We know, the fresh is best but rest your coffee thing can get quite confusing. Here are a few tips on why we roast to ship and what you can do to get the best out of your beans.
Why we roast to ship.
We find it best practice to send out freshly roasted coffee. This ensures that you, no matter where in the world you are – post, courier, customs permitting, will receive your coffee as close to its roast date as possible. The traceability of roast dates and batch numbers play a paramount role in our quality control processes. It also upholds the spirit of transparency the speciality coffee sector strives towards, an aspect we find vital to the integrity of our offering.
So, why rest your beans for more flavour in the cup?
When green coffee goes through the roasting process, it releases moisture, allowing for pockets of CO2 to get trapped inside. This is, for instance, the very important reason why coffee bags have degassing valves. Instead of bags exploding, the trapped gas is allowed to expel over time.
How does this affect flavour in your cup? Imagine eating food that is too hot, you don’t really get to taste anything except the steam in your mouth. It is only once it has cooled slightly that you get to experience the aromas and flavours coming through. The same with coffee. Leaving coffee to rest for anything between 5 – 14 days post-roast allows for the flavours to open up, offering much more clarity to your cup. In short, after rest what you extract is the flavour from the coffee beans rather than the trapped C02 often perceived as high acidity and sourness in fresh roasts.
What is the ideal resting period?
Typically, we let filter coffee rest for anything between 5 and 14 days, however, to get the best out of your espresso let it rest for 7 – 14 days after it has been roasted. It is important you keep coffee sealed and in an ambient environment. Although we recommend storing coffee at a lower temperature, please do not rest it in the fridge. Moisture speeds up the oxidation process and diminishes the flavour. Read more on resting your coffee here.
How does resting coffee impact the shelf life of your beans?
Revisiting a bag of coffee six months after you opened it, will never be fun. Our approach is simple, once you’ve rested and opened your bag of coffee, don’t keep it for later. Brew and enjoy it till the last bean.
We wish you happy brewing and remember. Work in a few days extra for resting when you place your next order. Enjoy!
