Should I let freshly roasted coffee beans rest a couple of days or can I use them immediately?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “1906 high love coffee beans“
Should I let freshly roasted coffee beans rest a couple of days or can I use them immediately?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “1906 high love coffee beans“
Without getting overly complicated, the answer is YES. Most coffee is best 2 – 5 days after roasting. With commercially purchased coffee, this is rarely an issue, because by the time the coffee ends up at the shop or store, it’s typically a few days old.
If you are home roasting, then I would wait 24 hours before trying the freshly roasted coffee. Out of desperation I’ve tried my coffee immediately after roasting, and it tends to be “grassy” or “vegetal.” Sometimes these flavors even last 24 hours after roasting, and a coffee that I thought would be horrible ended up great after waiting 3 days.
Don’t let this response keep you from experimenting, but know that most have agreed to let the coffee rest before its at its peak.
Yes, it is generally accepted that allowing a 3 day curing process after roasting to glean the best taste…
I certainly cant add anything to Kirk’s magnificent answer, other than I would suggest you go ahead a make a little coffee with freshly roasted and each day after so you can experience the taste changes for yourself.
As an amateur home roaster I found that I agreed with the posts above and every coffee I roasted benefited from resting a few days and usually were at there absolute peak somewhere in that 2–5 days after roasting zone mentioned.
But it was educational to try it for myself and form my own opinions since taste is so subjective.
Almost all freshly roasted coffee benefits from a resting period. It is akin to “resting” a good cut of meat after roasting.
The resting time allows chemical reactions that were started during the roast to be completed and allows some “coasting” time for other reactions that continue to impact the flavor profile of the roasted beans.
I know some coffee aficionados that prefer to grind and brew their beans right out of the roaster. They say the beans have the “most flavor elements present” and they want to sample them before they disappear as evaporating volatiles or get changed by oxidation. I have been on a list of coffee roasters for some years now and one fellow argues that right-out-of-the-roaster is the only way to get ALL of the flavor from the coffee.
Most of us disagree at two points:
not all of the flavor elements present “right-out-of-the-roaster” are pleasant and we choose to avoid them. Right-out-of-the-roaster coffee is often too “bright” in flavor—so much so that the brightness overwhelms or covers up sweetness, maltiness, or some of the other more subtle aspects of the fruity or floral flavor elements. Some folks really like the “grab-your-tongue-and-shake-it” attack that such brightness offers from a fresh roast. Most of us prefer that the brightness be more balanced with other aspects of the coffee’s flavor profile.
resting is not ONLY a matter of “loss” with respect to flavor elements. The “right-out-of-the-roaster” camp has the impression that the only thing that happen once the roast stops is a degradation of what’s inside the bean. This is simply untrue. Resting allows continued chemical changes in the beans and so it is during this time that some flavors are actually developed and appear. It IS true that some flavors become muted during the rest—you may label this as “degradation” or even “staling” if you like—but this is in tandem with development of some new flavors and a balancing of all flavors.
During the time of resting, most agree that a particular coffee will “mellow” to a degree and everyone agrees that allowing a coffee to sit “at rest” for too long allows too much oxidation and an overall loss of flavor and an increase of the degradation of certain oils that provide an “off” or even rancid flavor.
So, there is a balance to be had—and it differs for every origin and every roast level.
Coffees that start out “bright” from the get-go, like most East African coffees (many Kenyans or Tanzanians, as examples), need a day or two of rest most of the time.
If they have been dark roasted (a crime to impose upon a really excellent coffee), you will have driven off the important volatile aromatics and flavorings, so a couple hours to a couple days will dampen some of the brightness, but the resting time will not be critical. Dark roasting, in general, reduces the need and desirability of resting.
If you light-roast such inherently bright coffee, MOST folks will think the coffee is too bright—unpleasantly so; falling into the category as “sour” or too citrusy—until the coffee has rested 2–4 days. If this origin is used as a single origin espresso, it may need a week at least before it can be successfully used as an espresso and not come out “sour.” Some baristas will rest and age that coffee for 10 days to 2 weeks before making an espresso from it or from a coffee where it makes up a large percentage of the blend.
In general, the lighter the roast, the longer the rest. A “general” resting window I use for high quality coffee that has been taken no farther than a City+ roast is 2–4 days.
Most Ethiopian coffees I roast reach their peak flavor at 4–5 days. That’s where I experience the real “fruit bombs.”
Central American coffees (except the high-grown Geshas) are generally at their peak at 2–3 days.
Brazilians do well at 2–5 days. I had Yellow Bourbon from Brazil once that really came alive with a City/City+ roast at a little over a week. I had forgotten about it as the small sealed mylar bag had gotten hidden behind/under another container in the cupboard. I discovered it again after 8–9 days and thought that it would be stale, but it was really good!
The bottom line is that there are no hard and fast rules. Coffee is a dynamic agricultural product. There is nothing “standard” about it. Each origin has unique characteristics that are added to the general nature of all Cafea arabica . Experimentation and experience is the “rule.”
This is why there are so many of us that are just a bit geeky and obsessive about our coffee…so many flavors—so little time!