How long can roasted coffee 'last'? - an example

#1: Post by **baldheadracing** » March 25th, 2023, 2:51 pm

I pulled out my RoastVision this morning to use in my part of Home-Barista's review of the IKAWA Home Roaster, and found a couple samples in the same storage container as the RoastVision - a Klatch roast from Dec 2019 that was kept in its original bag, and my roast of the same green that was done in Oct 2020 that was kept in a Ziploc sandwich bag: (incandescent light so the colour balance is off)

The two samples came to a little over 14g. I ground them together on the Apex and made a V60. I was surprised that there was an actual bloom of CO2 - not a huge one, but gas bubbling up nonetheless. The 2019 harvest was, I believe, one of the better years for Panama coffees, but I was even more surprised by the cup. I still got blueberries and maple syrup sweetness ... three years after roasting. Confirmation bias, maybe. Do I wish that I still had that harvest's green? Definitely

.

#2: Post by **DaveC** » March 25th, 2023, 9:58 pm

A friend and I drank some coffee I had roasted a little over 6 years previously, it was stored ion a 1 way valve bag. It tasted like coffee, but had lost all character. I think coffee is pretty much immortal....

#3: Post by **Marcelnl** » March 26th, 2023, 5:32 am

I recently tasted 12 samples of a coffee I know well, all were >4weeks post roast. Coffee originally was a 87.5 point, I did not get any further than 78 -ish. What remains IMO is the 'roast flavor' you get tons of in the dark italian roasts like Lavazza, no character just the flavor 'dark'.

#4: Post by **erik82** » March 26th, 2023, 5:56 am

I had 3 bags of Square Mile 2 months ago that went missing in customs for 5 weeks and I received it 6 weeks post roast. During COVID 2 of my Wendelboe subscriptions with normal postal service took 2-3 months to get delivered. Both still tasted good but when comparing them to the same fresh coffee you'd clearly taste a big difference. It loses a lot of body and some clarity and starts to taste a bit generic. The first cup after opening a new flushed bag was very good but within 1-2 days quality declined rapidly. Still way better then a mediocre fresh roast but not nearly as good as a good quality fresh roast.

#5: Post by **jpender** » March 26th, 2023, 12:31 pm

I had a bag of natural process Ethiopian beans that I never really cared for. They ended up in my cupboard, the bag in a ziplock, for at least two years. Maybe it was three? I kept them around just for those times when I wanted to try something that required beans but not actually coffee that I would drink. Like tamping experiments.

Anyway, the beans were a blueberry bomb and in all of that time, 2-3 years, that aroma did not diminish at all. They stank of blueberries. That coffee basically ruined my desire to ever get a coffee with a blueberry note again. I wonder if the compost they eventually turned into smelled of blueberries.