What is Truly Fresh Coffee™?
Get Your Coffee Direct from the Roastery at its Peak of Freshness and Flavor
Stale Coffee is Bad Coffee, and There's A Lot of Stale Coffee Out There
Truly Fresh Coffee™
Specialty Coffee at its Peak of Freshness & Flavor
As coffee lovers ourselves, we understand what a great cup of coffee can do for your day, for your soul or for a conversation.
But, great coffee is hard to come by especially if you buy your coffee at retail locations like markets or large-chain coffee shops.
This is because Big Coffee (commercial mass roasters & retailers) is more interested in efficiency and consistency, than creating exceptional flavor.
Add to this the economics of bulk purchasing, lower grade coffee beans, mass production, long term warehousing and wide-spread retail distribution and you've got an industrialized approach to what is, by nature, an artisan product.
If Henry Ford (the father of the assembly line) was alive today, that's how he'd produce coffee.
Our approach is different.
We roast the highest grade of coffee, Specialty Coffee. We roast it in small batches and only to order. We hold no roasted coffee in inventory and we have no warehouse.
We roast by hand using old world techniques. We roast according to the nature of each coffee and to highlight its distinct flavors. And we stamp the roast date on every bag and box that we sell.
We then hand pack our coffees the same day they're roasted and ship them the very next day so that your coffee arrives at its peak of freshness and flavor (or perhaps a day or so beforehand - read more on that below).
We're the complete opposite of Big Coffee. And, if you're a coffee lover, we think you'll notice and, hopefully, appreciate the difference.
Continue reading below.
Tale of the Stale
Best-By and Freshness Dates
Whether you buy your coffee in a market or at your local coffee shop, you've seen Best-By or Freshness dates marked on the bag or box. What do these mean?
In reality, they're just an estimate of how long the manufacturer thinks that their coffee will still be acceptable to the average consumer. There's no hard and fast rule for these dates and they can vary from company to company.
For whole bean coffee, the Best-By or Freshness date can be up to 6 - 12 months AFTER the coffee was originally roasted and packaged.
That's not an typo. 6 - 12 MONTHS!
If you purchase ground coffee, the situation is even more bleak because, once coffee is ground, it ages and becomes stale very fast.
And, if you prefer single serve convenience, you're likely getting the most stale coffee of all.
Commercial roasters often allow roasted and ground coffee to off-gas (aka: degas - more on that below) for up to a week or more before being sealed into pods. These then sit on store shelves or in huge warehouses for undisclosed periods of time.
It may say "freshly roasted" on the package. It may come from a reputable brand. But the hard truth is that coffees on store shelves or on big box store pallets can often be very old, and there's no way for you to know how old, because Best-By or Freshness don't tell us.
A printed roast date would surely help. But, Big Coffee can't afford to take that path. Why? Because it's not good business. When informed and given a choice, consumers won't buy aging, stale coffee that can be weeks or months old.
It's no secret that old coffee gets stale and loses flavor. But, if you're a coffee lover, flavor is exactly what you're paying for.
Old coffee is stale coffee. Stale coffee is bad coffee. And no one wants to drink, or pay, for bad coffee.
With Coffee, a Little Patience is a Virtue
Three to Five Makes Your Coffee Alive!
Coffee that's consumed too soon after roasting is also not desirable. A premature brew can end up being flat and unappealing.
CO2 that's trapped within the beans prevents proper extraction and the result can be a one dimensional, and sometimes sour, cup o' Joe. It may seem odd, but coffee that's brewed too soon after roasting typically tastes off. The problem is, it's actually too fresh!
Medium roasted coffees (the recommended roast level for all of our coffees) often hit their peak flavor about 3 - 5 days after roasting. During those days, CO2 is continually released (aka: off-gassing or degassing) from the freshly roasted beans. This improves extraction which greatly improves flavor and aroma.
This is why every bag and every single serve pod that we sell is vented (even though it's virtually impossible to see on the pods) to allow off-gassing and to prevent the bag or pod from bursting.
We package your coffee the same day it's roasted and then ship it the very next day. Off-gassing of CO2 occurs during shipping so that, by the time you receive your order, it's at - or very close to - it's peak of flavor.
And you'll know this because we stamp the Roast Date on every bag and box that we sell - no vague Best-By or Freshness dates here. You'll know the exact day that your coffee was roasted and when it's ready to brew.
Specialty Coffee - small batch, artisan roasted, and packaged the same day. Then it's shipped the very next day. This is what we mean by Truly Fresh Coffee™. The highest quality of coffee, freshly roasted and delivered to your door, direct from the roaster and at its peak of flavor.