When you are making sure that everything in your kitchen is in good condition, and you are doing your routine checks to ensure that everything inside the kitchen is still within its best by date, there may come a chance that you begin to wonder when espresso expires.
After all, if espresso came from a plant, and because all plants will eventually die when they are not close enough to their mother plant, then wouldn’t that mean that storing espresso can be a troublesome business?
However, the idea of beans going bad is one that not a lot of people are able to wrap their minds around.
This is especially the case when the beans in question are relatively hard and protected beans, as most of the food that will be perishable in a matter of days will have a generally weaker structure, as the fruit itself was not meant to stand up to the weather past the time it was harvested.
For some foods though, this isn’t nearly as much of a problem as you will need to worry about. One good example of these foods is going to be coffee beans, as coffee beans seemingly never go bad.
The truth to this matter is, unfortunately, a little bit more complicated than coffee beans lasting forever.
Instead, the situation is much closer to a case where coffee beans will eventually lose their taste, especially if they are not stored properly, but unlike meat and other perishables, it will not deteriorate to the point where it festers. It will simply not taste right when you are preparing your coffee.
If this is the way that standard coffee beans work, then you might begin to believe that all coffee beans are the same. Another unfortunate fact of the matter is that not all coffee beans were created equal, and some coffee beans cannot withstand sitting out on the counter for months on end.
A good example of this is going to be the espresso bean.
What Is Espresso?
When you think about espresso coffee, you usually expect that it is going to have a different effect on your body than the regular coffee beans are going to.
Espresso is known for helping people wake up and get to work quickly, and it is known for being considerably stronger than most other kinds of coffee.
What requires the most change in lifestyle from storing your standard amount of coffee is going to be switching to fresh espresso and only having a small amount of time to make use of it before it reaches its best quality.
Espresso itself, unfortunately, does not refer to one type of coffee bean that rises above all the others in terms of quality. Instead, the name of the espresso comes from the Arabica or Robusta beans that are usually used to create the espresso that most people are so familiar with.
Espresso beans are also beans that are compatible with roasts that will give you a dark and “bold” flavor so that you can really have a kick in your morning drink to help wake you up.
Now that you know a little bit more about what exactly espresso is, what its beans originate from, and so on, you can begin focusing on how you would go about properly storing your espresso so that you can make the most out of it.
After all, espresso tends to be somewhat on the pricier side of things, but at the same time, you usually do not need a lot of it to produce the effect that you would want from it.
Keeping Espresso Fresh
Espresso is a different category of coffee to pay attention to. Rather than letting coffee bean bags sit around for a fair amount of time around the roast date, most places that work with espresso will usually keep it separate from the other coffee beans and coffee grounds.
This is because espresso will only be able to sit for about five days before you can begin adding it to your drinks. This is known as the degassing stage.
Letting the espresso sit out is actually one of the best things that you can do for it because if you wait too little time to make use out of your espresso, it will end up having an unwanted taste and texture.
After this, both coffee and espresso can be considered foods that have a notable shelf life. These foods are not the kind of food that is susceptible to mold or other creatures growing inside of it, which means that you won’t ever have to worry about the espresso going bad while you are not home.
Theoretically, you would be able to make use out of coffee beans for years, potentially centuries to come.
However, there are a few problems with this situation. For instance, about one and a half weeks after the beans have been roasted and degassed, the beans will drastically begin to lose their flavor.
The espresso will not be bad to eat when this happens, but it will certainly not be pleasant to make coffee from either.
In this case, depending on the situation at hand, you will want to seal away the coffee to try and preserve its freshness as best as you can. Just about everyone loves a fresh espresso to enjoy.
Making the Most Out of Espresso
Not only do you know more about the espresso, but now you also have a good idea on how long your espresso is going to last. While the beans themselves may be able to last for years to come, you should expect no more than 10 days before the beans begin to lose their taste.
Ten days isn’t always enough time to have a bulk amount of coffee, so you may want to make sure that you make all the efforts necessary to keep your espresso in good condition for as long as possible.
For example, you will want to make sure that you have an airtight container that you can put your coffee beans into. The airtight container will be the right place for the beans to go, as this will preserve the beans in their best state, shortly after they have been roasted.
Once the beans have been transferred to the airtight container, which should happen as soon as you can, you will want to make sure that you can store the coffee beans in a place away from direct sunlight, as direct sunlight can eat away at a coffee bean’s freshness and flavor.
Instead of leaving the airtight container of beans on the counter, you will want to make sure that you put it away in an area where it is relatively cool.
Most people recommend that the best place for coffee beans is going to be in a cabinet where you won’t necessarily forget the beans, but you will also be able to notice them whenever you need them.
Cabinets are usually a bit cooler than the rest of the house, which works in favor of keeping the espresso beans good, and it also keeps the espresso beans out of direct sunlight.
By doing these things, you can make sure that your espresso beans may last longer than 10 days at a time, ensuring that you can make the most out of your beloved espresso beans.
I have a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When I’m not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies…I’m at home with my wife, two daughters and a dog. Outside of family, I love grilling and barbequing on my Big Green Egg and working on projects around the house.