Website Debunks Myth of Fresh Roasted Coffee in Packaging

According to the website by Merchants of Green Coffee, the most authoritative study ever produced on preparing coffee beans from roasting to brewing to tasting was written by a chemical engineer named Michael Sivetz. His findings were published in 1963 in a book called Coffee Processing Technology and set standards for the global coffee industry. This book revealed that coffee quality is a function of green bean quality, freshness of the roasted bean and proper brewing methods.

In 1998, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) republished this book. A year later, in 1999, the SCAA adopted the following definition for fresh roasted coffee. These definitions revealed that fresh roasted coffee should be ground immediately before brewing; brewed three to seven days after the coffee has been roasted, no matter how it has been packaged. As has been already stated in these blogs, most coffee retailers do not have the distribution capability to deliver coffee to the consumer in less than a few weeks.

What accounts for the short shelf life of roasted coffee? The reason is that after roasting, coffee produces seven times its volume in inert gases, which mainly consists of carbon dioxide. As this gas is produced, it binds with coffee oils and carries them into the air as aromatics. (Coffee oils are what gives coffee its fresh taste). The result is that 90 per cent of this gas and the coffee oils disappear within three days after roasting. After the gas is gone, oxygen readily penetrates the coffee and oxidizes the remaining coffee oils on contact. It is at this point that coffee develops its characteristic bitter taste.

It is a proven fact that the taste of fresh roasted coffee cannot be preserved. The notion that packaging can preserve freshness is entirely false.