We often hear people ask if our coffee is “fresh”, which is a very important question!

Like bread, if your coffee is too old, it’s going to become stale which has a profound impact on taste–and not in a good way. Having fresh coffee is important to ensure you’re unlocking the full potential of your brews. However, the way we define “fresh” in coffee may be a little bit more complicated than one may think.

One to four weeks (and sometimes five or six) off-roast may sound like a long time, but that’s often the window of time where your coffee is going to taste its best.

Why?

During the roasting process, many chemical browning reactions occur in which carbon dioxide is produced as a natural byproduct. Naturally, the coffee beans will retain some of this CO2, so that’s where resting comes into play! Resting coffee means simply allowing your coffee to sit and rest before brewing to allow any excess CO2 to escape; this process is also referred to as degassing. This process is made easy, with most coffee bags having valves which allow CO2 to escape without allowing oxygen or moisture to enter.

Resting your coffee ensures more effective and even extraction and overall better tasting coffee. This is why “blooming” has become standard in pour over brewing, as hot water hitting the grounds allows gas to escape; the fresher the coffee, the more intense the bloom. The bloom is an important first step, as CO2 escaping during the brew can be disruptive to the brewing process, leading to uneven extraction. On espresso, this becomes even more apparent as the CO2 has a much greater impact here.

The longer the roast means more browning, resulting in a greater amount of CO2 produced, which is why you may notice that darker roasts have more intense blooms on pourover and produce more crema in espresso. While light roasts have less gas, it is much harder for CO2 to escape since the beans are denser. This means lighter roasts need longer rest times than more porous and darker roasts. Coffees grown at higher altitudes are also denser, leading to longer degassing times as well. Since dark roasts are generally more porous, their resting times are much shorter than that of lighter roasts. Dark roasts are also more susceptible to quicker staling rates. So, if you’re a lover of darker roasts, you don’t need to wait long after roast to get your brews going!

As mentioned above, since dark roasts hold more CO2 and contain more oils, they generally produce more crema, while light roasts produce very little. However, contrary to popular belief, less crema does not necessarily mean bad coffee. When extracted well, less crema could signify a lighter roasted or older coffee. Crema itself actually has a very bitter flavour, and some people even choose to remove it from their espresso for that reason. At the end of the day, it all comes down to your preference!

All that so say: Fresher is not always better! Allowing coffee to rest is essential for unlocking its full flavour potential, and by understanding the unique needs of different coffee, you can always be sure to get the most out of your brews.