In July, I visited Mexico and had the pleasure of purchasing 250g of coffee beans that won the 2023 Mexican Cup of Excellence. The variety is a natural Geisha from Finca Las Nieves in Oaxaca. I acquired the coffee directly from the roaster, who also happen to be the farmers.

I continued my travels for another week before returning to Europe, where I immediately froze the coffee until this week. I had a couple of cups this week and, disappointingly, the coffee has lost all its aroma and flavour, tasting merely like boring neutral coffee with no notes of anything

What could have gone wrong? The travelling? The freezing? I never opened the bag and froze it as it came. For added precaution, I even placed the original sealed bag inside another sealed bag.

Thanks

Did you try it while in Mexico to know it was good to begin with?

Interesting. That auction it appears already took place and although I do not see the bid-winners, I assume it was claimed at high price, two lots of 223 kg of coffee total. It's interesting to me that the farmer held onto the same lot enough to market directly, good for them.

Here's the auction competition results

I know from tasting many samples of COE lots in 2022 and 2023, that a roaster, me in this case, can poor down the quality relative to the judges' aggregate point scores.

Milligan wrote:Did you try it while in Mexico to know it was good to begin with?

I did not actually try it... They also have a coffee shop within their roasting facility. When I purchased the Geisha beans there, I had another delicious coffee they had that day...

I do believe I may have messed up somehow in the conservation of the coffee. The issue may have been related to how I stored the beans in my freezer... not sure...