Ordering fresh-roasted coffee

[Alex&Rufusmom]

A pop up appeared on my screen from coffeefool.com and it caught my eye. So I checked it out and read their claims to have the freshest coffee?? I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried it ?? I'm a bit leery of ordering coffee online but there really aren't any great places to buy coffee from around here (the capital district upstate NY) I'd love to hear your thoughts about the coffee from this site.

[gfron1]

I don't know about that company but Peet's roasts when you order and ships immediately - can't get fresher by mail order...so its possible that they are that fresh.

[BeJam]

I'd recommend both Alterra in Milwaukee and Intelligentsia in Chicago. Both ship fresh roasted coffee but I find the cost of shipping too high to warrant buying any quantity in less than five pounds.

[Chris Hennes]

I'd recommend both Alterra in Milwaukee and Intelligentsia in Chicago.  Both ship fresh roasted coffee but I find the cost of shipping too high to warrant buying any quantity in less than five pounds.

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Of course, if you don't drink coffee fast enough to go through the five lbs pretty quickly, any benefit of getting freshly-roasted beans disappears. In my experience this amounts to about a week. Of course, YMMV. Your best bet is to find someplace local and eliminate shipping (or to roast your own, I suppose... sounds entertaining ).

[Alex&Rufusmom]

I'd recommend both Alterra in Milwaukee and Intelligentsia in Chicago.  Both ship fresh roasted coffee but I find the cost of shipping too high to warrant buying any quantity in less than five pounds.

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Of course, if you don't drink coffee fast enough to go through the five lbs pretty quickly, any benefit of getting freshly-roasted beans disappears. In my experience this amounts to about a week. Of course, YMMV. Your best bet is to find someplace local and eliminate shipping (or to roast your own, I suppose... sounds entertaining ).

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Well of course to roast my own is the best way to go but you have to be joking!!! LOL I have NO idea how to do that!!! I just want to buy freshly roasted (not burned beans)

[Chris Hennes]

Well of course to roast my own is the best way to go but you have to be joking!!!  LOL I have NO idea how to do that!!!  I just want to buy freshly roasted (not burned beans)

I have never had a problem with any of the various "fresh roasted" services: I think it's probably really not that big a deal, what with easy one- and two-day shipping available. I have not tried this one in particular, but I don't really see a reason why it wouldn't be as good as the others. If I was you I'd give it a shot - I love coffee made with freshly-roasted beans. Be sure to report back with your impressions of the service... the only differences I have seen between them is the particular coffee they are using - you just need to find one you like.

[Alex&Rufusmom]

Well of course to roast my own is the best way to go but you have to be joking!!!  LOL I have NO idea how to do that!!!  I just want to buy freshly roasted (not burned beans)

I have never had a problem with any of the various "fresh roasted" services: I think it's probably really not that big a deal, what with easy one- and two-day shipping available. I have not tried this one in particular, but I don't really see a reason why it wouldn't be as good as the others. If I was you I'd give it a shot - I love coffee made with freshly-roasted beans. Be sure to report back with your impressions of the service... the only differences I have seen between them is the particular coffee they are using - you just need to find one you like.

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I'll be sure to let you know Chris.. Thanks for comments about roasting coffee. That's the last time I let Adam (my boyfriend) read replies in this form!!! Now he wants to try roasting beans at home!!! NO WAY I DRAW THE LINE!!!! :-)

[Darren72]

I've seen the ads from Coffeefool.com and have avoided them simply because I hate ads.

There are a lot of merchants that roast and then ship beans immediately after you place your order. If you are willing to pay the shipping costs, these beans will be as fresh as anything you'd get from coffeefool.com or a local roaster. One company I've used in the past is http://www.paradiseroasters.com/.

I live in Chicago and buy quite frequently from Intelligentsia. I used to walk in and ask which beans were roasted today or yesterday....and every time they'd tell me that I certainly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between beans roasted today or ones roasted 5 days earlier. I'm not convinced of that just yet, but in any case I don't think is going to be a vastly different taste from beans that are roasted within the week.

There are a lot of threads on egullet about home roasting.

