealing with a supplier that refused to get coffee to you within a week of roasting at the outside. A day, two at most, is ideal.
This just makes me angry.
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Permalink Reply by Jimmy B on
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I agree 100% with Brady. I actually always read updated threads and Brady usually responds with great advice.
In terms of "fresh beans", to me is 14 days after roast date. Anything after that no longer is considered fresh to me regardless of packaging. 90 days is ridiculous. I'm not a roaster, but I would be so embarrassed to tell clients that I'm giving you "fresh" beans. Regardless, it is even more ridiculous that they are not trying to work with you and offering any kind of customer service. If I was the owner, I'd already be going to a different source for beans.
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Permalink Reply by zack burnett on
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Yikes! That is terrible. Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by olivier dutil on
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Change roaster ASPA they are crap, i receive my coffee from 2 roaster , one deliver the day of roasting , and the other i get it 2 days after, your roaster is probably a larger roaster that don t care as much about quality.
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Jaclyn i am from BC as well, We have tonne of very good roaster , Specially in the victora and vancouver area. Wicht roaster do you use? if you manage to get you boss to change roaster, i could suggest you some very good roaster in you area.
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The first thing I did when I took over management was try to switch the coffee supplier. Its Canterbury. Which probably explains everything. I have used other coffee suppliers at other shops and they had no problem getting the coffee too me right after roasting. I dont understand how a large company like Canerbury cannot manage to ship over fresh coffee from Vancover when everyone else can. I think my boss likes Canterbury because they are a larger company and are "the best". (According to who I dont know)
Just wanted to make sure I wasnt crazy for asking for fresher coffee. They made me feel like I was an absolute idiot for making a fuss.
I am at a loss for what to do. Maybe its time to switch shops because im absolutly embarrased to be serving this to people.
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Sorry to say that but canterbury suck.. i compare them to vanhoute , yes canterbury are big but they tried to sell me stuff before and they don t care about quality what so ever. only money. lots of big company are like that, they attract you with all the bell and whistle and sell you over price crappy dead coffee, really the best thing you boss can do is try to source a small local roster. bigger company generally mean a decline in the quality,
A small local micro-roaster have to pull out a superior product if he want to survive in this giant coffee economy.
cheers
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Permalink Reply by Keith Eckert on
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There seems to be a consensus, which there should be, and I would agree that 90 day old coffee is way too old. Most legitimate roasters, imo, will have beans out the door same or next day.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on
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First of all, coffee should be hard. If the coffee is soft, something is terribly, terribly wrong.
One good thing about 90 day old coffee is that the flavors have leveled out to a point where the flavor degradation will be so slow over a period of time that the flavor should not noticeably change now for, maybe, two years.
Of course, that depends on the roasting and the surface oils of the coffee.
As to whether or not you should change roasters, that depends on how well you can convince your masters. What are their criteria? Quality? Price? Figure that out and then provide a solution. Any schmuck working for your boss can go to him and tell him there's a problem. Provide the solution. Have samples from other roasters ready for him to try. Have a tasting. Be ready with landed pricing. If the coffees you're campaigning cost more, provide solid reasons why you should switch.
And it's more than just talking stupidly about "quality". Maybe your boss gives a shit about quality. Profit is what drives business. Be prepared with numbers. Be prepared to show how switching to quality will result in greater profit for the company.
You may be embarrassed by the coffee you're currently forced to serve but you're in a management level position, if you can't provide solutions then you're an embarrassment to our craft of baristas.
Wow your boss with why the company should switch and then impress us.
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Jay Caragay said:First of all, coffee should be hard. If the coffee is soft, something is terribly, terribly wrong.
One good thing about 90 day old coffee is that the flavors have leveled out to a point where the flavor degradation will be so slow over a period of time that the flavor should not noticeably change now for, maybe, two years.
Of course, that depends on the roasting and the surface oils of the coffee.
As to whether or not you should change roasters, that depends on how well you can convince your masters. What are their criteria? Quality? Price? Figure that out and then provide a solution. Any schmuck working for your boss can go to him and tell him there's a problem. Provide the solution. Have samples from other roasters ready for him to try. Have a tasting. Be ready with landed pricing. If the coffees you're campaigning cost more, provide solid reasons why you should switch.
And it's more than just talking stupidly about "quality". Maybe your boss gives a shit about quality. Profit is what drives business. Be prepared with numbers. Be prepared to show how switching to quality will result in greater profit for the company.
You may be embarrassed by the coffee you're currently forced to serve but you're in a management level position, if you can't provide solutions then you're an embarrassment to our craft of baristas.
Wow your boss with why the company should switch and then impress us.
Jay,
I didn't feel that I needed to go into full details of my endouvers to try to convince my boss to switch coffee. Yes, I have infact come up with proposals with numbers, facts and alternative coffee suppliers.
I am new to management and I'm trying to get all the help I am get. Mainly, my issue is with Canterbury and their 90 day old coffee for which we are paying through the nose.
My boss loves Canterbury, its not to do with the price point, or the quality (which has been discussed). It has been imprinted in his mind that they are the best. End of story.
So the next time, before commenting like a complete asshole, maybe try to realize that you don't know the whole story.
My goal with posting on this site was to see if receiving 90 day old coffee is the norm, which I can now see it is not.
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jaclyn said:
asshole
Hipster.
BTW, I'm not the embarrassed one serving 90 day old coffee.
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Jaclyn i dont serve 90 day old coffee and i need a barista soon ! when to move to revelstoke.
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