Ideal resting time for coffee beans

Freshly roasted coffee has become almost synonymous with good coffee.

The fresher, the better, right? We’re not so sure.

When a coffee leaves the roaster, it’s still changing. CO₂ is escaping, aromas are shifting, and the cup can taste very different from what it will become a few weeks later. We’ve noticed this especially with some of our more expressive coffees.

Coffees such as our Natcha Lot 08 and Flores anaerobic natural can be incredibly loud when they’re young. Give them some time, and the fruit and fermentation can become more integrated.

Our Bali Mangku Weka, co-fermented with strawberry juice, is another coffee we’re particularly interested in watching over time. What happens to all that strawberry, sweetness, and fermentation when you give the coffee a few more weeks?

Sometimes, one or two months after roasting, we prefer the coffee to how it tasted when it was fresh.

That’s not a rule. Some coffees peak earlier. Some keep changing. Eventually, coffee will simply start losing the things we love about it. But maybe “fresh” isn’t the same thing as “best.”

So instead of opening a bag and immediately asking, “When was this roasted?”

Maybe ask: “I wonder what this will taste like in a month?”