Friends who make their own coffee may have a certain concept of the term bean cultivation. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard about it before. Let’s talk about why coffee beans need to be grown and how long they need to be grown.
When everyone makes coffee, the moment the water contacts the coffee powder, the coffee begins to bulge, "watching the coffee slowly expand and bulge." Everyone likes this scene, but if the beans have not been steamed in the state of raising the beans, there is a high probability that gas will flow around and countless large bubbles will emerge.
Most people (especially Cantonese people) are obsessed with fresh ingredients, and everything should be fresh and hot. But when it comes to coffee beans, there is absolutely no rush. When the coffee is just roasted, the coffee beans don't have much aroma at this time, only the roasting taste. At this time, the coffee beans are rich in carbon dioxide and are very active (just like a child, running around and unable to hold back).
At this time, you will encounter very big obstacles when brewing. The coffee powder does not emit gas during steaming, which will affect the subsequent extraction of flavor substances. In the subsequent extraction, the powder layer is still bubbling and exhausting, which will form turbulence and cause uneven extraction. This makes it harder to make a good cup of coffee.Roasted coffee beans will release 60-70% of the gas after about 4 days. After that, the gas released will not be so urgent and will be slowly released in small amounts. At this time, the coffee beans will become stable (just like an adult man, calm and mature, exuding charm). At this time, the flavor of the coffee beans will be infinitely close to its peak state, and then the flavor will gradually decrease with the slow exhaustion.
If the coffee bag expands, it means the coffee beans are deflating.
Exhausting is a continuous process. After exhausting the gas, it means that the coffee beans are no longer fresh and have almost no flavor. Therefore, the flavor trend of coffee is closely related to the coffee exhaust process. After violent exhaustion, the coffee flavor reaches its peak, and then as the exhaustion slowly decreases, the flavor gradually declines. And raising beans is to make the flavor expression of coffee beans reach its peak.So how do we know if our coffee beans are at their peak flavor? There is no very accurate data on this, including the roaster's suggestions, which are just suggestions. There is no guarantee that the flavor will be the best after 7 days of storage (it may be the 8th or 9th day).
The length of the coffee bean cultivation period is affected by the degree of roasting of the coffee beans, the coffee roasting style, and the heat conduction method of roasting.Let’s first talk about the impact of the heat conduction method of roasting on the time of coffee bean cultivation. Now it is roughly divided into direct fire, semi-direct fire and hot air. For coffee beans roasted in these three methods, direct fire usually requires a longer bean raising time, followed by semi-direct fire and finally hot air.In terms of roasting level, the bean-growing period of light-roasted coffee is shorter than that of dark-roasted coffee. Taking semi-direct roasting as an example, medium-light roasted coffee beans have a bean-growing period of about 4-7 days, while medium-dark roasted coffee beans require about 7-10 days to achieve a better flavor.
Coffee roasting style is like a coffee roasting competition. Using the same beans, there will be differences between the coffee beans roasted by each contestant. This is the roasting style. The impact on the coffee bean-raising period is that some coffee roasters like to roast at a fast pace, while others like to slow down the pace. In this way, the main flavor of the beans may be the same, but other delicate flavors will be different, including the bean-raising period.Therefore, the 4-7 days bean raising period mentioned by Front Street does not necessarily mean that all coffee beans are like this. Front Street only draws the conclusion based on the coffee beans roasted by Front Street, and it should be applicable to the coffee beans roasted by Front Street. But it also needs to be determined based on the actual situation.
So as a consumer, how should we judge the shelf life of coffee beans? First of all, as a consumer, you must clearly understand that each store’s baking style is different, so do not use store A’s bean growing suggestions to forcefully apply store B’s beans. Then the information that must be known is the roasting date of this bag of coffee beans.If the coffee beans are roasted by the same store, then the roasting style is the same, so it can be deduced based on the rules. First of all, we need to raise good coffee beans. The fundamental purpose is to enjoy a cup of coffee at its peak. This requires starting from reality and exploring with your senses. When it comes to an unfamiliar coffee bean, you can brew a cup of coffee every day to taste its taste and compare the taste today with yesterday's.
When you find that the flavor of coffee is getting better day by day, and suddenly one day, the aroma and flavor weaken slightly, then this turning point is the period of bean cultivation, and all future coffee beans of the same type can be based on this period. There is no need to taste every bag of coffee beans in the future. After all, every time you open a coffee bag, it will affect the state of the coffee beans.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
