My coffee is honestly the only thing that’s had any rest this year.

I'm 28 years old, I was looking for a video about caffeine and ended up buying a French press, a grinder and fresh coffee because of you, I've never thought coffee could taste this good and how have I missed it for so long, keep making these kind of videos! Happy new year from Uruguay!

Until I started watching James' videos I never realised how complicated making a good cup of coffee could be.

1 year ago: Hmm maybe I should try ground coffee instead of instant Today: But how long do I REST the beans for in low humidity at 9°C?!

THANK YOU!! We had a customer recently who was very hung up on freshness, to the point where he requested coming straight to the roastery to buy a bag of beans that were *still warm*. (Offgassing aside, they should be 100% cool before they get anywhere near the bag!) The more people know about offgassing, the fewer well-intentioned but misguided requests like these will appear on the desks of specialty coffee roasters everywhere.

I’m commenting because I believe it will bring James joy.

I like how casually James explains that yes in fact setting your coffee on fire will definitely produce a lot of carbon LOL.

My roaster fills my storage jars directly and leaves a little sticky note on them telling me how long to wait for each batch. Takes all the anxiety right out of it. He made it very clear that getting the jars filled from the machine is a privilege that comes with responsibility, responsibility not to ignore the sticky notes lol.

I just started working as a coffee roaster after 8 years of barista jobs. My boss gave me your atlas of coffee to read and I finished everything except the locations pages in a week. I use it to explain things to my customers almost daily. I love the book and I'm excited I found your KZfaq channel. I've learned so much more from your book than from any coffee shop I've ever worked at. Thank you.

James. You’re the man. What you’re doing for the coffee community is beautiful

If the coffee is very fresh but you still want to brew it, a neat trick is to pregrind before you actually brew it and let it sit for a while to let it degas.

If you are getting stressed about your coffee bean resting time, congratz, you life is almost perfect and you're living the dream!

And now I understand, after all these years, why my coffee bags have little valves in them. Every extra video I watch takes me further down the coffee rabbit hole, but I'm loving it. Bought an expresso distributor last week, thinking about a getting an precision basket for the portafilter, so many things to think about...

Hi James, home roaster here. I think the unpleasant notes in fresh coffee depend a lot on the roast style too. When I roast my coffe just right, I can pop in my Aeropress immediately after it cooled down and enjoy an absolutely phenomenal cup that is never equalled after any amount of rest. While with a different roast profile I get the sour-smoky notes you describe. So the whole matter is probably more complex than lighter roast = longer rest.

Well I was never stressed about my coffee before, but now I am. Thanks James.

I was not familiar with this until I ordered coffee from the local roaster. They roasted and packed it the same day, and I pulled a shot the 2nd day. I could 100% tell over the next couple of days the flavor improved a lot.

My experience lines up with what James said: initially I was much more concerned about roast dates but over time I’ve come to realize that taking a more relaxed approach improved my enjoyment of coffee

Perfect! Just got into coffee roasting and this information helps greatly. Made a light roast and let it rest for three days. Juicy, pleasantly acidic and good body! Now I have a baseline to let it rest a bit longer. Thanks James! Edit: James please make a/some videos of roasting coffee at home!

I had one coffee from Burundi that the supplier recommended a full two week resting period after roasting. I split the batch into several bags to test. The coffee tasted ok and was not great for two weeks. At the end of the two week period the flavor came out and it was all chocolate covered cherries. Maybe my favorite coffee ever.

From all its effort to keep you awake, coffee gets tired, sometimes VERY tired... I'm glad someone finally let this cat out of the bag. I had always been afraid to bring it up before. The problem, though, is that between the need to rest, the tendency soon after to get stale, and the advice not to preserve it by freezing, there's only about a 3-minute window where coffee is at its optimum condition to be made into a drink. After that, just use it in your garden to do something that regretfully I forget precisely what. Mulching, composting, scaring off beetles, something...

It’s a good week when we get two videos back to back!

I was made aware of your channel this year by a friend, and it's been an amazing discovery that has fundamentally changed my relation with coffee. Having loved and enjoyed coffee for a few decades but never really nerded out over it, binging your videos, I've been amazed to find what is achievable at home with just a few simple techniques, some care, and a set of scales. I'm still learning and still trying out new things, but never has my coffee been as interesting and as great tasting. Here's to many more years of learning and here's to you. Happy new years James and thank you for all your amazing work.

