Freshness. Central importance for the aroma and flavor nuances for coffee.
There is now agreement among all experts in the field of specialty coffee that the freshness of the product has a significant influence on the taste of the coffee. But how do I keep coffee fresh for as long as possible and how can I tell if a coffee is still fresh?
Due to the growing importance of specialty coffee throughout the market, the issue of freshness is also being studied scientifically today. First, however, it is useful to find a definition for the freshness of coffee. The biannual magazine Espresso Quality: The Science of Quality describes freshness in terms of decay. For the authors, lack of freshness is the increasing loss of balance of flavors. Other authors take the approach of describing the loss of freshness as increasing distance from the original product that the roasters produced. Now these definitions are of little help to all of us at home who simply want to keep our coffee at its best quality for as long as possible.
Therefore, we simply look at the enemies of freshness and give some tips on how to stop the loss of freshness, and therefore flavor, for as long as possible.
Oxygen
Oxygen means oxidation and this can have a significant impact on freshness. Scientists at the University of Zurich have found that lowering the oxygen content to 0.5%, slows down oxidation by a factor of 20. We learn from this that coffee should always be stored in an airtight container.
Moisture
Water helps some molecules to move faster and more effectively, so that the biochemical degradation processes are accelerated. In this respect, it is advisable to always store coffee in a dry place to minimize this effect. Here again, the airtight container helps to keep the coffee nice and dry.
Temperature
High temperatures also accelerate the biological degradation processes in coffee. Now this doesn't mean that we should all store our coffee in the freezer, but warm environments should be avoided. A 10 degree increase in temperature usually means a doubling of the coffee's outgassing rate, and that doesn't do the aroma much good.
Time
Well, there's not much you can do about that, but in fact time is a negative factor for freshness, because logically with time all the previously described processes have more time to negatively affect the coffee. That's why we roast twice a week and pack our coffee in 250 gram bags so that the coffee doesn't sit on the shelves for too long.
However, it helps immensely to simply drink more coffee. Scientists have just found out that the amount of coffee has no negative effect on health, but on the contrary can basically prolong life. So if you want to do something for your health, take a look at our coffee assortment: to the Online Shop
Coffee Drinking and Mortality in 10 European Countries - A Multinational Cohort Study (15 August 2017): http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2643435/coffee-drinking-mortality-10-european-countries-multinational-cohort-study?doi=10.7326%2fM16-2945
