Fresh beans, tasty coffee
- basics
Welcome to the first ever edition, I’d like to call these brews, so first ever brew of caffeineletter. We are so excited to start have you here.
Storing your coffee right
Every night before I sleep, I double-check if all the coffee bags are zip-locked properly. No, seriously!
I don't want to wake up to a nightmare—coffee becoming stale overnight.
By coffee here, and in this whole article, I mean coffee beans.
Let's talk about keeping our beans fresh, starting with getting the terminology right.
Difference between expired and stale
Lots of people get confused with, or don't know yet, the difference between stale coffee and expired coffee.
Expired refers to the date before which it's best to consume. This is generally written on a coffee bag as best before date.
Whereas, stale means the coffee lost its freshness despite being within the date because of being exposed to the air.
Keeping the coffee tasty
Green coffee lasts fresh for 15 months, roasted (stored in an opaque, air-tight, slightly-below-room-temp container) 15 days and ground 15 minutes.
That means, if you leave coffee out in the open, they go stale.
You might have seen coffee beans used as props on top of plant pots etc in cafes. And if you try to smell them, you can't sense anything. Probably it's gone stale.
What is the best way to store, then?
The easy, zero cost way is to keep them as you bought them.
Coffee packs have one-way degassing valves. These valves help the CO2 that gets released to escape out and prevents fresh oxygen from going in.
But then, the problem isn't completely solved. We keep opening and closing the packs when we want to grind and make some coffee. That lets enough oxygen in, unless you are in space.
The solution is to drink more cups of coffee a day and finish it before it even degrades. 😛
Jokes aside, buying small quantities of coffee is always a good practice. You always have fresher ones on you.
To level up, you can buy containers that are made especially for coffee storage. These come with a 2 way valve that takes out the air and humidity keeping the coffee fresh for longer times. I don't have one to tell you more about it but that's how it works in theory
One more tip is to store it in the dark. I was surprised when I learned this from an SCA trainer. I went back and researched, and it turned out to be true. Light can degrade the quality of coffee beans, so use opaque containers that block out light, and avoid clear canisters.
When can you throw
From my research, 6 months appears to be the max limit. Whole beans when stored in an airtight container and in a dark place go stale after 6 months. After that the coffee just seems to lose everything that makes a cup delicious.
Wait, you don't have to actually throw.
While fresh beans are always better, cold brews are generally forgiving. If you have some lying around, grind them coarse and let it steep in water for 24-36 hours. You have good cold brews.
We will get to talking about grind sizes soon, another week.
Summing all that up, keep these things in mind:
Buy in small quantities to keep using fresh beans.
Coffee bags are the best way to store them without spending any money. Store them as you bought them.
Keep it away from sunlight as light leads to oxidation and loss of flavour.
From the coffee-verse
We asked 39,425 people how they make espresso - this is what we found - YouTube
James Hoffmann did an interesting survey asking ~40000 people across the world on how they make espressos. The results and the analysis is fascinating
Getting the best out of every bag - r/pourover
People share and discuss their methods to understand and getting the best out of coffee bags they buy. Few have methods where they set a reliable baseline and build on that.
Acids: characteristics and impact on flavour - Instagram
There are around 9 types of acids generally found in coffee which are responsible for flavour you get in the cup.
What’s brewing this week
I had lot of fun brewing the Jasper from Ground Zero Coffee Roaster.
Jasper from GroundZero Coffee Roasters
I picked this up after tasting it in a cupping workshop I attended recently. I enjoyed the bright acidity I got while using V60 to brew. Even with the moka pot, I had a delicious cup every time.
That’s all I have for this week. See you.
Now back to finishing my delicious cup of coffee.
Keep on brewing!