The ever elusive and magical coffee bean. Oh coffee, let me count the ways I love you! I used to hate it. I tried it once when I was a kid and wondered how on Earth anyone enjoyed this bitter cup of mud? Then, in October 2015, my life changed forever.
I somehow convinced the powers that be at a local coffee roaster in Seattle to hire me, despite my zero knowledge of or experience in the coffee industry. That was actually one of my selling points; I would bring a fresh set of eyes and taste buds to their business with an eagerness to soak up as much as I could. On my first day, I learned what real, fresh coffee was. During my tenure at this coffee roaster, I learned a lot about the roasting process and what makes a good cup of coffee.
I could go on for several more paragraphs about the intricacies of farm to cup and everything in between, but the most important thing to know is this; only drink coffee made from freshly roasted beans. This seems like common sense. Fresh is best. There are a lot of technical reasons why fresh roasted coffee has the best flavor, but basically after coffee is roasted, it is best consumed within 3-14 days. After that, the coffee turns stale. Have you ever bought a bag of beans at the grocery store and looked for a “roasted on” date? There are only a few companies who list the date that the beans were roasted for two reasons. One, they don’t want to constantly replace the coffee every two weeks and two, they don’t care because they are betting that most people don’t know about what is the measure of freshness for coffee. You really should only buy coffee from a local roaster. Also, you should never, ever buy ground coffee. Ground coffee is roasted up to a year before you are even looking at it on shelves. If you don’t have a grinder at home, most grocery stores have one you can use. So, stop drinking old coffee! Ideally, you want to be drinking coffee from locally roasted coffee shops because that is the freshest as it gets. I, of course, have been a victim of the mass produced coffee shops (that I won’t mention here) for the sake of convenience. Luckily, more and more coffee roasters are appearing in cities across the globe.
I also enjoy going to coffee shops who actually roast their own coffee or better yet, have a relationship with the farmers that grow the coffee, know which beans are best to purchase and bring them back to America so we consumers can enjoy the perfect cup.
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