What can the baking date tell you about coffee? the fresher the beans, the better.

The barbecue date is not all.

First of all, we need to clear one thing. We are talking about the baking date, but this alone does not let you know the taste of coffee.

When you buy food, you will look for the freshest food. Of course, you need to check the best date. Then there are visual cues: the hardness of avocados, the bluish purple on onions, and the redness of fish eyes. However, to find out how good the food is, you need to eat it first.

The same principle applies to coffee. Do not judge the quality of beans only on the date of baking. At the very least, you need to open the bag and calibrate, calibrate and evaluate the beans as much as possible.

Now that we have determined that the baking date is not all, let's see what it can tell you.

What exactly does freshness mean? Which kind of beans is the freshest?

In general, all the coffee on the shelf is between 4 and 7 days and is still classified as fresh. However, I often receive expressions of impatience and even mistrust, and then clarify that they are looking for coffee baked yesterday or that day.

Some people claim that coffee only takes 24 hours, but at that time there was not enough time for coffee to exhaust.

What is the ideal baking date?

Treat coffee like bread: only buy it for a week or so. Find out the best coffee cultivation period (peak), and then go back from the time you plan to drink coffee. This will enable you to find the ideal baking date. Search for coffee baked within 3-5 days after that date.

Usually, if I want to drink coffee immediately, I will find that any time between 8 and 21 days after baking is the best. However, you should always pay attention to the advice of roasters or baristas about the peak roasting period of their coffee.

Why do people believe that the fresher the better?

I think the better misunderstanding of novelty is that our third wave of baking has been the victim of our successful training of consumers. Yes, what you heard was right.

In the surge in the number of craftsmen and small batches of baking between 2007 and 2010 (the third wave of baking in Singapore), we try to distinguish ourselves from commercial roasters through phrases such as baking fresh batches and selling by baking date rather than expiration date. Of course, a long time later, we relaxed our focus on freshness and replaced it with "best eating / brewing in 1 month after barbecue date" in the bag. But the damage has been done: the fresher the better.

So when is the coffee too old?

This is a very subjective topic, and although baking professionals usually ask for an upper limit on the average age, there are too many variables that we can't control. I've extracted espresso from a month-old lightly roasted coffee (note: lightly roasted, not "lightly roasted"), but it tastes as sweet as it was two weeks ago. I also encountered the problem that coffee was past its peak on the 11th day.

Why are there so many changes? Well, coffee itself has a big impact, and in addition, the way different roasters use their roasting methods may change the appearance of coffee, resulting in different ways of peaking or aging. Some coffee and roasting styles allow coffee to remain at its best between 14 and 30 days from the date of roasting, so it is difficult to say that the coffee is out of date or too fresh until it is tasted.

If you have any questions, please ask your barista or baker. They will always give you the best advice on specific coffee.

How to make full use of coffee at different ages

Calibrating the grinding size and adjusting the dosage are essential to give the aged coffee the best flavor. The older the beans are, the more porous they become. This means that during grinding, the structure is more likely to break, allowing water to enter and dissolve the soluble matter. If you use a grinding setting calibrated for the same cup of coffee two weeks ago, it will lead to inadequate extraction and poor taste.