Foamy Coffee Means Fresh Coffee
So you just ripped open that new bag of Red Rooster Coffee, scooped out the appropriate amount into your press, added water, and now half of the carafe is filled with foamy coffee. What’s going on!?!
What you are witnessing is a scientific phenomenon that is telling you that you have some really fresh coffee there in front of you.
You see, once coffee is roasted it gives off naturally occurring CO2 gas. So all that foamy coffee you’re seeing is the CO2 “out-gassing” in the liquid and giving you that beautiful foam. We say it is beautiful because it isn’t a sight you often see. The reason is that most factory roasters roast their coffee and then let it sit around for a few days before bagging it up. They let all that CO2 out-gas and it makes their life easier, and saves them money too.
Because every penny counts with these guys a lot of them don’t have bags with breather valves so if they bagged fresh roasted coffee the bag would blow up like a balloon. This means they couldn’t get as many bags in a box. Which means they couldn’t ship as much coffee in their delivery trucks. Probably they’d be delivering about 25% less coffee because they were too cheap to fit their bags with a five cent freshness valve. So they’d rather let you drink old coffee.
So look for the foam. It is a sure sign that you are, or are not, drinking super fresh coffee!
Oh, and as the coffee is sitting around out-gassing, it us usually exposed to light and air (oxygen). Both of these are killers of coffee freshness. So keep that in mind when you’re storing your coffee. Keep the coffee bag well sealed and keep it in a dark place.