[dougw]

I live in Chicago and buy quite frequently from Intelligentsia. I used to walk in and ask which beans were roasted today or yesterday....and every time they'd tell me that I certainly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between beans roasted today or ones roasted 5 days earlier. I'm not convinced of that just yet, but in any case I don't think is going to be a vastly different taste from beans that are roasted within the week.

There are a lot of threads on egullet about home roasting.

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You wouldn't be able to tell much difference unless it were espresso. The thing is, if you buy 5 day old coffee and don't use it in a week, you'll notice the difference more readily.

[Gabe D.]

[Chris Hennes]

There's a pretty good article on Home-Barista about freezing coffee to extend shelf life.  When I used to make espresso at home, I'd order several pounds from Intelligentsia and then throw them in the freezer when they arrived.  I'd pull out a pound at a time as needed, and I always had good results up to a month post-roast (as far as I ever went).

http://www.home-barista.com/store-coffee-in-freezer.html

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Wow. Just, wow. That is very thorough for a couple guys conducting a taste-test. I never thought of using mason jars to do the storage - that's a nice idea, since in my experience plastic is much too porous for any kind of long-term storage of something as strongly-scented as coffee.

[Chris Hennes]

I wanted to report back here with some recent experience. I few years ago I got a free one month subscription to Storyville Coffee and really enjoyed it, but was in grad school at the time and couldn't really shell out that much for coffee. Turn the clock forward two years: still in grad school, alas, but a little more disposable income, so I went back and signed up. I get 8oz of coffee every other week, which is almost exactly the rate I go through it, so it works out perfectly. It's roasted and shipped second day air, so when it arrives it is generally 2-3 days from the roast date listed on the bag. Their blend (and they only offer one) is quite nice: sort of a middle-of-the-road roast with a nice rich flavor, but nothing terribly exotic. And the freshness is nearly unbeatable, with no good roasters here in town and no real interest in roasting my own (I prefer to let the pros do that for now... I already have too many hobbies!). I love the fact that I can get small every-other-week deliveries for a (somewhat) reasonable price. Has anyone else tried them, or any similar places?

[Sam Iam]

For the past year or two, I've been ordering single-origion coffees that are roasted a day or two before they are shipped from Terroir Select Coffee company, owned by George Howell. Starbucks bought out his line of coffee stores, and he now has a small roasting company.

If you'd like to read a fascinating story and find a fantastic source for coffee, his web site is terroircoffee dot com.

The other problem with brewing perfect coffee is the coffee maker. It needs to be brewed at 200 degrees F, and almost every coffee brewer brews in the 175 - 185 degree range. Terroir carries the "Techni Vorm Moccamaster" coffee maker, that brews at the proper temp. Expensive, but there is a large difference. I'll drag this to the Ann Arbor Heartland gettogether in case anyone wants to play with it.

Sam

[Chris Hennes]

I agree, once you go through the trouble of getting very fresh coffee, your brewing technique is critical. I prefer a french press, personally—here's the topic on that: Press Pot / French Press Coffee. We've also got a lot of discussion on other brewers too: Best Home Coffee Brewers - 2009 and on....

[LuckyGirl]

I second (or is it third?) the recommendation for Intelligentsia's espresso. I ordered my espresso beans from them for several years before I stopped drinking coffee earlier this year.

I would order 4 pounds at a time as that was what my husband and I could get through and still have really good espresso. I started out ordering 5 pounds at a time but found that by the 4th pound the beans were already not at their best so I dropped down to 4 pounds at a time. If I hadn't been worried about shipping fees I would have ordered it two pounds at a time. We would go through about a pound a week.

The beans were usually shipped out the day they were roasted.

[Shel_B]

Well of course to roast my own is the best way to go but you have to be joking!!! LOL I have NO idea how to do that!!! I just want to buy freshly roasted (not burned beans)

There's a site called Sweet Maria's http://www.sweetmarias.com which sells green beans and small roasters, among other coffee-related items. The site is rich on information. Friends and I have been buying beans from them for years. It's easy to roast beans using small, counter top roasters, and the results are outstanding!

Edited February 25, 2010 by Shel_B (log)