Coffee freshness and variables involved
Understanding coffee peak period and its best storage
In 2018, driven by great passion, Pavoni brothers founded PEACOCKS.
Since then the goal has always been to offer the best experience from our specialty coffee selection.
PEACOCKS coffees do not have a real expiry date, but we want to suggest you a range that, according to our experience and tests, turns out to be the best to get the most out of the products we offer.
All this makes us proud because it is the absolute proof of the freshness of our products. In this way can we offer you the maximum from the coffee we meticulously select.
The selection and purchase of the raw material, the roasting and packaging are all involved to get a unique fresh product.
Our standards
Roasted coffee is vulnerable to multiple elements: light, heat, moisture and oxygen. Proper storage enables us to maintain the coffee’s freshness, preserving its characteristics for as long as possible, so that we can enjoy it at its best.
What is then the best way to store coffee and how long before it goes stale?
Considering a darker roast traditional blend that was correctly stored we know its flavour characteristics can be held up till 6 months or more after roast date.
Speciality coffee however has less gases to release after roast and tend to lose its vivid characteristics quicker than a commercial dark roast coffee.
If we don't store properly our coffee and/or brew it too late away from roast date we lose that distinctive acidity and sweetness that make a single origin speciality coffee so unique.
Some people tend to give coffee a relatively short shelf life, something like up to 20 days, avoiding to consume any coffee passed this date.
We believe speciality coffee has a much wider life range that it is commonly attributed. Often, we witness great cup profile improvements when enough time has passed from roast date.
For instance, we found the best brew on our filter roasts coming between 7 days and 30 days after roast date.
Espresso roasts even further, reaching flavour peak between 12 days and 45 days after roast date.
This is because we source and buy crops that are not older than 1 year, they are correctly stored and arrive at the roastery in grain pro bags, or vacuum sealed boxes. Also, the way we roast coffee has an impact on its shelf life too.
Storage
Is this a rule for every coffee company?
Surely not.
Depending on green coffee age, roasting style, packing and storing practice shelf life can vary.
One way valve coffee bags are one of the most common solution on the market and when good coffee is inside it, stored correctly away from oxygen, light and moisture, shelf life can be of 3 months.
Vacuum sealing and freezing a single brewing dose of coffee is also a more and more common practice, as it enables to preserve a coffee for as long as you wish.
Recent tests have given very positive results for packing specialty coffees in bags with zip but without valve. In fact, specialty coffee does not have an excessive content of CO2 to be released, so the valve can be omitted. The package will simply swell slightly, but it will keep the freshness of the product inside.
PEACOCKS is always looking to improve product conservation, regardless of the chosen packaging make sure you allow the coffee enough time to degas. Open the bags as infrequently as possible and keep them in a cool, dry place.
Never throw coffee away only because it may have passed its peak period, try and brew it anyway. We recommend brewing a “not too old” coffee aiming for underextraction, if is not gone stale yet you might be surprised by the flavours it developed with time.
Freezing a few single brew doses of your beans from a bag of coffee is also a very good practice!