Yes, Once roasted, the beans do benefit from resting. For two reasons:
First, is out gassing. Freshly roasted beans expel C02 for a period of time which prevent perfect saturation by water. The effect of brewing coffee right out of the roaster is “Bloom”. While the hot water is trying to saturate the grounds, the grounds are simultaneously pushing C02 outward due to the hot water reducing saturation. Resting for a day is fine. (That’s the very short version of that.)
The second reason to let them rest is the same effect that causes leftovers to taste better. Totally empirical and totally personal. But you will find that something like Costa Rica beans are perfect after a day or so, up to a week; while others (Yemen? North African?) tend to start singing after 3-4-5 days. Blending for espresso is a whole range of alchemy and quantum coffee logic of its own, but some blends can be held back for a week or more before they’re just right.
Bottom line is preference.
NEVER put coffee in the freezer or fridge. The reason is condensation. Cold objects exposed to warmer air will attract nasty ambient moisture that settles on your beans. The ONLY way to make that work is to let them reach room temperature before opening up a perfectly sealed container. Its much better to keep them in a sealed at room temperature and use up beans within a week or so.
Keep and treat your green coffee just like dried split peas or lentils. Unless you are storing many thousands of pounds for more than a year, storing tens of pounds in plastic is just fine. Stick them on the shelf away from stinky things like garlic and brand new rubber tires.
Yes, coffee ages, but it’s subtle. Over a VERY long time coffee loses some of its fresh off the farm sparkle, but that is replaced by increased body. Over the course of a year you can tell, but the month to month difference is pretty slight.
Whether you are ordering a bunch of kinds all at one or a lot of one thing all at once, economy will be increased by larger orders. Ordering a single pound of one kind of bean once a week is the most expensive way to go. Twenty pounds of all the same kind would begin the least expensive way to go, and continue getting better from there. Cost effectiveness is in the tiered pricing of some beans as well as being able to ship a lot of coffee all at once to one location.
Our prices fluxuate with the season, and what’s on hand (and what will be on hand due to wars, weather, speculation, government hooha, etc) Sometime you’ll find more bulk pricing options than other times.
DON’T let price be confused with quality. A lot of pricing is about scarcity. Price and quality are totally different. Related, but different. A better prepped coffee will probably taste better and raise the price, but swimming in it probably knock the price right back down again.
Everything we’ve got is good in it’s own way. Like colors, or children, there is no ‘best’, only different. A lot depends on context. And a lot depends on how your day is going.
The Coffee Project has a variety of coupon codes that pop up sometimes. Some of the most common are the birthday codes (tell us your birthday month! orders@coffeeproject.com) and things like “No Rush” for when you’re in no rush to get an order. Our e-newsletter often mentions active codes. But for the most part the prices on the website are pretty much as fair as possible as they are.
The SR500 is currently our favorite roaster. Everything about it is the perfect balance for one or two people’s needs. Function, economy, design, ease of use; all there. After four or five generations it’s just about perfect. It roast about 5 ounces at a time and depending on the effect you want and your conditions, you can overfill or under fill the roaster. Factors include power supply, kinds of beans, amount of chaff, degree of roast. But after a few tries you’ll be an expert at what works.
Roasting coffee is a lot like throwing darts, you get better and better at it the more you do it, And while it’s popular to try and work it all out on paper with a slide rule and computer aided guessing, The Coffee Project’s stance is just relax and have fun with it. No one has to hook their stove or toaster up to a computer to cook an egg or make toast. Bottom line is pay attention. That’s all you need to do.
Coffee is as varied as cheese or wine or bread. There’s a lot of room to be spendy if you want, and a lot of room to experiment with exotica, but there’s also broad and deep availability of comfortable, easy, and familiar goodness. Any doubts in choosing your very first coffee to home roast? Go for our Colombian Patron. It’s got awesome preparation, it’s got a familiar “coffee” taste, it’s easy to roast, the producers are among the most ethical on the PLANET and because the supply is so stable, it’s never that pricey. it’s just a perfect choice to begin exploring from.
Any questions? Just ask.