Counter-intuitive week-old-coffee tip from Ellie - Page 3

[another_jim]

Damn...
I have to say that sounds wrong to me.
I've had a few Aussie coffees that we spec'ed to that sort of age - but they all had robusta in them and the "excessive" aging was a result (and of course the robusta "protected" the appearance from degrading with that age).

Now... to be fair, just 'cause one roaster has switched some of their espresso blends to that sort of suggestion and another has one blend that fits the parameters doesn't actually support the earlier claim that this is "the prevailing custom" in commercial settings.

Mostly, it sounds wrong to me too. But here's a thought. Italians made great tasting espresso from very low quality coffees, rubbery Robustas, rioey Brasils, and fermented Ethiopians. They used all sorts of tricks, aging the coffee, grinding ahead, sacrificing the first or last drops, etc. etc. When espresso became a specialty drink in other countries, better coffees were used and these tricks were abandoned. But what happens when you use really good coffees, high grown coffees with lots of acidity or other aggressive flavors. A light roast, ultra fresh, may just be too overwhelming as an espresso. So maybe all the tricks that took the edge off the funk of monstrously bad coffees need to get rolled out again to take the edge off the power of monstrously good ones.

[malachi]

I guess in theory that's possible, but then you'd assume coffees like the Ecco Caffe Experimental #1 (all CoE coffees) and Hairbender would also benefit from longer aging (and they don't).

[ThaRiddla]

We've also been finding that our espresso is tasting better with our current profile at 6-8 days out. We are transitioning to longer rest times in our stores. I believe Silverlake usually uses 7-8 day.

We've been roasting a bit lighter in the past year or so with our Black Cat. We've been finding the lighter roasts lend themselves to a longer rest time.

1-2 years ago, we were dead set on 3-4 days out of the roaster to be the perfect time.

[Marshall (original poster)]

From a retail consumer perspective, how does that work out? Assume consumers will take about a week to use a pound of coffee. When would be the best "age" to take it home?

[Javier]

So maybe all the tricks that took the edge off the funk of monstrously bad coffees need to get rolled out again to take the edge off the power of monstrously good ones.

Jim, this almost sounds like a so-called famous quote.

[ThaRiddla]

From a retail consumer perspective, how does that work out? Assume consumers will take about a week to use a pound of coffee. When would be the best "age" to take it home?

The rest time I was referring to was for the espresso we are using on the bar. We still sell whole bean coffee anywhere from 1 to 7 days old. Most folks will be purchasing in the 3-4 day window given things like stock rotation, inventory, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it still tastes great at 1 day out, despite being a little volatile and bubbly. I feel that it's peaking right now at 7ish days...the vibrancy/fruit notes really balance with the chocolate/butter/caramel flavors around that time. This gives the majority of folks 5 or so days to get great shots before having to implement any kind of changes as Ellie described.