Degassing Your Coffee

Coffee doesn't mind waiting a few days in a backpack before it hits the trail. There's something fitting about a bag resting quietly in the dark while you hike toward the spot you'll finally brew it — by the time you get there, it's had exactly the rest it needed.

Roasting coffee doesn't just change color and flavor — it traps a huge amount of CO2 inside the bean. That gas needs somewhere to go, and it leaves slowly over the days and weeks after roasting. That process is called degassing.

Too much trapped CO2 actually gets in the way of brewing. It pushes back against water trying to penetrate the grounds, which makes extraction uneven and can leave a cup tasting flat or oddly sharp. That's why very-fresh, day-of-roast coffee often brews inconsistently — beans lose roughly 40% of their total CO2 in just the first 24 hours, and there's still a lot working its way out after that.

It's also why you see coffee "bloom" — that first pour of hot water that makes the grounds puff up and bubble before the real brew starts. That's trapped CO2 escaping on contact with water. A vigorous bloom is a decent visual cue that a coffee is fresh; almost no bloom usually means it's roasted a while ago.

General guidance floating around the internet says 4-14 days depending on roast level — Methodical Coffee has a good breakdown of that logic — but it varies by roaster, packaging, and roast profile. For our coffee specifically, we've found the real sweet spot lands later and lasts longer than those generic timelines suggest: our freshness window opens up around 3 weeks after the roast date and holds up well for up to 3.5 months. Check the roast date on the bag and give it that time before you expect peak flavor. All of our current limited releases, including Burundi - Honey Peaberry, are dated for exactly this reason.

Check what's fresh right now → SHOP LIMITED RELEASES