When it comes to making the perfect cup of coffee, many factors come into play. You can have the best coffee equipment in the world, professional level barista technique, and the most perfect grinder, but if you are using bad coffee, you will never have a good cup of coffee. But what is the difference between the grocery store coffee I was used to getting and specialty coffee?
What is the first big difference?
The first big difference is the freshness. The amount of time from when the green coffee is purchased, to the time it was roasted, to when it gets bagged and loaded on trucks, sent to stock rooms at stores, wait for existing supply to finish, then gets shelved in the back and slowly moves its way to the front. It could be six months or more for that whole process to play out!
Why does freshness matter?
While coffee is pretty much shelf stable for one year's time, its window of peak flavor is much shorter. Specialty coffee roasters take great care to ensure that the coffee they roast is as fresh as possible when it reaches the consumer. This means that the flavors are at their peak, providing a much more enjoyable and complex cup of coffee.
How can you tell if your coffee is fresh?
One way to tell if your coffee is fresh is by looking at the roast date on the bag. Specialty coffee roasters will often include the roast date so that consumers know exactly when the coffee was roasted. Additionally, the aroma of freshly ground coffee is a good indicator of freshness. If your coffee smells stale or flat, it may be time to invest in a fresher batch.