Back when I used to drink coffee, I didn’t roast my own, but I usually purchased directly from roasters, roast-to-order. They don’t roast it until you order it and then ship it the same day, so I’d get it within 2-3 days of roasting. There is some off gassing that happens within the first couple of days after roasting, so for best flavor you want to wait a couple of days before brewing anyway.
It’s really amazing how varied coffee can taste depending upon from where the beans were harvested. Those fruit similarities aren’t artificially introduced either. Some speculate that there might be pollination influences, i.e. where bees had been before. Then there’s the soil and the weather…
Roasting that is artfully done can help bring out those qualities… and otherwise, careless roasting can trash ’em.
This is the best way to get fresh roast if you don’t home roast. Many small roasters are roasting and shipping on the same day now. Find a roaster that has beans you like either local or will ship to you.
Anaerobic processed coffee is fermented for a brief period in sealed barrels, and this tends to add fruit notes to the flavor. Other processing methods are: washed, which is the most common method, natural / dry process, and the “honey” process. They all have distinct flavor characteristics. There is also “wet-hulled” which is an Indonesian thing and I have not had this yet.
Doggone you guys!! You’re costing me more money!!! Popcorn popper and unroasted beans ordered, from Sweet Maria’s.
I have never noticed any difference in flavor when I’ve kept my Dunkin Donuts coffee or Starbucks coffee for 2 or 3 months. I always thought this ‘freshly roasted bean’ stuff was not really a big deal. But the Mayorga beans I bought (freshly roasted just before shipping) did cease to taste good after about 3 weeks (in fact they now taste quite bad, and my wife complains about how bad that coffee smells). So now I’ve put 2+2 together and realized that the Dunkin and Starbucks stuff probably is already old by the time I get it, and that’s why I don’t notice a significant change in taste over time.
I don’t drink coffee all that often, and roasting just enough beans at a time to make 2-3 cups is probably ideal to keep me in fresh stuff. Logically, therefore, as Spock said to McCoy, “I have little choice but to sample your beans.”
Few years ago I bought a cheap popcorn popper.
It broken on my first attempt because the oil from the roasted bean (over roasted!) dropped into its electrical part inside :person_facepalming:
Some efforts to bring it back to alive was failed.
Yeah, I’ll probably try for a light roast and stop the thing shortly after first crack. No way do I want to over-roast. Not into that kind of coffee anyway. I brewed a cup of dark roast Cuban style a while back (from a sample pack of fresh roasted beans), and it was not pleasant. From what I’ve read, the beans continue to roast somewhat after removal from heat, while they cool down. So I want to err on the side of caution. I can always experiment by adding an extra 30 seconds or so to the following batch, for comparison.
Wow… what were the other coffee beans that you used for the Mason jar storage? I’ve not had Maxwell House coffee from a can for decades. Frankly, I didn’t even know it was still sold this way. I guess it’s a terrific fall-back. Hermetically sealed in that can, versus a bag.
Yeah, I’ve been made painfully aware of older roasted coffee beans being subpar to their potential. I threw out some coffee I’d been drinking because I was just too accepting. I simply can’t get fresh roasted beans in my area without paying more than double… which is antithetical to my budget conscious mind. I am still determined to do my own roasting of beans at some point. When I do, I will report back on my findings.
Meanwhile, I was in Trader Joe’s the other day and spotted this Select Harvest 50/50 blend of Nicaraguan / El Salvador coffee beans. I figured why not give it a try. It’s a medium roast. Well, it’s really delicious. $10 for 10 oz of beans. No bargain here, but I find it better than other offerings. I absolutely cannot stand “Joe’s Joe” coffee… find it too bitter, such that brewing with eggshells and dash of salt doesn’t help much.
They are awesome at roasting and blending. They are also always having monthly specials on different coffee’s. Their pounds, NOT 12oz bags, their pounds normally average around $12 bucks or so. On special they get down to $9-$10 bucks or so. But very very high quality curated beans. They are one of the few I’ve found that is good for shipping quality beans for cheap. $9-$10 bucks for fresh roasted coffee is what some shops pay fresh from roaster’s (if their lucky). Yes some larger providers sell a little cheaper wholesale to shops, but then the coffee isn’t super great nor necessarily shipped the day it roasts either, some could be weeks later too. Gavina is a good example of that a cheap but unideal wholesaler. Orleans won’t beat Costco prices for a pound, but Costco’s coffee’s will never be “alive” either. I’d say Orleans Coffee is a great option if the coffee around you is too expensive per pound.
Edit: I’m in Los Angeles and have no affiliation to Orleans Coffee. They just learned from experience that they know when to roast and when to stop roasting high quality beans and for a damn good price (all things considered). If I didn’t have the options I have around me, I would just shop from them. They take all of the guess work out too. They have recommendations on other coffee’s you might like if you liked a specific one. They just have it all together, and it’s been that way for a long time. They’ve been around 40 years and have generations of clients, thats probably why they still kinda charge old-world prices. WIN/WIN is all I’m saying.