several customers have asked us why we don’t put roast dates on our packages. the idea being that a stamp on the label proves the coffee is fresh.
we have the fortunate position of having large local accounts and dozens of smaller online orders each day — and a roaster that is too small for the job. at best, it churns out 10 pounds of coffee per roast, and on particularly expensive beans, we cut it down to 4 pounds at a time. this means that we are roasting the popular coffees like sumatra and bear blend, an average of three times a day. the natural processed light roasts go through the roaster at least once, often twice a day. even the decaf beans go through at least once a day. the struggle for us is not keeping beans fresh, but rather, we struggle to roast enough to fill that day’s orders and meet deadlines. we rush to the post office at 4:45 with the day’s packages hot off the cooling tray.
once internet orders go out, any leftover coffee of the day gets packaged up for our local retail shelf space, set aside to brew at that week’s events, packaged up for the next morning’s local deliveries, portioned out into sample packets, etc. but there isn’t much leftover coffee to worry about these days. ( we do use an internal code to date the coffee that sits on retail shelves so that we can pull it if it doesn’t sell in a timely manner, but bags rarely sit there for more than 2 weeks. we refresh the stock of our retail accounts once or twice a week, depending on volume ).
sometime in the next 18 months we are hoping to install a roaster that can handle 25 pounds per roast, but until then, this coffee is FRESH. hand-stamping a date on the hundreds of labels we go through each day would just slow us down and cost more in labor. the postmarked date on your mailing box is the roasted date of the coffee inside it.
the proof of extremely fresh coffee is that when you grind it and put it in your pourover or french press, a “bloom” of bubbles appear as it releases carbon dioxide. your happy mug beans will always bloom.