IMAWriter wrote:You're comparing a can of Lavazza to a good home roast?///ugh...
Forgive me here, but you must not drink much coffee to have 2 week old home roast sitting around
...admittedly, we drink a bunch of coffee around here, but I roast a full # in my Behmor (yield after roasting about 13.6 oz)...
It's gone in 7 days , max...and that's with a 24 hour rest. For non espresso brewed coffee, 2 weeks, if kept air tight in a 1 way valved bag should be no problem, though. On rare occasion, I've had both Pro roasted and home roasted versions of the same varietal, and after 10 days noticed no appreiciable difference in degradation.
Most espresso's lose much of their ability to produce mountains of crema after 10 days, but (at least to me) often have more complex flavors. Just goes to show how we all taste things differently!
wow, unnecessarily harsh. i used lavazza as an extreme example. though, it and illy, for starting out as 'old' coffees, maintain their taste for a while. home roasted coffee, roasted dark for espresso, in my experience, degrades faster and continues to degrade. ive experimented and tucked home roasted coffee away for a couple months. it smells like coal, pours like water, and tastes like shill..
i drink too much coffee in my opinion. 1-3espressos/day. unfortunately, life doesn't allow me to sit at home all day thinking about my next brew. sometimes i have to travel, and come home to beans that weren't consumed prior to my leaving. Isn't that something, they didn't just open my cabinet and walk out while i was gone?! I'm also the primary one drinking coffee in my house. my wife prefers tea.
lighter roasts do last longer, ive seen similar results from C+ to FC roasts.
good thing computers have spell and grammar check. unless your espresso is that possessive it owns you. :p
Andy, I have tried your cooling method, but cant cool that fast, even in the dead of winter. I use a colander and force air over the beans. During the winter, they cool in a few minutes; during the summer, several at a minimum. I do have a hottop on its way to me, though, so we will see how it changes things.
) and then drop them in cool water which would cause them to create many cracks. I believe coffee beans do the same if blasted with cool air too quickly. I now more gently cool til bean temp drops below 300*. If I want to buy some time before using I will then put the beans immediately in a valve bag and after 6-12 hours squeeze out the air and co2 that's in the bag. The beans in the bag will continue to give off co2 and will better preserve them until the bag is opened and oxygen gets back in. I also try to avoid scorching, tipping and divots by keeping roasting temps below 500f.
