good coffee is generally delicious!
4 Interviews about Coffee aging and why it does (not) matter
Squeezing in at the bar of a busy restaurant
that is covered in handwritten posters from head to toe. Swiftly sneaking into the basement food court to disappear into a faux stone house in the corner of the floor, ready to calm down for a serving of tea. Traveling Japan for the first time with my mom and dad last fall I had no desire to think about work back home more than necessary.
On the other hand, it would be foolish to not schedule some Japanese pour overs visiting a country that supports masterful craft in all things food and drinks so the occasional coffee shop made the list next to tempura restaurants, soba-ya, food court patisseries, ramen shops, Czech pubs, vegetarian alternative lunch spots, fine dining kaiseki experiences, tiny grill restaurants, traditional sugar confiseries and cha no ha.
One thing that stood out to me was how fresh all the coffees served to me as pour overs were. I could not help but be intrigued and allow my analytical brain into this vacation for a moment.
Back home I wanted to make these very different approaches visible to people like my coworkers but also my “mentors” back home in Vienna. We in western specialty coffee don’t actually know what’s right and wrong when we base our techniques on anecdotal trial and error, the opinion of two youtubers, what competitors do on stage at WBC and WBrC and a fair amount of disregard for systematic research.
Experience based knowledge is cool
and it is even more cool when we think about it as technique and philosophy rather than hard fact and universal truth, in my humble opinion. So a few months after my trip I finally put together interview responses from three highly distinguished professionals from Japan, Korea and Austria (and myself) to showcase these different understandings of coffee aging for pour over specifically. My tongue and retro-nasal olfaction can confirm that very different coffee resting regimes can lead to equally beautiful cups.
the art of coffee on Naoshima:
Name:
Mitsuhiro Kawasaki
Role at company:
Sole proprietor at FRANCOîLE
Town or city:
→Naoshima Island, Japan
Gabriel’s note:
Francoîle is a coffee shop and roaster right at the gate to one of two bustling towns on either side of Naoshima Island. On an island full of art and museums these days, especially bustling with tourist once every three years for the Setouchi Triennale, the people of Francoîle purposefully blend a familiarly cozy atmosphere with an excellent menu of roasts, a creative range of drinks and local, masterfully crafted ceramics. Doing everything in house, the greatness and comfort Mitsuhiro and family fill the small coffee shop with is as endearing as it is impressive.
1) In your work, what do you consider the ideal resting time for coffee after roasting to use in pour over? How many days/ weeks after roast does it taste the best?
It depends on the degree of roast. I prefer 48 hours for light and medium roasts, and one week for dark roasts.
2) What are the advantages of this exact testing time in your experience? Please explain in detail.
Changes continue to occur inside the beans even after roasting.
Light and medium roasts are aged for a shorter period to bring out the beans' individual characteristics. Dark roasts are aged for a longer period to allow for a rich, full-bodied flavor.
Light roasts are roasted at a high temperature for a short period of time. This is what is known as a Nordic roast. Dark roasts are roasted at a low temperature for a long period of time.
This is because my roaster is a 1kg micro-roaster, so I can make fine adjustments based on my intuition.
3) What aspects of a coffee change the ideal resting time/age?
The aging period is determined by the degree of roast. Beans that are lightly roasted at a high temperature for a short time will ripen more quickly. This is thought to be because the high temperature causes the beans to expand rapidly, accelerating chemical changes within the beans.
When dark roasted at low temperature for a long time, chemical changes occur slowly within the beans. As a result, the cell walls eventually break down, but the components that create rich flavors are not yet fully developed, and you will notice a strong burnt aroma immediately after roasting. After aging for about a week, the burnt aroma will subside and the flavor within the beans will slowly develop, resulting in the desired rounded, full, and rich flavor.
4) In which ways does your method of freshness and aging represent your philosophy of brewing coffee?
My coffee philosophy is to discard preconceptions, think about where it's produced, and enjoy it freely and deliciously.
Good coffee is generally delicious even immediately after roasting, maintaining its fresh, clear flavor at the time. Aging gives the flavor a rounder texture, which also has its own unique appeal, but both the flavor immediately after roasting and the flavor after aging are wonderful, so I tell my customers that seeing the change in flavor over time is also one way to enjoy coffee.
For storage and aging, we recommend keeping it sealed, away from direct sunlight, and in a stable temperature environment.
