Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tips on How to Ensure Coffee Freshness

By Guy Morris


The best coffee comes form the freshest beans possible. It can be a challenge to get the freshest coffee unless you have a coffee bean field outside your back door. There are ways, though, that you can try to have the freshest coffee possible. When it comes to a good bean, there are a few factors to consider.

Roasting

Roasting is a complex process. It is actually cooking and therefore should be looked at as a complex art. There are right and wrong ways to roast beans. If done improperly the results will be beans that are less than desirable. Roasting beans yourself is something that is a hard task. You would need roasting equipment and even then you would have to know how to do it, which can take along time to learn properly. After roasting beans will stay fresh for quite some time, so buying roasted beans is fine. You should understand, though, that beans are freshest when ground right after roasting and keep that in mind.

Storage

Since you will likely be buying your beans already roasted, storage is very important to maintaining freshness. Beans are the best when ground following roasting. The more time that lapses, the less fresh the coffee will be. However, they can still be fine after a few days. You wan tot store them properly, though. The skin should remain in tact or lese useful oils are lost and the bean will go stale. The container used to store the beans should be airtight. A rubber sealed jar is the best choice. It should be left in a cool, dry place without any light or heat which can spoil the beans.

Grinding

You can grind your own beans at home. This is not nearly as difficult as roasting. There are many different ways to grind beans and the different methods produce different tastes. You should learn about grinding before trying it. This will allow you to create the coffee you desire. Ground beans should be used a soon as possible since they can go stale quickly. They should be protected form air and moisture in a tightly sealed container. The oil in the grounds can evaporate leaving behind a stale coffee. It is best to grind only what is needed.

In the never ending saga of the rush to find the perfect cup of coffee, the coffee expert can struggle. Many times that is because their coffee is just not fresh enough. By leaning things about grinding storage and roasting you can be better trained to learn how to go about creating that perfect cup of coffee. In fact, it is only through learning about the science behind coffee that you can truly understand it. You may know about all the differentials when it comes to certain aspects of coffee, but until you truly understand what makes coffee fresh you will never be able to make that perfect cup.

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