That moment when you take a sip of freshly roasted and ground coffee and time stops

The aroma is so overwhelming, and the taste is so complex, so multi-dimensional, that the life of the coffee bean flashes before your eyes! Maybe the aroma and taste remind you of a green, luscious, forest bed in Sumatra? Or maybe they conjure up images of the plush, caramel-syrupy hills of Brazil? Or the blueberry-fruit-explosion in your mouth ushers in scenes of farmers harvesting coffee in Kenya with exotic wildlife on the roam? Or the dark-choclatey-goodness you smell and taste instantly presents images of spectacular volcanoes and ancient ruins in Guatemala? Whatever your first sip of morning coffee does for you, that mind-blowing moment is undeniable.

Or is it? The truth is, most people will only experience this uniquely-coffee moment occasionally, and some (we’re sorry, grocery-store-coffee-consumers) may never experience it at all.

Roasting is a beautiful thing

When coffee beans are introduced to the heat of the roaster, amino acids and sugars combine and begin a profusion of reactions that ultimately create the smell, taste, and color of the coffee. This is called the Maillard Reaction and is found in almost all cooking. But the harsh reality is, once your coffee is roasted, you are in a race against time and oxygen.

Why did your bike rust away in the yard? Why did the Statue of Liberty turn green? Why did your fruit go bad after sitting in your lunchbox for 3 days? Oxidation. Sticking with our apple analogy, think about what happens to an apple once you slice it open, the fruit — previously protected by a waxy skin — quickly turns brown as volatile compounds react with molecules around them, the molecular structure of the apple begins to brown and decay. The same thing happens to coffee.

**There are three certainties in life: death, taxes … and your coffee will go stale after two weeks**

The chart below is the reason why every pound of Blue Lava Coffee is shipped in a bag that not only looks ‘cooler than the other side of the pillow’, but has the roast date on the front and a valve to allow the coffee to ‘de-gas’ (the process where the beans will release carbon-dioxide).

Freshly roasted coffee beans, stored in an air-tight container, or sealed bag, will stay fully fresh for about a week. After this first week, your coffee begins to lose its aroma, and after the second week, it begins to lose its taste. And this flavor deterioration is accelerated when you grind your beans, while refrigeration exacerbates the entire death spiral.