From Vienna with precision:
Name:
Julian Tomala
Role at Company:
Barista at Manana Cafe
Town or City:
→Vienna, Austria
Gabriel’s note:
I knew Julian from successful championship appearances before I ever visited Manana Cafe or talked to him in person for that matter. He seems to make a name for himself as a sociable, accurate and curious barista in and outside of his position at the trendy and ambitious yet chill coffee shop near the city’s most elevated one of many food markets. Manana Cafe historically has served house roasts as well as international, avantgarde specialty roasters - which sets this case apart from the three other interviews. Julian is visibly very dedicated to going above and beyond perfecting his craft with all of them.
1) In your work, what do you consider the ideal resting time for coffee after roasting to use in pour over? How many days/ weeks after roast does it taste the best?
I usually look for a pour over sweet spot between 10-16 days after roasting. The exact timing depends on many variables, but for most modern filter light roasts this range tends to deliver the most complete flavor.
2) What are the advantages of this exact testing time in your experience? Please explain in detail.
If the coffee is too fresh, extraction often behaves unpredictably and the taste feels flat and unbalanced. In the first days the beans release a lot of gas, which creates inconsistency and masks flavor detail.
After letting it rest for this period, several things improve at once:
- the structure of the cup
- clarity and definition of the flavors
- a noticeable reduction of harsh or unpleasant notes
What I look for is the moment when the gas release calms down enough for the coffee to taste clean, while the flavor intensity is still high. That intersection is where the coffee performs best.
Consistency is another big factor. The fresher the coffee, the more inconsistent it behaves. During brewing and also in the cup. It’s much harder to replicate results.
3) What aspects of a coffee change the ideal resting time/age?
There are several aspects, but I focus mainly on:
- Roast style
Many roasters have a different style, and this affects the sweet spot.
- Packaging
I’ve noticed that packaging without a release valve tends to slow the aging slightly because the beans have less airflow and oxygen exchange inside the bag. These bags require the coffee to degas before sealing. Otherwise, pressure would build up too much and they would explode. Because of that, the amount of degassing that happens before packaging and the slower aging process shifts the whole aging curve.
- Storage
How I store the coffee influences the aging significantly. More contact with air pushes the aging process forward. If I want to speed up the aging, I expose it to more air. If I want to slow it down, I reduce air contact or freeze it in addition.
4) In which ways does your method of freshness and aging represent your philosophy of brewing coffee?
I always try to get the most out of a coffee, and controlling freshness is a key part of that. Coffee that is too fresh drops the quality noticeably, and avoiding that is simple.
In general, I prefer drinking several weeks old coffee over one that is only a few days old. Even when the older one is slightly less intense, the cup is usually far more coherent and pleasant to drink.
Only for creating recipes I try to find the perfect rest, because I want to brew the coffee at its absolute best. So every parameter counts, including the exact point in the aging curve.
My industry pen pal from Buncheon:
Name:
Jay
Role at Company:
Boss and Roaster at Pyeongjeongsim
(in Korean: 평정심)
Town or City:
→Bucheon City, South Korea
Gabriel’s note:
I found out later that I got to meet Jay and his wife as charming couple on their honeymoon trip through Europe. We kept in touch, mostly because Jay and friends cupped our coffees meticulously back home. This attention to all aspects of coffee and to connecting over this interest across a distance of over 8000 km are special. While I have not had the pleasure to drink a pour over at his shop Pyeongjeongsim in Buncheon, my mom has praised it. And I and my coworkers have enjoyed the perfectly balanced roast she brought back so much. As another shop owner and roaster he can speak of a special connection from roasting logisitics and café workflows when it comes to coffee freshness.
1) In your work, what do you consider the ideal resting time for coffee after roasting to use in pour over? How many days/ weeks after roast does it taste the best?
I adjust the aging period depending on the roasting level (Agtron color). I prefer about 1–3 days for light and medium roasts, and about 2–4 days for dark roasts.
3) What aspects of a coffee change the ideal resting time/age?
I think I should answer question 3. In my perspective, the most important factor that determines the aging period is the roasting level. The next factor is the amount of heat energy applied during roasting. If a lot of heat is pushed into the beans, more gas builds up and the coffee generally needs a longer aging period. However, my approach is to charge the beans at a high initial temperature and then apply relatively low heat. This results in less gas remaining in the beans after roasting, so compared to others, I prefer a shorter aging period.
2) What are the advantages of this exact testing time in your experience? Please explain in detail.
