Bean Basics By Micro-Roasting in small batches 5 days a week you can be assured you are getting super fresh coffee. The window on coffee's peak flavor is from day two (the coffee needs to de-gas for at least 24 hours) to two weeks. Time and oxygen are a fresh bean's worst enemy. So as soon as the beans come out of the roaster, the clock is ticking. We pack the coffee into our de-gassing friendly bags immediately and out the door to you so you can get it into your brewer without missing a beat. MICRO-ROASTING IS A BLEND OF ART AND SCIENCE. Each variety of coffee has unique flavors trapped within the raw "green" bean. The craft of a Roast Meister is to discover those flavors, to nurture them and present them to you unharmed. To consistently achieve that perfect roast while responding to a multitude of variables – time, temp, airflow, mechanic variations – requires the precision of a scientist. At this point our Roast Meister develops a "Roast Profile" to maximize each bean's best flavor somewhat quantitatively. In simplest terms, the roast profile refers to the temperature and time of the roast. Unlike baking bread, which might bake at a constant 350 degrees for so many minutes, coffee is roasted at an ever-changing temperature. It is crucial to add or subtract heat at specific times during the roast to develop wanted flavors or prevent unwanted ones. As you'd expect lighter roasts are roasted at a lower temperature for a shorter period of time. A typical roast will take 13-16 minutes from start to finish, where it is then cooled in the roaster's cooling tray for 5 minutes as the next batch is readied. The trick to storing coffee is eliminating oxygen (heat and light are bad too). Our bags are packed as soon as the beans are cooled, which keeps them out of O2's way. The tricky part of this is that the beans are degassing. Mega roasters solve this problem by grinding the beans, letting them sit for a few days then packing them in airtight containers after they've basically gone stale. Since we'd never do that to our beans, we use one-way valve bags that lets the gasses escape while keeping oxygen out. And the zip-lock resealable bags helps you to keep doing this at home. WHAT IS DEGASSING? Gasses form inside the beans during roasting, this unwanted by-product is slowly released mostly within the first day or two but continues for a few days. If the beans are placed in an airtight container too soon the gasses won't be able to escape the beans (or they'll build up pressure and pop the container). We solve this problem by using bags with one way valves. In addition to maintaining consistent quality by following roast profiles for each coffee, we actually taste our coffee. A LOT. EVERY DAY. If it doesn't slide over our tongue just right, it doesn't go out the door. OUR MEDIUM-LIGHT ROAST COFFEES ARE: Ethiopian Guatemalan Light Sumatran Full City Blendo Decaf Full City OUR MEDIUM-DARK ROAST COFFEES ARE: Birchwood Espresso Nicaraguan OUR DARK ROASTS COFFEES ARE: Colombian Guatemalan Dark Roast Sumatran Italian Mexican Dark Roast Decaf Dark Roast OUR DARKEST COFFEE IS: French