What are the factors affecting the freshness of coffee? How to keep coffee beans fresh?

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Coffee comes from afar, from the harvest of fruit, the handling of raw coffee beans, and then to the hands of the roaster, it has to go through a lot of procedures, it is very difficult to think of coffee as seasonal fresh food. However, the seasonality and freshness of coffee are important conditions to make individual coffee taste good.

Coffee is a seasonal product. Depending on the planting area (tropical or subtropical), coffee can be harvested once or twice a year; the first is the main harvest, and the second harvest is less. The harvest period varies from country to country, but few coffees can be harvested for a whole year. Therefore, coffee, like all other agricultural products, is a "seasonal" product. If you want to taste the coffee according to the season, it is best to have the harvest calendar of each coffee-producing country as a reference.

There is no such thing as "the older the coffee, the better"!

Unlike wine, coffee does not identify its quality by year. But just as chefs pick seasonal ingredients for cooking, roasters of individual coffee choose "seasonal coffee" for roasting.

How to keep coffee beans fresh?

The freshness of raw coffee beans determines the best appreciation period for the quality and flavor of coffee, which can last for several months and up to a year under special conditions. Cryopreservation with vacuum sealed bags can extend this period, but this method also has limitations, in addition to the extra cost, the unfrozen coffee beans age faster.

Cabinets are the ideal place to store coffee at home, regardless of whether there is a door or not, the cabinets are cool, dry and without light. If the coffee cannot be sealed again after it is opened, whether it is coffee beans or ground coffee powder, it is best to change to a sealable container, especially if it can be preserved in a vacuum.

Contrary to what people think, coffee is not suitable for the freezer, whether it is completely sealed or opened. Coffee itself is porous and easily absorbs the taste of other foods in the refrigerator, not to mention the effect of moisture condensed inside the package on coffee.

The freezer is the opposite of the freezer. If the coffee beans have not been opened, consider storing them in the freezer, even beyond the best taste period. It is important to note, however, that coffee beans may have small cracks due to low temperatures in the freezer, which will accelerate the aging of the coffee once removed.

Old beans and old beans

"past crop" refers to coffee beans harvested the year before, which have entered a cycle of decline and may lose their flavor after cooking. The oil in coffee beans will degrade and oxidize over time, and the moisture content (about 11%) will become lower and lower; if the storage conditions are not good, it may also be damp, which will highlight the woody taste of coffee and greatly reduce the sour taste. Some poorly preserved coffee beans, known as "old crop", also smell like sacks. It may be due to poor drying and storage conditions in the place of origin, or poor transportation and storage conditions before baking. In addition, old beans may also refer to beans that have been kept for more than one to two years.