Everyone loves a great tasting cup of coffee and as connoisseurs we are always looking for the freshest, most flavorful coffee we can buy. If you take making coffee at home seriously, no doubt you grind your own coffee from roasted beans; however roasted coffee begins to lose its flavor quickly and only has a shelf life of approximately 2 weeks. In contrast green coffee beans prior to roasting have a shelf life of up to 2 years.
The long shelf life of green coffee beans allows you to buy in bulk and stockpile which leads to significant savings. You will need to invest in a coffee roaster but these are relatively inexpensive usually in the $100-$200 range for a home user. They are easy to use and many have options to help you fine tune your roast. Once you grind your freshly roasted coffee you will be able to enjoy the freshest roast possible. An important area of consideration is purchasing your beans. A lot like wine, coffee beans from different regions have differing flavors which have been shaped by the environment they have been grown in. Guatemala coffee can often have a sort of chocolate flavor and Mexican coffee often has a sort of hazelnut taste to it.
Before you purchase green coffee beans for home roasting you should examine them carefully. The beans should mostly be the same size as this will ensure that they roast evenly. A mix of large and small beans will mean that the smaller beans will roast quicker and this will have a negative effect on the overall taste of the coffee. If the beans are not all the same shape it could mean a different type of bean has been mixed in and also if the colors are not the same there may have been problems when the beans were dried, these are all factors which will have an impact on the flavor of your finished cup of coffee.
It is also easy to detect problems such as the green coffee beans being fermented or damaged by smoke just by smelling the raw beans. The beans should not be fragile when handled as this would indicate that they have been dried for too long or by using too much heat. If the beans don’t feel very firm then they are not dried properly and will likely go moldy. Buying beans that have been processed immediately on harvesting is best.
The long shelf life of green coffee beans allows you to buy in bulk and stockpile which leads to significant savings. You will need to invest in a coffee roaster but these are relatively inexpensive usually in the $100-$200 range for a home user. They are easy to use and many have options to help you fine tune your roast. Once you grind your freshly roasted coffee you will be able to enjoy the freshest roast possible. An important area of consideration is purchasing your beans. A lot like wine, coffee beans from different regions have differing flavors which have been shaped by the environment they have been grown in. Guatemala coffee can often have a sort of chocolate flavor and Mexican coffee often has a sort of hazelnut taste to it.
Before you purchase green coffee beans for home roasting you should examine them carefully. The beans should mostly be the same size as this will ensure that they roast evenly. A mix of large and small beans will mean that the smaller beans will roast quicker and this will have a negative effect on the overall taste of the coffee. If the beans are not all the same shape it could mean a different type of bean has been mixed in and also if the colors are not the same there may have been problems when the beans were dried, these are all factors which will have an impact on the flavor of your finished cup of coffee.
It is also easy to detect problems such as the green coffee beans being fermented or damaged by smoke just by smelling the raw beans. The beans should not be fragile when handled as this would indicate that they have been dried for too long or by using too much heat. If the beans don’t feel very firm then they are not dried properly and will likely go moldy. Buying beans that have been processed immediately on harvesting is best.
