Why do fresh coffee beans need to be nurtured? (Part 3)

When it comes to coffee beans, the most important thing people care about is: "When were these beans roasted?"

So what effect does freshness have on coffee beans?

In the past, when most consumers still believed that the fresher the coffee, the better, we probably didn’t need to spend much time talking about this. But when consumers became more savvy and began to ask: Can I drink this batch of coffee right away?, it means that everyone began to notice one thing - the fresher the coffee, the better it tastes.

Fresh coffee beans often need to be “cultivated”. How long does it take? This is the most common question, so we should naturally discuss first, what exactly is being cultivated?

In the concept of "growing beans", there are three parts that should be discussed separately: "exhaust", "development", and "maturation"

"Maturation":

When we place freshly roasted coffee beans in a bean bag filled with carbon dioxide, or even in a sealed bean can, the space inside the container is under high pressure. This high pressure helps to integrate the volatile aroma substances into the oil of the coffee. We can first call this state "ripening".

This process makes the coffee taste more mellow as a whole, and leaves more aromatic substances for us to drink than unripe beans. Of course, some people will ask: since lightly roasted beans have no oil, does this process not need to be done?

This requires careful observation. Even if you use lightly roasted coffee beans to make espresso, or brew with other metal filters, you can still see a layer of oil on the surface of the coffee by reflecting light. In fact, the amount of oil contained in light roasted and dark roasted coffee is similar.

Therefore, lightly roasted beans naturally also need a maturation step.

How long does it take to mature? Generally speaking, it takes about 10 to 15 days from the time the bean bag starts to swell, and it will be better for dark roasts in about 20 days. But it should be noted that once the high pressure environment is destroyed, it will not mature until the high pressure environment is restored. So if you really care about this part, please do not press the bean bag casually or open the bean can to smell it... (Especially for dark roasted beans, whether it is hand-brewed or espresso, maturation is a very important step~)