At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

Three Questions with IWCA Executive Director Blanca Castro

When International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) Executive Director began her job years ago at the Guatemalan coffee association Anacafé, she knew next to nothing about coffee.  “I just pretended that…


4 Coffee Shops Worth a Visit in Madrid

In recent years, the Spanish capital has developed a vibrant specialty-coffee scene. Here are some cool cafés to visit for a caffeine fuel-up. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Jorge Fernández Salas via Unsplash The espresso bar at HanSo. HanSo Café, a Perfect Spot for Breakfast   In Chinese, HanSo roughly translates to “a […]


Coffee News Recap, 26 Jan: Researchers create new genetic map to “future proof” arabica production, UAE & Italian Coffee Champions crowned at WoC Dubai and SIGEP & other stories

Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s coffee news stories. The word of the week is: competitions. Mon, 22 Jan Timemore launches crowdfunding campaign for upcoming Millab E01 portable electric coffee grinder. The wireless electric coffee grinder features a 5,000 mAh lithium battery […]


Three Questions with IWCA Executive Director Blanca Castro

When International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) Executive Director began her job years ago at the Guatemalan coffee association Anacafé, she knew next to nothing about coffee.  “I just pretended that…

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

Know Your Sweeteners: Honey: Part Two

We continue our deep dive into honey, bringing to light environmental and animal rights concerns related to the product, and how the industry is addressing them. BY EMILY JOY MENESESBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Feature photo via Unsplash This week we started our discussion of honey, uncovering how it’s produced, the differences between varieties of honey, and […]


Book Review: From Nerd to Pro, by Patrik Rolf

From Nerd to Pro: A Coffee Journey is an autobiography by roaster, café operator, and coffee competitor Patrik Rolf sharing his coffee journey. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Tanya Nanetti I’ve read plenty of books on coffee over the years: manuals on how to brew great coffee at home, books on […]


10 Minutes With Helena Oliviero: Part One

We talk with coffee champion and Q Grader Helena Oliveriero about her career, her life in Colombia, and what it means to be a young woman in the male-dominated coffee world.   BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo courtesy of Helena Oliviero Helena Oliviero, originally from Tuscany, Italy, is 28 years old, but already she […]


U.S. Coffee Championships 2023 Denver Qualifiers Reach New Heights

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At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

Medium-sized farms play an important role in specialty coffee

For many consumers and industry professionals, specialty coffee and direct trade are inextricably linked. Building strong and mutually beneficial working relationships between producers and roasters is often seen as a cornerstone of establishing a truly sustainable supply chain. So with this association between specialty coffee and direct trade, there can be a narrative of smaller-sized […]


Breaking New Ground: A Sicilian Coffee Plantation, Part One

The impacts of climate change are starting to be felt in Sicily, but while they’re causing problems, the rising temperatures are also bringing new opportunities. BY JOSEPH PHELANSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Featured image courtesy of Henrique Ferreira on Unsplash The Sicilian love affair with coffee is known the world over. Sicily, the largest of […]


What I Learned from My First Tea Ceremony

After taking in a brief moment of a tea ceremony in Thailand, I finally had the chance to participate in the full experience recently in Malaysia. BY TANYA NANETTI SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos by Tanya Nanetti In the years that I worked as a barista in a café, tea always played a marginal role in […]


Ukraine’s Soloway Coffee Opens First US Shop in Chicago

A specialty coffee roasting company based in western Ukraine called Soloway Coffee (Instagram link) this week opened its first location in the United States. Beans roasted in Ternopil, Ukraine, using…

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

Yes, I realize that as an enthusiast's group, this subreddit caters to the elites of coffeedom, where all coffee mugs are held with pinky out, water is a manufactured commodity, and etiquette demands that one portions coffee grounds with the appropriately colored spoon and no other… but sometimes a guy just wants a solid cup o' joe without spending 45 minutes to create it or fretting over whether the beans are 14 minutes past expiration date.

Additionally, not everyone has the same discriminating palate. Some people can't appreciate or won't be bothered to deal with the same levels of subtlety or minutiae that others seemingly thrive upon.

I'd been reading here regarding the importance of beans not being too old, to the extent that with respect to locally roasted coffee, the acceptable windows of use being framed not in months or weeks, but rather days or even hours… which makes my hair hurt.

So if one is in the "middle tier " of all this madness, i.e., you want better than pre-ground Folgers or instant coffee, but don't want to engage in the ancient mystic rituals of pour-over or spend the prerequisite mortgage equivalents on South American Rain Forest Civet Poop Roast hand-delivered to your door within a 47-minute window before which it obviously expires and must be discarded, could you get a passable cup of coffee on the cheap with expired beans (oh, the HORROR!!!)

While visiting family this past week in central Pennsylvania, I visited a store called "Hornings Market," a Mennonite-run grocery market and discounter that gets all sorts of clearance and closeout goods. These typically include grocery items at or past their expiration dates. The selection from week to week can be extremely random.

When I was there, they happened to have any number of expired coffees, both ground and whole bean, but at incredibly large discounts. While pre-ground coffee that is expired is considerably more iffy than whole bean that has been vacuum sealed, could it be viable? The stuff was cheap enough that I bought a selection to bring back with me just for giggles:

  • Eight O'Clock Chocolate Coconut Macroon (flavored, ground). Expired July 2022. Cost: $0.99/12 oz ($0.09/oz)
  • Eight O'Clock Texas Pecan Praline (flavored, ground). Expired August 2022. Cost: $1.99/12 oz ($0.17/oz)
  • Eight O'Clock Michigan Cherry Pie (flavored, ground). Expired January 2022. Cost: $0.99/12 oz ($0.09/oz)
  • Starbucks Pike Place (whole bean). Expired July 2022. Cost: $1.99/16 oz ($0.13/oz)
  • Starbucks Decaf Espresso (whole bean). Expired May 2022. Cost: $3.99/16 oz ($0.25/oz)
  • Starbucks Italian Roast (whole bean). Expired June 2022. Cost: $5.99/5 pounds ($0.08/oz)

I had no expectations regarding the pre-ground coffee, and this was borne out. I've only tried two of the three, and they were both subpar, if not outright nasty. Admittedly, I'm not a HUGE fan of flavored coffees to begin with, so I may not be the best judge, but I think that the artifical flavorings don't hold up well over time and may "turn".

The Starbucks whole bean offerings held more optimism for me, although I was still expecting "meh". I've only tried the Pike Place and the Decaf Espresso thus far, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Both held up well and produced a decent cup at my normal ratios. Not weakened, not "off" tasting in any way. In retrospect, I should have purchased a few more at those prices; at least around here those same size bags are anywhere from $13-18 per pound.

tl;dr. If your palate isn't the most refined or if you're just looking for coffee on the cheap, expired whole bean that has been kept vacuum sealed isn't *necessarily* a bad thing.

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At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

At the risk of offending the aristocracy here… expired beans are not necessarily bad

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