As I mentioned in my answer to question 3, I charge the beans at a high temperature and apply low heat during roasting. Because of this, less gas goes into the coffee. The reason I said the coffee can be enjoyed even after just one day is that the lower heat energy leads to faster degassing. In fact, I sometimes even brew and serve the coffee immediately after roasting. I see this as an advantage of my roasting style, as it allows me to serve fresher coffee with a very short aging time.
4) In which ways does your method of freshness and aging represent your philosophy of brewing coffee?
Honestly, I don’t pay too much attention to the aging period. As mentioned before, my roasting style pushes less gas into the beans compared to other roasters, so I naturally keep the aging time short. And while consistency is important, I also think it’s a valuable experience for customers to taste how the cup profile changes as the coffee ages. Actually, I focus more on the blooming time. I use about three times the coffee dose for blooming. Because of this approach, the aging period becomes less of a concern for me.
More Brewers cup than head barista:
Name:
Gabriel Brix
Role at Company:
Head Barista at kaffeefabrik
Town or City:
→Vienna, Austria
Gabriel’s note:
Head barista-ing the small and busy specialty coffee shop kaffeefabrik in the Wieden district of Vienna means serving 95% espresso based drinks and a few cups of batch brew. Only through doing brewers cup I went through the hundreds and hundreds of brews to even assess pour over related topics with as much certainty as I do talking about espresso. Regularly playing with new techniques and approaches as well as routinely assessing new roasts in pour overs for kaffeefabrik keep me from sticking to one method on one hand but help me to refine my skills in adapting to an ever growing, very wide range of beans, roasts and brewing techniques.
1) In your work, what do you consider the ideal resting time for coffee after roasting to use in pour over? How many days/ weeks after roast does it taste the best?
For quality testing and recipe research as part of my job I regard 7 to 10 days as the ideal resting time for most coffees. Most coffees continue to show their absolute best level until maybe 3 weeks off roast. My approach will result in different ideal resting times when looking closely at individual coffees in the range of 7 to 20 or 25 days roughly.
At the café we do not serve pour over. I regard 3-5 weeks as ideal resting time for espresso.
2) What are the advantages of this exact resting time in your experience? Please explain in detail.
I believe the 7 to 20 or 25 days window will have all characteristics presenting in beautiful and intense ways which lets the barista have the most control over how to extract them and how to interpret the coffee. All components of the flavor profile are at the perfect level to apply detailed recipes.
The way I approach pour overs it will be very hard to extract rich and clean aroma, flavor, acidity and aftertaste prior to 7 days off roast because the bitterness will be too roasty still. All essential characteristics will continue to evolve and show differently for the next two to two and a half weeks but usually remain at an equally high level.
After 3 to 4 weeks it will still be achievable to brew a very nice cup, however, intensity will slowly fade and the flavor will reduce to a more homogenous and shallow presentation over time. Continue to use the enjoy your nice beans regardless of “ideal age”!
3) What aspects of a coffee change the ideal resting time/age?
The roast but also the natural flavor profile of the green beans. I think the roast is mostly a consequence of the roasters’ style and the green bean profile. To present that idea in the cup the resting time needs to be modified just like you would modify the recipe.
A light roast hazelnutty coffee needs to be treated differently than a medium roast hazelnutty coffee etc.
For example, when you want a crisp, tart, refreshing acidity in your cup like lemon, lime, gooseberry this is in my experience highest 4-5 days off roast and will fade to the background. So the desired cup profile that I associate with a certain coffee for me is more relevant to determining the resting time than hard facts about the roasting curve itself.
And dark roasts are a unique thing, which will probably perform best starting at 14 days.
4) In which ways does your method of freshness and aging represent your philosophy of brewing coffee?
I work with very different coffees both in terms of green beans and roast profile. In general, I prioritize nuanced, well integrated and beautiful cups over maximum intensity for acidity, sweetness, flavor and body. I think that achieving such a brew is increasingly easier starting 7 days off roast.
As I said, I believe this window between 7 to 25 days to be the perfect time to showcase the unique qualities of a coffee, the combination of the green bean potential and the roast profile. Within this window I can apply extremely different recipes of brewing and modify each detail of the final cup with numerous variations.
Enjoying working with so many different roasts from dark to light roast means to sometimes opt for practicality over perfection in terms of average resting time. My philosophy of brewing is also to experiment a lot and challenge yourself so brew the coffee whenever you feel like it. You can learn a lot brewing with different ages of coffee. The brewing barista needs to adapt to the beans, not the other way around.