Weekly Coffee Lesson: Downside of Store-Bought, Starbucks, and Your Local Diner
ben | 04 December, 2005 17:50Coffee is a green bean, usually grown in the mountains and often in the 
shade of jungle canopies. The bean remains green until it’s roasted, when it turns one of various shades of brown, depending on the roast time. The caveat to delicious, well-roasted coffee? It's like bread - it starts going stale as soon as it’s roasted.
This is usually not a problem for the caffeine junkie or the sleepy driver, but if you enjoy your coffee, even those of the flavored variety or espresso drinks, if you’re drinking your coffee from Starbucks, a bag from the grocery store, or with bacon and eggs at your neighborhood diner, the coffee you’re drinking is probably so stale you’re missing all the flavor and pleasure of drinking a fresh cup of coffee.
In his book entitled Home Coffee Roasting – Romance and Revival, Kenneth Davids says:
Coffee is best about a day after it has been roasted. Once past that moment a rapid deterioration in flavor sets in as the protective envelope of carbon dioxide gas dissipates, allowing oxygen to penetrate the beans and stale the delicate flavor oils. For someone who genuinely loves coffee, the bouquet of optimally fresh beans is without doubt the most tangible of the many reasons to roast coffee at home.And the Pheasant Creek Coffee website points out:
Coffee will noticeably change after 21 days after it has been roasted. When coffee is roasted the coffee bean will begin to degas CO2. This process of degassing will continue for 14 days. As the bean degasses it will push some of the flavor compounds to the edge of the bean, resulting in an oily appearance on the bean surface. As these compounds evaporate or are exposed to the surrounding air they undergo oxidation and can change from great coffee flavors to off-tastes. As the roasted coffee ages the flavor compounds evaporate and oxidation will destroy the complex coffee flavor, leaving only caffeine to be extracted during the brewing process. Caffeine is extremely bitter to the tongue. As a matter of fact, for sensory training, caffeine is the definition of bitter.Why does this pose a problem for Starbucks, you might ask. Well, have you ever seen a coffee roaster at a Starbucks? Probably not. Industrial coffee roasters are big, often loud, and generally put out a hell of a lot of smoke. Starbucks roasts their coffees, both those that you buy brewed and the packaged beans, at a central roasting facility and the ships the coffee out to the stores. Starbucks does include an expiration date on its coffee packages, but that expiration date is six months after the roasting date. The same issues apply to pretty much any coffee you can buy at your grocery store unless it’s locally roasted…and let’s not even imagine what your local diner brews…
That said. there are many options out there for those who want to enjoy their coffee experience. Many coffee shops roast their own coffee and even more buy locally roasted coffee. There’s also the option of home roasting your coffee.
This might sound complex, but unlike brewing your own beer or wine, it’s actually a quite simple and straightforward process, taking as little as 5 minutes roast time with nothing more to do than measure out your coffee, set the timer, and let it rip. More on home roasting later, however. For now, just see if you really enjoy the flavor of your next cup of coffee.
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