Freshly Roasted Stale Coffee?
When we think of coffee freshness, we tend to gravitate to the flavor of fresh roasted-coffee. More often than not, you will taste the traditional flat flavor of “stale” coffee in most homes or businesses. There is another aspect “Stale coffee flavor“ that isn’t mentioned often enough, that is the flavor of staleness originating from the green beans mishandling prior to roasting.
The taste of truly fresh harvested and then roasted coffee will open your taste buds to a new world of coffee flavors and will revolutionize your perception of quality coffee and the true meaning of fresh coffee. Barrie House Coffee is at the leading edge of setting standards for how green coffee is sourced, transported and stored leading to truly great all around fresh coffee.
Causes of green coffee staleness?
After coffee beans are dried and uniformly processed to the accurate degree of moisture content, they contain the maximum amount of volatile aromatic oils locked within their cellular structure and their flavor is at their peak. Next to nothing has ever been done to preserve this highpoint instead it has been all about the mere acceptability of a commodity fulfillment.
Green coffee is shipped and stored in woven jute or sisal bags and most of the commodity green coffee purchased is stored and circulated for over a year before it will be roasted, this in turn devolves the green coffee that is exposed to oxygen, environment conditions and to the bags structure themselves.
What characterizes green coffee staleness?
First is the evaporation of the coffees’ aromatic oils, these are the core of any fine coffee’s unique flavor signature. The next to go is sweetness, while lignin, which forms the cell walls of the coffee bean and is the chief non-carbohydrate constituent of wood, ages and imparts an ever-increasing flavor of aged cedar wood. This is the common flavor style found in most specialty coffee establishments today.
How to solve the raw green coffee staleness problem?
Solving the raw green coffee staleness problem requires changes by roasters purchasing and handling procedures, as well for an ongoing education by all parties involved in the coffee sourcing & selling supply chain of their consumers, on fine coffee and the availability windows for it in its peak flavor.
The final step to producing a harvest-fresh coffee experience is proper storage and smart buying techniques combined with extra scrutiny at the cupping approval level. As Latin American and East African coffees age, from the time they were harvested last winter, to the coming winter, the difference between a well stored and sourced coffee and all others widens.
We firmly believe the added labor and cost is well worth it and our methodology allows our customers to enjoy nearly a year-round full appreciation of harvest-fresh coffees.
As consumers begin seeking the exotic coffee flavor spectrum of single-origin coffees, a new world of regional coffee offerings will emerge. We believe that by keeping these coffees as limited time offers while at their peak only will empower the craftsmanship of farmers through economic sustainability with dignity by allowing them to sell their coffees at a premium and not as a commodity driven product.
