Green coffee storage is a critical factor in preserving its quality, as it significantly impacts the final cup profile. Specialty coffee roasters, producers, and traders all recognize the importance of proper storage in maintaining coffee's flavor and aroma.
Like any agricultural or food product, green coffee has a shelf life, representing the duration it can maintain its optimal freshness before deteriorating. Inadequate storage and packaging can lead to a loss in cup quality, resulting in a less satisfying sensory experience.
To delve into the duration of green coffee's freshness, the significance of storage, and strategies for prolonging its shelf life, let's explore this in the article we have today.
Factors Influencing Green Coffee Quality
Before exploring how long green coffee remains fresh, it's essential to understand the factors that affect its quality during storage and transit. Three primary variables are humidity, temperature, and oxygen.
Temperature: Extreme temperature fluctuations can lead to condensation inside coffee bags, creating a humid environment that harms the subtle aromas and flavors in green coffee. Temperature also impacts the respiration process and alters the behavior of water within coffee, leading to flavor degradation.
Humidity: Environmental humidity can affect the equilibrium of green coffee beans. Excessive dryness can cause moisture to leach out, while excessive humidity can lead to fermentation, mold, or mildew formation.
Oxygen: Oxygen, over time, causes the aromatic compounds in green coffee to dissipate, resulting in undesirable flat and stale flavors.
Light: Concentrated light can induce photodegradation in green coffee beans, slowly breaking down organic particles, including non-volatile compounds that contribute to the final cup profile.
Time: While green coffee is less volatile than roasted coffee, time is still a factor that contributes to quality deterioration. Time is a measure of how much the previous factors have affected the coffee. Over time, oxygen, humidity, and temperature can cause green coffee to lose its delicate aromas.
Understanding the Freshness Duration: In general, most specialty coffee roasters consider green coffee to remain fresh for six to 12 months. After one year, it is labeled as "past crop," associated with undesirable cereal or aged flavor notes. The freshness of green coffee can vary depending on the specific coffee variety, and research is ongoing to understand the relationship between freshness, quality, and processing methods.
Importance of High-Quality Packaging: To combat the factors that degrade green coffee's quality, hermetic barrier packaging has become crucial. These specialized bags preserve freshness by protecting against heat, moisture, and air exposure. Combining inner hermetic bags with outer bags like jute is a common practice to maximize freshness.
Hermetic Packaging by Ecotact: Ecotact offers hermetic bags specifically designed for green coffee storage. These bags feature nine layers of hermetic food-grade protection to maintain coffee's inherent value. They block atmospheric oxygen, odors, and external contaminants, ensuring the freshness and aroma of green coffee. Even though roasters consider coffee "past crop" after 12 months, green coffee stored in Ecotact bags remains fresh for over a year.
The Rise of Ecommerce in Green Coffee Storage: The growth of ecommerce has transformed the green coffee storage landscape, providing flexibility in a time of unpredictable shipping timelines. Online ordering allows businesses to adapt quickly to changing conditions. Ecotact has responded by launching an ecommerce platform that offers packaging options, shipping choices, and efficient order processing, providing customers with a seamless experience.
Preserving the freshness of green coffee is crucial for ensuring a delightful coffee experience. Factors like temperature, humidity, oxygen, and time play significant roles in green coffee quality. Hermetic packaging, exemplified by Ecotact's innovative solutions, is instrumental in extending green coffee's shelf life. As ecommerce continues to gain traction in green coffee storage, it promises increased flexibility and accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.