[geeks] Coffee survey

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 10:45:33PM -0400, Dan Sikorski wrote:
>I'm late to the conversation, but as a self proclaimed fan of brewed 
>beverages and coffee snob, I cannot let this topic go by without 
>throwing in my two cents.

Thanks, I'm always glad to hear an opinion, this was a great post.


>
>I can tell by unscientific observation that coffee releases gasses in 
>the period of 1-3 days after roasting.  I get most of my coffee 
>shipped to me from Intelligentsia on the day that it roasted and it 
>is on my porch when i get home from work the next day.  I immediately 
>take it inside and store it in airtight stoneware containers.  For 
>the first few days, there is a noticeable pop as the seal of those 
>containers are broken, indicating that the air pressure inside the 
>container has changed.  After the first few days that no longer 
>happens.

Ok, so to summarize, changes in the coffee that can be noticed by gas
production/release occur for around three days. 

One could also assume, at least me, that there are chemical changes too,
which mean taste changes.

>  The best espresso shots that I have pulled at home have 
>been with beans that were roasted 3-5 days before, but i'm nowhere 
>near consistent enough to claim that the freshness of the beans was 
>the primary factor in that, and i only make espresso on weekends.

That's where my question lies. When does a coffee bean go from "fresh roasted",
to not. If you have ever had coffee directly from the roaster, which has been
allowed to cool to room temp and then ground you know what I am talking
about. 

My Siroco coffee roaster had a dual cycle, it was basicly a hot air coffee
popper. It worked like a popcorn popper, but it was designed for coffee, which
is why I don't use it. It used special paper filters to catch the chaff, and
without them it makes a real mess and beans fly out. I have not been able
to get the filters here, and from what I understand they have not been 
available anywhere for at least 10 years. :-(

It would roast the coffee for whatever period of time you set, then run forced
air through them to cool them. So in 15-20 minutes you went from green beans
to room temp roasted beans. 

You can do the same with a hot air popcorn maker, at least I did in the
1980's, as long as you stop before the plastic melts and use some sort of
heatproof bowl to catch the chaff and flying beans. 

Charbucks as someone called them avoids the issue by roasting the coffee so
much that the subtle tastes are lost in the overdone roast. 

Doing some web research, there are lots of sites selling coffee, coffee
roasters, etc. There are hundreds of roast your own videos, from hot air
popcorn poppers, a pot and wooden spoon on the stove, to a heat gun and
an old bread machine.

They all seem to say that coffee needs to cool after roasting, but
disagree on how long it can sit, before loosing taste. Most of them say
less than 24 hours, one popular vendor (they were referred to in several
of the videos as the best source for green beans) said at least 4 hours
and no more than 24.

Just as a point my wife bought me some locally produced ground coffee
from the supermarket. I opened the package on Sunday morning, had my one
cup of coffee (Melita filter), put the rest in an old Illy can and
stuffed it in the freezer. Today (Thursday), it alreay has shifted to
the point were, after eating a large salad, watching the Daily Show and
writing this email, I still have not finished it.

While it was never fresh, it was drinkable at one time, and now is too 
"woody" for my taste. 

>Beans that are more than a month old do not make as good of espresso, 
>there is less flavor and less crema when brewing, and i have to 
>adjust the grind slightly to compensate for older beans.  Mind you, 
>the difference in the first two weeks after roasting is minimal, but 
>it is noticeable.

That's my point. If it is noticable, it's not as good as fresh. If it's not
as good as fresh, would you buy it? Or more exactly, would you pay 2 to 4 times
the price of regular coffee for it? 



>To answer your question:  Yes, I believe the claim that coffee is 
>best a few days after roasting, and i have noticed that to be true.  
>That said, i would prefer coffee that was roasted yesterday to coffee 
>that was roasted a month ago.  For me, ordering coffee is a matter of 
>balancing freshness with shipping charges, ordering two pounds at a 
>time offers savings on shipping and the coffee is still acceptable to 
>me when it is a month after roasting.

I look at it differently. I prefer coffee right out of the roaster. Not 
a dispute, more a matter of taste. I see them as a one, maybe two MBA's
who wrote a business plan and got someone to fund their business.

I don't see them as coffee fanatics, more like someone trying to make a buck.

My perception of the niche is that they roast coffee at night, and drive
around near dawn leaving packages of fresh roasted coffee on your doorstep.
I just don't see much of a demand to deliver, or send via the mail, what is
already old coffee, no matter what it's pedigree is.

 From many years of being a systems programmer and working late, I had
developed a taste for cold pizza, and sometimes eat leftovers directly out
of the refrigerator. With that said though, I would not want to have
my fresh pizza delivered cold. Coffee it seems is (to me) the same
way.

Jon, if you are reading this, the coffee roaster I used to go to was in
the Reading Terminal Market, which you visited when in Philly. I looked
them up and they were one of the 4 businesses still there since I left.
(The coffee place (name escapes me from lack of caffine), Down Home Diner, 
Bassett's Ice Cream and the Cookbook Stall).

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.