Why Fresh Coffee Isn't Always Best

In this episode, I'm talking about something that changed the way I enjoy coffee forever: the lifespan of a roasted bean. For years, I drank my coffee a couple of days after roast because it felt right, and I even told other people to do the same. Everything online tells you to drink it as fresh as possible. But the more I experimented, the more I realized that fresh doesn't always mean best. I pushed my rest time from one week to two, then three, and now I'm comfortably drinking coffee four weeks off roast, and the cup keeps telling me I was missing out all those years.

I walk through a Colombian coffee I had recently that peaked beautifully around three and a half weeks off roast, and I share what happened when it started to fade around the five to six week mark. I talk about the small brewing adjustments I made, like tightening my ratio from 1:15 to 1:12 to 1:10, to squeeze a little more life out of the beans as they changed. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why paying attention to the rest window matters, how to recognize when your coffee is peaking versus dying, and how to journal your way through a bag so you're a smarter, more appreciative drinker by the time you open the next one.

Transcript

[00:00] Coffee has a life. And you're probably drinking it at its worst. I was for the longest.

[00:09] I used to drink the coffee a couple days after roast. Didn't really know it at the time, but something about it just felt normal.

[00:21] You hear everything online, the chatter and all that stuff, telling you to drink it as freshly as possible. I was telling people the exact same thing. Drink it as freshly as possible. Try to get what freshness tastes like. I wanted to get that for coffee.

[00:38] And through the years, I started to realize and see what other people were saying. And I thought it was bullshit. I was like, three, four weeks after roast? That's insane. That's probably just because it's going to take a while to get to you, and after it gets to you, then it's going to be more than anything settled down.

[01:04] I started thinking about that. I was like, okay, maybe that's where I need to be. But then as I started to experiment more and see it for what it is, I started to enjoy coffee even more so.

[01:24] I pushed to two weeks, then three weeks, and now I'm up to four weeks. There's a lot of diminishing return there, but what I'm saying is that sometimes you don't know what you don't know. Sometimes when you experience something, you think that you're doing everything right.

[01:45] When we think about coffee, a lot of times, at least for me, I think about it more so the way it is right now. Does that make sense?

[01:57] When I get that bag of coffee, when I roast that coffee, I don't think so much about who made it for me. Who grew it, who harvested it, the way it was processed. I don't really think about that as much. When I'm drinking that cup of coffee, I just think about the tasting notes, the smells.

[02:22] But truthfully, when we think about it, coffee has a life. Just like we have a life.

[02:36] And the last possible form of coffee is literally the best time to really have it. Yeah, you can have it as a fruit. I wouldn't tell you to eat coffee or anything like that, but what I'm saying is that when we are presented with that roasted coffee, that is literally the best application for it. And ironically, now after it's roasted, it's not the best time to actually have it.

[03:12] It's this crazy, wacky window of, let it sit, let it rest for a couple of weeks, and then you can enjoy it. And each coffee is different. Lightly roasted, medium roast, dark roast, they're all different. But you have to pay attention to that. You have to be aware of the situations that you're in when you're actually drinking coffee.

[03:37] You have to pay attention. You have to be curious about the awesomeness of coffee, but also the detriment of coffee. That's the cool thing about coffee. It presents you this thing to where it has a whole personality of its own.

[03:58] And a lot of times, ironically, it's telling us not to really enjoy it. Just wait a little bit. Just sit with it for a little bit longer. And when you sit with it a little bit longer, then that's when it starts to open up.

[04:14] Every brew is different. But when you are in that operating window of that coffee's life, it's just quite amazing. And I'm not saying that every coffee is going to be special. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that you have to know when it's going to be the best for you. And for the most part, it's not a week out. It's not even two weeks out. Sometimes three weeks is still too young.

[04:53] When you know that, when you understand that, and when you express that in that coffee, you'll get better about the things and the decisions that you're trying to make with yourself.

[05:08] I had this Colombian coffee. It was special. It was magical. A nice medium roast. The notes just kept on singing. I caught it at the right wave. About three and a half weeks off roast. It was spectacular. It just kept on changing at its cool. No matter which brew I put it in, it was just magical.

[05:37] And then about the five or six week mark, something about it started to change. It started to feel dull. I knew something was wrong. It seemed like I knew that it was about to be the end.

[05:57] So I changed it up. One of the tricks I used for one of my other coffees is that I just made it stronger. Since 1 to 15 ratio wasn't working, I tried 1 to 12. It got a lot better. 1 to 10. There we go. It was crisper. It was livelier than it was at 1 to 15 at that time. But it still wasn't at its peak.

[06:31] I'm so glad that I was able to cherish and love that coffee for what it was for the time that I had it. Even though it did get better with the strength of the coffee, it still was dying. It still was losing its muscle. It was still not where it used to be.

[06:54] I sat with that for a while because I started to hoard this coffee, not really understanding what was going on. And then once it got to the point of me actually seeing it for what it is, I realized that this is something we have to pay attention to a lot more. We have to be curious about the lifespan and the tastiness and the lack of tastiness of the coffee throughout the brews that we have with it.

[07:25] We have to really stay there. And what I mean there is in the present. There's so many parallels about coffee and life and how we experience it and how we enjoy it and all that good stuff.

[07:41] But at the end of the day, we want to enjoy it at its best, not when it's at its worst. And even as I say, don't drink it one, two, three weeks out, do realize that it's not going to be the same. Seven, eight weeks, depending on the coffee, depending on the situation, depending on how you actually hold your coffee, all that good stuff.

[08:11] It's a weird game we play. How it ebbs and flows, how it changes, and how we really get to have that time that we're actually experiencing it.

[08:29] But stay there and enjoy it and see it for what it is. Because something about the freshness of coffee gives you that illusion of, I'm going to have it when it's best. But a lot of times, that's not the case.

[08:50] So that's where I want to leave you. Just pay attention. See what that coffee is saying to you. Get the roast date. See if it's too early, if it's too late. If it's too late, go ahead and start drinking it. Experience it. Enjoy it. Drink it with others. Drink it with yourself. Try different recipes. Try different brewers. Experience it for what it is.

[09:21] And then when you do that, and when that coffee's got just a couple of grams left, sit there with it. Understand it. And then when you do that, you'll be ready to go on to the next bag with a new, fond understanding, relief, education, and appreciation for that coffee.

[09:46] Also, write down the things that you don't like about it. Things that you do like about it. Things that were kind of weird and trippy in the beginning when you started to drink it, and how it really started to open up as the days and weeks went by.

[10:02] Think about that. I know it's kind of hard because we live in life. We have other things and obligations that we're doing and trying to understand as best as we can. But at the end of the day, it's one of the gifts that we were given.

[10:19] One of the tricky things about all of this is really understanding coffee for what it is. Because if we do, then we're just going to be in a better place.

[10:41] And I want to leave you with this. Just cherish it. Just enjoy it. Just love it. Care for it. Understand that the life that it has is given to you. I mean, your life too. But as it changes, just be there with it. And experience it for what it is.

[11:10] So that's what I got for you. Let me know what you think about this. Do you think about the coffee's lifespan? Are you one of the ones who drink it early? Have you started to realize that it's a little bit better as you give it time? Let's talk about it. Or do you drink it four or five weeks later? Talk to you later. Bye.