Thank you for speaking to the issue of equalizing pressure on those vacuum canisters; it's always so frustrating to see highly suggested reviews on sites like Amazon claiming that the product has a poor seal.

Even as someone with plenty of experience resting coffees of all roast profiles, I found a lot of very useful and interesting information in this video. I appreciate the way you explained the details in a very easy to understand manner. Thanks as always James 👍

I love how these videos pop up just as I'm having my coffee or about to make it. The best!

I just bought a grinder 2 weeks ago, and resting is something I've always heard about but never made a big deal about since I used to buy pre-ground. I can definitely confirm that resting absolutely makes a huge difference! This video was incredibly helpful and super relevant!

Photos of what you consider light, medium and dark roasts would be helpful when we compare the coffee in front of us to your comments. Thanks for a good discussion of resting coffees. I've found that 24 - 48 hours of rest of our light to medium roasts brings the filter coffee to the point where I can't really tell much difference after that. David

James have you considered making a video where you taste coffee (filter and espresso) from different glasses like wine and beer glasses? It would be interesting to see how the shape of the glass would enhance different flavor aspects 😊

Thanks, I was hunting for coffee that's just roasted and I'm glad that I don't need to be such a stickler on that. I like light to medium roasts. So, let it rest for 3 to10 days for filter coffee. I use an Aeropress, thanks to you James. But, I definitely enjoy trying out pour overs , French press, and espresso drinks at locally owned coffee shops that often roast their own beans or get them from a local roaster.

Is it weird that I can smell coffee here in my room just watching him 🤤♥️☕️

"Dark roasts bloom more" answers a question I literally had for years!

I built an industrial style gas roaster last year and have the Eagle one prima espresso machine. It's normal for me to roast light to medium. I can taste the smoky/roasty flavor for at least the first 1-3 days making it difficult to judge how well my roasting went. My coffee really shines for espresso after 4-7 days and sometimes peaks at about 10 days. As always the Hoffmann makes the most informative and entertaining videos guiding me through the never ending journey of better coffee!

James is a coffee wizard! So much insight and pushing the limits of what’s possible with the dynamic of beans and water. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping us become better home brewers ☕️

I broke my left kneecap and top of my left tibia, along with a radial head fracture to both elbows 2 weeks ago. The line, "...right up until the point of combustion. Which I don't recommend, but it does produce an enormous amount of CO2.", gave me the best laugh I have had since the accident, and indeed for a while! Thank you James for your constant help to my brewing methods, and your comedic genius!

I just got a bag of fresh roasted coffee from a local company for the holiday break. My aeropress ended up half filled with foam and I was struggling to get a full cup of coffee out of it. Now I know I need to let the coffee rest a bit so I have less foam thanks to James!

I'm glad to see this video! People think I'm out of my mind when I tell them that when I buy a bag of specialty coffee beans, I'll open it to try one brew and then let it sit for a week. I'd only been doing the same for espresso, but I think I'll try to go closer to 10 days from here on out. Definitely better shots pulled and less spritz when I let it rest. Thank you so much!

All the talk about co2 release makes me wonder about the actual “emissions” aspect of roasting coffee. Maybe a video on the impact of coffee roasting would be interesting wether it’s a negligible emission or significant!

Oh I've never even known this. I guess this explains why sometimes when I've ordered freshly roasted coffee beans online and they arrive to me maybe 4-6 days from the roasting process, the second or third day coffee made from them has seemed even better than the very first brews. (I prefer light roasts) I've so far chalked it as me just getting used to the beans or .. placebo or something, but maybe this is what has caused it. The more you know.

Your videos started coming to me on Facebook I'm here and a subscriber now. I started drinking coffee around 17. Now at 25 I don't drink soda anymore it's coffee or water. I love learning and I like the way you present your information. Low key thank you for making these videos and being a teacher of sorts.

