Friday, August 29, 2008

How to Buy Coffee

Hi All,

We are roasting next on Monday, September 1, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 2nd. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).

This week, I’d like to share some thoughts on buying good coffee.

As we get further into this business, I find myself drawn to the coffee aisle of any store I go to – and I spend a lot of time out there looking at how coffee is sold.

This morning, I was down at the supermarket, and I took a few minutes to try to find out WHEN the coffee there had been roasted. At this store (Shaws in Freeport, to be specific), they had coffees from about twenty roasters on the “specialty” side of the aisle, and NOT ONE of these had the date the coffee was roasted. Here’s a sample of what I saw there:

> Major National Chain Famous for Dark Roasting Coffee: No roasting date. No expiration date. No valve. (No valve, by the way, means that they have to “stale” their coffee before they package it, or the bags will pop!)
> Peets: Freshness Pledge: Peet’s Coffee is Within 90 Days of Roasting
> Major Donut Chain: Best by 7/2009 (That would be TEN months from now.)
> Regional Maine Roaster: 4721408 (I personally thought 4621234 was a better year – how about you?)
> Others: Best by Jan/09, Best by 3/14/09, Best by 4/20/09

Interesting, huh? Want to know WHY they won’t tell you this? For the most part, it’s so that the roasters can ship large amounts of coffee to the store and then allow the store to not worry about that coffee expiring (as milk or cheese does). In some cases, there are dates here, but they are in CODE so people like you and I can’t figure them out.

What does this matter? Coffee starts going stale right when it comes out of the roaster – and its best between 2 and 15 days after roasting. A fancy package slows down the process somewhat, but that packaged coffee goes stale MUCH faster after its open.

What do we do differently? Everything, really. We package the coffee within 10 minutes of cooling. We use three ply bags with valves and heat seal them. We deliver or ship ALWAYS within 24 hours of roasting. And our bags show the roasting date (in my own handwriting) on the front of the bag.

So if you don’t buy your coffee from us, this message will give you some food for thought. Look for small roasters who aren’t afraid to tell you when their coffee was roasted. Around here, I’ll throw out a plug for Matt in Pownal who does this. Try really fresh coffee and you’ll notice a difference.

I am taking suggestions for next week’s coffee sermon. Send me your ideas and I’ll give you a pound of coffee if I pick yours.

Thanks again for your support – enjoy the long weekend.

Kent