Don’t get roasted for serving stale coffee beans — java experts swear by this little-known hack for freshness. According to Food & Wine , coffee connoisseurs’ best kept secret to fresh beans is to freeze them. But there’s a caveat: there can’t be any air or moisture in the bag, coffee consultant Jaymie Lao claimed.
And she isn’t the only brew-lover who swears by this method. Industry experts from around the world agree that frozen beans can extend the shelf life and preserve the flavor, if done right. “One of the critical insights from experimenting with freezing coffee beans is understanding the perfect ‘peak flavor window,’” explained ONA Coffee’s Matt Lewin, who practiced various methods of freezing beans while preparing for World Barista Champion 2014.
He discovered that the long-held belief that cold temperatures would negatively affect flavor was actually nothing more than a myth, and that the perfect time to throw the bag of beans into the freezer is about 10 days after roasting. “At this point, the beans have released most of their CO2 from the roasting process, and the balance between CO2 and oxygen is just right allowing the beautiful aromas of the coffee to come through,” he said. Roasters around the globe are beginning to introduce coffees brewed from chilled beans onto their menus.
La Cabra, a coffee company out of Denmark with locations in New York, is launching a new program that will feature a freezer menu “with rare and limited lot.