World Barista Champion 2007 James Hoffman...I have been following your channel for years but I never realized there was a barista competition let alone you were a champion. I stumbled on the video in my KZfaq feed. Congratulations it was quite impressive to watch you work. Any chance you might be able to discuss the various coffee mixtures you presented and how you created them?

I was literally just thinking this topic of resting my new batch of coffee, I've never really paid attention to that aspect before, and started brewing coffee that was roasted on the same day. Incredibly convenient for a video on this exact topic to come out today! (Almost scarily so, can you read my mind James?)

In my college years I worked as a barista in a small coffee truck. We didn’t store all the supplies in the truck but 1-2 5lbs bags of coffee for our espresso would be in there at a time. The temp changes throughout the seasons and especially the temp changes during a fall day, going from 30F to 65-70F (sorry I’m American I don’t know Celsius lol) was brutal. I had to constantly dial in the espresso as the grinder warmed up throughout the day. the humidity would change and wack out the espresso as well. It was a challenge, but I did start to notice that during the winter, the beans would seem to stay fresher much longer. During the summer when it was 90-100F inside the truck the espresso I could produce was greatly diminished. Unfortunately the owner didn’t care much for quality product, just the money :(

Thanks for this. I moved from Auckland (New Zealand) to Zhuhai (China) and aside from trying to find matches for the coffees I drank back home, dealing with the much warmer climate here has been an issue here

That was good to know re: vacuum containers and off gassing. I had bought one of those expensive Fellows containers and thought that it just had a bad seal. You saved me from throwing it out. 🙇‍♂

I started home roasting during lockdown and am constantly improving my roasts. One of the first things I learned was precisely this. When I tell friends that “freshly roasted” is a marketing myth and that you actually *don’t* want that, it’s always met with surprise.

As always, a great content. I’d love to see one day James’s take on roasting at home and his view on all of the related complexities around profiling.

So wesome to have this very well presented video as a reference I can share! I work at a specialty coffee shop, and quite often when taking a stint on till, customers will become upset that we don't have coffee from that very day when the roaster is operating daily 10 minutes down the road. I always try to say the usual "well no, that's actually a good thing" but more often than not, I'm met with skepticism as if I just want to make the sale at all costs. But I would never want to sell a product that I didn't think lived up to our standards so that attitude being projected our way is somewhat disheartening.

I roast at home with a Gene Cafe. My favortie roast is Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and I take it to just beyond first crack. I let the coffee sit in an open container for at least 48 hours and then store it in an airtight container in the freezer. I've brewed coffee in my Profitec Pro 600, that was frozen up to 4 months and it was excellent with good amount of crema. I tried several other single origin coffees, Asian, African, South American and the results certainly vary, but since EY is my favorite I always keep some on hand while experimenting with others. Good video and consistent with my experience. Happy New Year!

I’m really impressed and happy with the amount of content uploaded recently. Great work as ever James, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s hugely grateful 🙏

I'm not a coffee person, I'm a hot chocolate person, but the intricacy and detail in your videos have opened my eyes to a world of coffee I didn't understand. I may still not be a huge fan of the bitter coffees, but I've started drinking coffee in general a little more often since finding your channel. Thanks

I buy my coffee from a local roaster (within 5km from my house) and sometimes they try and sell me beans that are 1-2 weeks old. I would describe their roast closer to medium than dark and they say it’s perfect at that timeframe. My scepticism has been confirmed thank you James Hoffman 🙏

Very comprehensive. Love that you always start with understanding how it works and then move on to what might be the best practices!

Recently I've been grinding ahead of time with really fresh coffees I just can't wait to brew - for really light roasted high altitude coffees I'll maybe grind 45m/1h before brewing the day after roast and then decrease 10m every day, so 4-6 days after roast I'm grinding and brewing immediately. Had varying results, but it's definitely been better than not waiting at all. Anyone else tried this?

When roasting on my Gene, I do actually quench using - exactly - a spray bottle. I also profile-roast on a heavily modified popcorn popper (and I actually prefer the coffee it produces), switch off the heat and just let the fan in the popper run on high to do the cooling in 2 minutes flat. On the topic of resting my advice would be not to worry too much about it. It may not be at peak delicousness if you start drinking it straight after roasting, but even then it will still be vastly superior to any supermarket coffee out there. If you must have the best possible tasting cup of coffee, simply follow the flavour development over time, keep notes and adjust as needed.

