Roasted coffee is at its best from about three days to four weeks after roasting. Before that it is still settling; long after, it flattens. The date that matters is the roast date, not the best-before. We post coffee within days of roasting, so the bag reaches you inside that window.
Freshness in coffee is misunderstood, partly because the industry hides the one date that tells the truth.
Why the roast date is the only honest date
A best-before date can sit a year out and mean almost nothing; roasted coffee is safe long past its best. What changes is flavour, and that clock starts at roasting. A bag with no roast date is a bag asking you not to look. We print it, because it is the number that decides how your cup tastes.
The window, and why it exists
Just-roasted coffee releases carbon dioxide for the first few days, which gets in the way of a clean extraction; this is why very fresh coffee can taste hollow. Give it three days and it settles. From there it holds for around a month before the aromatics quietly fade. Sealed and unopened, it keeps longer; opened, the clock speeds up.
How to keep it in the window
Buy in amounts you will finish in a few weeks. Keep the bag airtight, away from light and heat, and do not decant into a clear jar on the counter. Grind only what you are about to brew; ground coffee stales in minutes, not weeks. We roast to order and post within days, so the freshness is yours to keep, not ours to claim.
The short answers
How long do roasted beans last?
Best from three days to about four weeks after roasting. Safe well beyond that, but flatter.
Should I freeze coffee?
A sealed bag you will not reach for soon can go in the freezer once. Avoid freezing and thawing the same bag repeatedly.
Roast date or best-before?
Roast date, always. The best-before tells you about safety; the roast date tells you about taste.
