I placed an order for coffee at Metropolis on Sunday afternoon (Mar 30) and received a shipment confirmation email early the next day (Mar 31). I received the beans today and they were marked with a roast date of Mar 31. How is this possible? Do they roast between midnight and 7:00 am at Metropolis?

Chicago and Detroit are in the same UPS shipping zone, so one day transit. Metropolis probably printed the shipping labels Monday morning, roasted, then had the shipment ready by close of business. Shipper delivers the next day. So yes, that sounds like fresh coffee!

From their site,

"To ensure freshness, we only roast coffee on Mondays through Thursdays for web orders.
Orders placed before 8am CST on those days will be roasted and shipped that day, Orders placed after 8AM CST will be pushed to the following roasting day to ensure that you receive the freshest coffee. After all, fresh coffee just tastes better!"

It was roasted Yesterday, and so fresh that it won't even peak in flavor for a couple of days (probably). Metropolis will always hold a special place for me. They were my first mail order of properly fresh roasted coffee.

HB wrote:same UPS shipping zone, so one day transit

^ This. See also:

Gfcronus wrote:received a shipment confirmation email early the next day (Mar 31)

Confirmations can go out before the item is actually in the shipper's possession.

The ship time isn't what concerns me. It's the fact that I ordered Sunday afternoon, had a shipment notification at 08:15 Monday morning, and received the coffee stamped with a roast date of Monday. That strikes me as too early to roast coffee, bag it, and have it shipped.

You think they're post dating their coffee? Every time I order from [insert different famous roaster] I see the exact same thing. I've wondered about what it means exactly. Would they really be slippery enough to cheat on the stated roast date? The coffee is great so I choose to think it's something else.

Why not ask them directly?

I am not sure I see a problem. They probably arrange the shipping early in the day, and ship later in the day, roasting early.

Plenty of roasters roast and ship on same day, they have commercial accounts for shipping and can schedule based on how many orders are in to be roasted durring their roasting time (usually early morning), so it's pretty easy to roast at X time and have ready for pickup later.

I don't really understand the USPS status messages but I get one that says "Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility" at 8:30am. So it's understandable that one might wonder what that means exactly. Did they really roast and bag and ship it by 8:30am? Or does this message mean something more administrative and doesn't actually refer to the package being handled?

I don't know, I'm sort of curious, and I'm happy with the coffee.

Hi Tom. Sorry for the late reply. I didn't see this thread until this morning. We compile our web orders at 8am every day, then print UPS shipping slips at that time (most likely when you received notification that the coffee was on its way). Then we print a label with the roast date and batch code, apply the label, then roast and bag the coffee. It is shipped the day it is roasted. We always have and will roast to order.

Sincerely,

Tony