# Well thats a surprise...



## PreCoffeeCantankerousness (Dec 14, 2014)

(Read Post 4 for an important update!)

I've been too busy to make coffee the last few months and have been relegated to the instant. Over the last couple of days I've been cleaning out my pavoni and mignon and found about 200g of Columbian Suarez in my CoffeeVac container dated 23 March 2015. I was curious to see what they would be like, and fully expected the taste to be dreadful.

First shot a touch bright/sour and ran a little fast. Tightened the grind and the second and third shots were surprisingly nice. Smooth, chocolate, caramel & hazelnut. Not the best crema, but I've had worse from fresh beans.

I've just checked the freezer and found another bag of the same coffee. Looking forward to a taste comparison in the coming days.

So, is it likely my taste buds have been temporarily ruined by the instant coffee and the mere proximity of a real bean is exciting my palate? Or do some beans age better than others?


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

As the beans age (at ambient temp) they become easier to extract. It's great if you're enjoying them now, but the flavours may have been more complex a week or two after roasting? Perhaps you needed to be quite bit finer in the past?


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## PreCoffeeCantankerousness (Dec 14, 2014)

Good morning Mark. Yes, thats more than likely as I have found in the past that loosening up the grind as a bean ages within the 7-14 day window keeps the flavour perkily between sour and bitter. There have been beans which I even grew to dislike as they aged past 10 days. So to find these beans not only drinkable, but rather nice was a big surprise. Unusually, not only could I check off all the flavours on the label, but I could also discern others. Although, as I say, I may simply need to retrain my palate, for the time being I'm just going to enjoy the coffee - which is all that really matters.


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## PreCoffeeCantankerousness (Dec 14, 2014)

Wow!

Well this has been a learning experience!

I pulled out the same beans from the freezer frozen a few days after roasting.

After grinding the first thing I noticed was the aroma. It had been entirely absent from the old stale beans.

Then the pour - rich, creamy, velvety.

Then I dropped the glass!!!!

I tasted the last few unspilled drops and the flavour and aroma were simply joyous.

So my conclusion: after living off trips to costa and instant, old stale coffee is significantly better, but is laughably bad when compared to the same batch of beans kept for 3 months in the freezer and frozen a few days after roasting.


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