Coffee is a fresh product. Roasting turns green beans into the aromatic ones you know, and from that moment the flavour starts to fade. Here is what “freshly roasted” means in practice, and why we roast in Tbilisi instead of importing roasted coffee.
What happens after roasting
Roasted beans release carbon dioxide for the first few days, then slowly lose their aromatic oils to the air. In the first two to four weeks the coffee is at its peak: the crema is thick, the aroma is strong and the taste is clean. After two or three months most of that is gone, even in a sealed bag. After six months the coffee is flat and slightly bitter, whatever the price on the label.
Where supermarket coffee comes from
Most coffee sold in Georgian supermarkets is roasted abroad, shipped by sea, stored in a warehouse and then on a shelf. By the time it reaches your cup it is often four to twelve months old. The packaging is designed to hide this: the printed date is usually the best-before date, one or two years after roasting, not the roasting date itself.
How we do it
- Green beans from Brazil and Colombia. Green coffee keeps for a year or more without losing quality, so we import it green and roast it here.
- Small batches in Tbilisi. We roast to order, so what you receive was roasted days ago, not months.
- Three roasts. Brazil at medium, Oro at medium-dark, Strong at dark. Same beans, different roast profiles, for different tastes and machines.
- Delivery on a schedule. Offices and cafés get 1 kg bags on a weekly or monthly cycle, so the coffee never sits.
How to tell if coffee is fresh
- Look for a roasting date, not only a best-before date.
- Fresh beans are slightly oily on a dark roast and matte on a medium roast, never dusty.
- Ground coffee should smell strongly when the bag is opened. A faint smell means old coffee.
- In an espresso machine, fresh coffee gives a thick, persistent crema. Old coffee gives a thin one that disappears in seconds.
Storing coffee at home or in the office
Keep beans in the original bag or an airtight container, away from light and heat, and do not refrigerate. Buy the amount you drink in three to four weeks. For an office that means ordering monthly rather than stocking up.
Try it
The easiest way to understand the difference is to taste it. Order a 250 g bag of any roast from our coffee beans page, or if you run an office or a café, ask for samples on WhatsApp +995 510 000 210. Read more about coffee for offices.