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I spoke to coffee expert recently (at least, thats what it said on the side of the company van).
The topic was the importation of coffee. to put you in the picture, His company sells a range of super auto coffee machines, and at the same time are an importer of roasted coffee, which comes pre-packed in 1kg foil bags with the little valve. They sell it by the bag and carton to customers of the machines, usually corporate.
He claims that green coffee beans that come in sacks are subject to fumigation in the container before being allowed into the country. Given that the sacks are full of tiny holes, and the "coffee beans are like little sponges", he inferred without actually saying so that any coffee that is imported and roasted in Australia is contaminated with the fumigant gas, and in effect, we are all slowly poisoning ourselves. Naturally, his foil packed coffee is protected from the fumigant.
This is no small statement, and sounds quite plausible to boot. Is anyone willing or able to put the other side of the story, if there is one? what are the facts about residual fumigant gas in green coffee beans?
Another thing we talked about relates to how long coffee should be left before reaching its maximum potential flavours etc. He claims it takes at least 4 weeks to peak, and then tapers off gradually. They put a use-by (best before??) of about 16 months, but I can vouch for the fact that a 250g tin of coffee that was going out cheap because it was two months before expiry, was well and truly stale. It smelt stale, extracted stale, and tasted stale. No surprises, really.
However, the beans in the kg bags have a longer use by, and have been in the bag 2 or 3 months, do give a creditable extraction and crema. I venture to say, better than some of the fresh roasted stuff I have been getting lately. I have also noticed that it is completely non-static during grinding, which is a plus. I picked up that this particular range was a blend of Robusta and Arabica. They also sell a range of 100% Arabica.
The topic was the importation of coffee. to put you in the picture, His company sells a range of super auto coffee machines, and at the same time are an importer of roasted coffee, which comes pre-packed in 1kg foil bags with the little valve. They sell it by the bag and carton to customers of the machines, usually corporate.
He claims that green coffee beans that come in sacks are subject to fumigation in the container before being allowed into the country. Given that the sacks are full of tiny holes, and the "coffee beans are like little sponges", he inferred without actually saying so that any coffee that is imported and roasted in Australia is contaminated with the fumigant gas, and in effect, we are all slowly poisoning ourselves. Naturally, his foil packed coffee is protected from the fumigant.
This is no small statement, and sounds quite plausible to boot. Is anyone willing or able to put the other side of the story, if there is one? what are the facts about residual fumigant gas in green coffee beans?
Another thing we talked about relates to how long coffee should be left before reaching its maximum potential flavours etc. He claims it takes at least 4 weeks to peak, and then tapers off gradually. They put a use-by (best before??) of about 16 months, but I can vouch for the fact that a 250g tin of coffee that was going out cheap because it was two months before expiry, was well and truly stale. It smelt stale, extracted stale, and tasted stale. No surprises, really.
However, the beans in the kg bags have a longer use by, and have been in the bag 2 or 3 months, do give a creditable extraction and crema. I venture to say, better than some of the fresh roasted stuff I have been getting lately. I have also noticed that it is completely non-static during grinding, which is a plus. I picked up that this particular range was a blend of Robusta and Arabica. They also sell a range of 100% Arabica.
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