Myth or fact: Can Coffee Still Taste Great After Months of Roasting?
Myth or fact: Can Coffee Still Taste Great After Months of Roasting?
When Lameen aka From Coffee With Love invites you to experiment with coffee, you know there’s something interesting planned. Now, I had no idea what he had in mind but whenever he calls me over I know it’ll involve tasting some amazing coffee.
You might have experienced this when you buy a bag of coffee. The roaster will almost always tell you to consume it within 30 days. I never gave it another thought and would always race to finish within that time period.
Have you wondered why the roaster would say this? According to a few that I have spoken to, the intoxicating aromas that we all know and love start disappearing with time. The coffee undergoes a process called oxidation.
Once the coffee is roasted, it needs to be packed in vacuum sealed bags or containers. This is because heat, moisture, other aromas in the air, in short the environment, can change the flavor of the coffee. That is the reason your coffee might taste “stale”.
As the title suggests, Lameen wanted to bust this exact myth (let’s call it that, for now). He came across three bags of coffee that did not follow this rule. I haven’t tasted two out of three coffees which we will be tasting. I also had no when they were roasted.
Let me introduce the coffees to you:
Heleanna Georgalis Ethiopian Adame by Mokha 1450
Coffee from Congo by Elixir Bunn Coffee Roasters
Drink of the Escapist by Lameen Abdul-Malik. This is a filter blend of Uganda and Burundi.
The agenda of the experiment:
Smell test followed by taste test.
I had to smell all the three coffees and analyze if I could get any recognizable aromas from the bags. I obviously didn’t smell them when they were freshly roasted hence this is not a comparison.
Lameen revealed the roast dates and one coffee in particular was unfathomable that it was still so aromatic. Watch the video below as we go through the coffee and do the smell test. I also select one out of the three to brew it in the taste test. Read why Lameen wanted to experiment with the above coffees on his blog.
Next up was the taste test. Lameen would brew the coffee I selected to find out if it would taste “flat”, which means if the notes lack complexity and depth. Watch the video below to find out what we thought of the coffee. You can read more about the taste test and the recipe Lameen used to brew the coffee.
This experiment reminded me of the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence I had at Hermoso Coffee Roasters back in October. This coffee was roasted in May. This left me scratching my head because it should have gone stale by now. In fact, the coffee had beautiful notes of jasmine, peach, bergamot and black tea. Read more about it here.
To sum it all up, I am more confused now than I was before the experiment. Was it the roasting or the fact that the greens themselves were high quality? The credit might even go to the was it was brewed. I strongly think it could be a combination of all three.
What are your thoughts? Have you experienced something similar? Please share in the comments below.
