Did you ever look at a bag of coffee that you get from the grocery store and look for a roast date on it? If you have attempted that search, you’ve likely been unsuccessful. Although, you most likely were able to find an expiration date. Any time that you can find an expiration date for a coffee and not a roast date, that’s your first sign that it’s not fresh coffee, and it also tells you that the roaster is not committed to freshness. Any roaster who is committed to freshness, and stands by that commitment, has nothing to hide, and thus will have a roast date printed on the coffee bag. We buy our coffee from Intelligentsia Coffee out of Chicago, and they only roast what we order AFTER we order it, ensuring we’re getting the freshest product possible. When we receive our coffee, it’s always the day after it was roasted, and we will not sell or serve it to you for more than 13 days beyond that. Our commitment is to serve and sell coffee only if it is within 2 weeks of its roast date. You’ll find our roast dates posted on our whole bean coffee list. You can also ask what the roast date is for the coffee you are drinking that day. If you really pay attention, you’ll likely be able to tell the difference between 3 day old coffee and 13 day old coffee. Coffee loses so much as time goes on. This is why we not only are committed to serving coffee within 2 weeks of its roast date, but also grinding only to order as well. Pre-grinding coffee does irreversible damage to the quality of coffee. If we were to grind coffee and brew it immediately, and then brew a cup of the same coffee from grounds that had been ground an hour earlier, the coffees would taste remarkably different, as the pre-ground coffee has lost so much of it’s flavor due to sitting un-brewed, yet ground. The more you drink our coffees, the more you’ll be able to start telling the different not only between one coffee and the next, but comparing how old the coffee is, even within our 2 week limit.
If you want to talk to us about coffee freshness, or ask questions about how to make your coffee as home as best you can, just ask next time you stop in!