Thank you for the information on the vacuum seal. I thought my vacuum seal coffee canister wasn't getting a good seal, but I also suspected that it was due to co2 being released from the beans. Thank you James for confirming this.

It’s a good informational video. I have always known about resting the coffee from roasters’ recommendations, but I just simplify the process by buying my coffee some days before I run out of my old ones. I just let the new beans rest when I finish the previous bags, and it may sit in the cupboard for a few days, maybe a week or so, which is then perfect for brewing.

Thanks for this, the message seems to be that there is no absolute scale for resting the coffee so I like to start brewing 2 days off roast and see how it develops over the next few weeks to find and enjoy the developing flavours, a bit similar to real ale when it is freshly tapped on day one and develops different flavours as it oxidises over a few days.

Concerning the temperature sensitivity: would it make sense to store it at room temperature until it's sufficiently rested, and then move it to cold storage to extend the lifespan of the beans until they go stale?

Thank you again. I sheet steel or cast fry pan roast quiet dark over wood fire for decades now. I enjoy the change from the moment after cooling for the next four days. I will quench the pan in snow at times or wet earth. Have gone to a four min. soaking in the exact cup to be drunk plus for just under a half cup of berries. I filter with a washed paper towel and will reuse that a few days.

Another amazing informative video - I use a certain pressure profiling for fresh and light roasts which gives me great results. Apply 3 bars for 12 seconds, 6 bars for 20 seconds and 3 bars for 6 seconds so total extraction time is 38 seconds on 2:1 ratio. My machine is a VBM Super Digital with electronic pressure profiling but you can do the same with a mushroom valve.

finally, a logical human being that agrees with the fact that dark roasts contain less residual oils than light roast. dark roasts only appear more oily because the extended roasting time makes the oils rise to the surface of the bean, leaving very little oil left on the inside of the bean. most coffee expert youtubers, including barista champions, roasters, high end coffee equipment retailers insist on the myth that dark roasts contain more oils.......

used to work at a cafe that roasted beans and some days we were so low our roaster took them directly from our roaster to our grinder hopper. they were all medium roast and the espresso tasted foul

I’m just about to embark on the whole coffee experience having used Nespresso for the last 4 years or so. I have bought the Sage grinder, bambino coffee maker, storage tins etc and have a local roasting company in the village. Your information on all the processes involved is great and so helpful as I am about to embark on this journey. Thank you for your straight forward and clear information, I have subscribed to your You Tube as I will need as much help as possible.

Great video! My experience aligns with what you just pointed out in the video. Whenever I brew my home roasted coffee, I notice its taste gets smoother over the days. When I try the coffee the day after roasting, it has quite tangy and sour taste (for me, it's a bit uncomfortable) which gets mitigated in the next day and so on. I definetly need degassing for some time, but I'm just too impatient to wait..lol

James is missing the two biggest components of degassing: grinding and agitation. Ground coffee will degas much faster than whole bean, you mentioned that 20 minutes after roasting is not enough waiting, try roasting, cooling it down, grinding it, and then resting for a few minutes. Huge difference. Degassing is akin to decanting a wine. I roast my own coffee, I pull espresso on day of roast, sure there is some grinder surfing as the beans degas but I wouldn’t consider it unpleasant, just different. If anything you can grind, wait a few minutes and the results are indistinguishable from week old coffee. For other brew methods you can just use agitation in the bloom phase to degas.

James, great video as always. I have a Fellow Atmos vacuum container and I've wondered, could you de-gas coffee beans from the vacuum itself? Say you diligently reapplied the vacuum after the container filled with CO2, would that change the coffee taste at all? Maybe change how we would do our bloom?

I had my first dedicated coffee machine just over four years ago. Without a manual or special learning help, it has taken that long to create the cup of coffee I have earned that occurred last week and continues with consistency. In all that time, I have periods of coffee drinking that was acceptable but nothing to excite my palate. I consider myself now to be thought of as a self-taught domestic Barista - with the help of James here, polishing up my act! Good luck to all you budding coffee aficionados.

