- Hey guys, it's Ales
from European Coffee Trip
and in this video, we'll
talk about coffee freshness.
We think it's such an important
topic that we made not one,
but two videos with our friends Gwilym
and Petra Davies in their training center.
In the first video, Gwilym
covers mainly espresso
and coffee freshness
behind the bar, so enjoy.
(upbeat electronic music)
- In cafes, as baristas,
we know that fresh coffee
is important for us to
use, but the question is,
"How fresh is fresh?"
Well, it kinda depends really
on how the coffee was roasted,
how you stored it and how
you're gonna prepare the coffee.
When we roast coffee, we
create CO2 and aromas.
If we use the coffee too
early, the CO2 actually pushes
against the water and it's
harder to extract the coffee.
Also, some of the aromas
are really not that nice.
There's like a boiled
potato aroma early on
and of course roasting aromas.
If we wait too long to use the coffee
then we've lost too much of the CO2,
the resistance to the coffee
is much less, it runs through,
there's a big chance of channeling.
Also, we've lost our aromas,
the coffee tastes a little bit
flat and empty and at the
worst, there's been oxidation.
So oxygen is something we
have to avoid, it goes in,
it'll oxidize and then there's
terrible, terrible flavors.
How long you keep the
coffee before using it,
really depends on you.
I usually wait five days for
filter, maximum two weeks.
With espresso,
I'm not gonna start
using it until two weeks.
Usually between two and three weeks,
but I have really delicious
espressos with coffee
that's been rested for
four, even five weeks.
Okay, this Brazil, it was
roasted two weeks ago,
that's great and the bag
was opened yesterday,
so this is great for espresso.
Once you start using your
coffee, use it quickly,
you're in a cafe so you should do.
Don't leave it in the hopper overnight,
or don't leave the bag open.
As soon as you've taken it out of the bag,
close the bag for
whatever's left for filter
or with espresso, make sure
you put it in the bag at night.
Baristas can use freshness as a variable.
There is a point in a coffee's life
where it will taste the best.
You'll know this as a barista,
but it's not always possible.
Even if you order your coffee
early and you use your stock,
sometimes you will use it all quickly.
In that case, you're gonna be using coffee
that's a little bit too fresh.
What will happen is you might
start getting an acidic taste.
The CO2 absorbs into the water
and you get carbonic acid,
so you're gonna get like an
almost sparkling water finish
to your coffee, a little
bit of unbalanced acidity
which will reduce the sweetness.
(gentle guitar music)
So, this is five days from
roast, Ethiopian washed.
There was a lot of crema
when it was coming out,
and now the crema's just disappeared.
So, big bubbles in the
crema and now just gone.
Giving it a little mix.
- But it smells like--
- Smells nice.
- Jasmine.
- Yes.
- Nectarine, peach.
- There's some sweetness,
but the acidity is a little bit unbalanced.
Acidity a little bit sharp and
that strange aftertaste of--
- Thick and like kind of fizzy.
- Yeah, like fizzy, sparkling
water, acidity in the finish.
- [Petra] Well it's empty kind
of, especially in the finish.
- But some nice aromas,
there's some sweetness,
but the acidity is spoiling the cup.
Another five days at least
for this, I think we're gonna
find the sweetness coming
out more and the acidity
becoming a little bit
more gentle and balanced.
- [Petra] Round.
- Round.
Also, one sign is in a
cappuccino, when you're drinking
your cappuccino on the
whites, there's white,
but the brown starts to bubble.
So it's usually a sign of light roasts
being used a little bit too fresh.
So, these small bubbles in
the brown parts of the design
are a sign that the coffee's
a little bit too fresh.
The CO2 seems to mix with
the acidity of the coffee
and starts breaking up the brown area.
You don't see this as much
in darker roast coffees,
it's mostly specialty .
- [Petra] Four or five days after.
- Yeah, this is four or
five days after roasting.
If this was the same coffee
two weeks after roasting,
it would be a nice shiny,
glossy cover to the latte art.
One thing you can do to get rid
of more CO2, is grind finer,
but there's already increased
resistance from the CO2,
so what you'll have to
do is reduce your dose.
You may also need to use
a little bit more water
for your beverage yield to
try and get past the CO2
into the tasty coffees
when you extract it.
When you're storing
coffee inside your cafe,
think about the temperature
you're storing it at.
Cooler temperature is better.
With hot temperatures, say
somewhere like in the summer,
you're gonna find that the
coffee degases quicker.
Cooler temperatures, the
coffee will last a lot longer
and it'll degas much more gently.
Humidity, obviously keep
it away from moisture,
your coffee does not want moisture
until you actually start extracting it.
Light, keep it away from
UV light, so it has to be
in a container that isn't clear.
So, no glass, no clear containers,
keep it hidden from the light.
And then that should help you
keep it away from oxygen too.
Oxygen is a killer for
coffee, the CO2 can escape,
the volatiles can escape,
the oxygen will come in
and it'll start oxidizing your coffee.
(bright jazz music)
Freshness is an important variable.
Usually in cafes the
problem I find is that not
that the coffee's too old,
but people are using it too fresh.
If you want the best coffee you can,
keep control of the
freshness of the coffee.
(bright jazz music)
