[Here's a cheesy article that I recently wrote last month for AzerNEWS, hope you like it]
It is a little known fact but coffee is a pretty delicate and demanding product. From the tree to the cherry, from the cherry to the green bean, from the green bean to the roasted bean and finally from the roasted bean to the cup, there’s a lot going on there.
It could be said that coffee becomes very fragile after it is roasted and the most fragile after it has been ground. This is like any prepared food product the gases, aromas and tastes are released after the roast; and time becomes the greatest enemy. Once coffee has been roasted it begins to lose it’s quality day by day. If packed correctly in a sealed container or package that does not allow light in and allows the gases created by the roasting process to be released through a one way valve then you’ve got about one, two maybe three months maximum to enjoy the full flavor of the roasted coffee, from there it’s down hill. That’s why you should always check the date of the coffee on the bag or can. If it’s older than three months from the date that it was produced move on. If there’s no date or if there’s an expiration date and not the date it was produced, again move on. This means that the roaster does not want you to know when the coffee was produced
Once the coffee is ground, you’ve got very little time, in fact once ground you should use the coffee ASAP. As About.com so adequately puts on their coffee preparation basics web page (http://coffeetea.about.com/od/storage/a/storage.htm), “The bottom line is that good coffee is fresh coffee. Only buy what you can use up quickly.”
So, where can you find real coffee? That’s simple, find people that sell coffee and are very knowledgeable about product. They should know everything about their coffee, where their coffee is from, when it was roasted, and of course how to grind and prepare the coffee properly.
Such people can be found at Traveler’s Coffee coffeehouse at ulitsa Nizami, 68 (on Torgovaya).
For more information check out our website at www.travelerscoffee.ru and I have a funky blog called “Coffee In Siberia?” you can check out too at http://coffeeinsiberia.wordpress.com/