This video is a godsent. During the pandemic my favorite local roastery shut down. So I decided to learn how to brew good coffee at home. Watched a ton of your videos recently and enjoyed them tremendously. Today my late christmas present arrived. A good quality handgrinder and a hario v60 decanter and dripper. So I decided to go to another local roastery in my city and get some good quality beans as a treat and I get home and this video is the first thing that is recommended to me.

So this actually makes me think of an interesting experiment. Can you use something like a fellow atmos that has vacuum indicator to give you some idea of when the coffee is finished degassing? A few variables I can see being notable: the container volume, amount of coffee, and headspace volume about the coffee. These would make a difference as it would take a different amount of CO2 released to make that valve pop up but it could be interesting…

Learning a lot from you

I started roasting coffee at home (using a pot) about two weeks ago and I have noticed the huge differences in flavour and aroma depending on how long did I let the coffee beans rest, especially when brewing espresso. In the last shot I used a week-old beans and it was pretty pleasant for an amateur roaster.

Despite not liking coffee personally I think it speaks volumes to your style and quality of content that I enjoy watching your videos regardless. Good work!

I have found that the coffee beans I buy, even though I'm filter brewing, do seem to benefit from about 5 days rest if they were very recently roasted. I've sometimes felt that the coffee improved over time and reached a peak about 2-3 weeks after opening a 1 kg bag. This seems counterintuitive and it's difficult to quantify, maybe it's a placebo effect, but others drinking the coffee have made similar unsolicited observations. Whoopdedoo, what does it all mean Basil? 😂

For those putting their fresh coffee into Fellow Atmos containers, I strongly recommend against picking up your containers by the lid! As James explained, the displacement of that vacuum by the off-gassing of the coffee means that the tight connection that the lid makes to the container is effectively gone. Picking it up by the lid will lead to fresh coffee beans everywhere. #PSA

I use one of those Atmos vacuum containers and I find the "vacuum fail" a great indicator for when most of the CO2 has degassed (a few days). Like James said, the vacuum appears to fail with fresh beans, but after a few days it will hold vacuum over night. I find day of roast is very difficult to enjoy, but even 24hrs of rest is ok for French Press of filter. After the vacuum can hold over night then I know it has degassed enough and is ready for espresso.

When I was having a lot of trouble with channeling with a fresh, light Espresso, the roaster suggested to let the ground coffee sit for a few minutes to degas and that helped too (now I just buy a little bit ahead in time ;-)).

I think this is one of those coffee tips that's part true, part myth. I roast my own coffee. It may be true that the coffee gets better if you let it age several days, but it's not like it'll taste horrible if you drink it the day after roasting (as James says). It tastes pretty good actually and just gets better day after day. Until it starts to get worse, day after day. ;-)

Resting coffee was a problem until I started freezing single-dose vials and just grind the frozen beans when needed, without thawing. This way, my coffee is always at its optimum resting age to meet my taste (usually 9 days after roasting). It doesn't gradually change and doesn't go stale, not even a month later. It's worth the tiny extra effort.

I've been buying a bag of coffee from my local roaster on Saturday and generally get around to brewing it for the first time on Wednesday (and finishing the bag on the following Tuesday), so I'm glad I accidentally backed into a pretty good practice.

Thanks! I thought my vacuum seal container was broken. Thanks for explanation

I think the challenge is that in many cases, you’re going to take several days to get through a bag, so if you wait a week to start brewing the coffee, and then it takes (me) a week to use up the whole bag, I’ll be having 14-day old beans at the end of it. Maybe I missed it, but what’s the tail end of resting where it is more likely to become stale?

Imagine a James Hoffmann video collaboration with Wes Anderson 😎 I already see some similarities in visual symmetry, blocking, and staging. It would be epic!

Glad to hear this information! Sometimes i find myself wanting to try that coffee so much, i dont want to wait! Once its here, i want to brew!

Great topic and thanks for sharing. My experience is a week old, I'm always thinking about next week or my next weekend off from work. My coffee gets better everyday it hangs around.

I was fascinated by the idea that a much darker roast should be rested for less time. I'm originally from the tea industry with a focus on Oolong and the common belief there is that dark roasted teas should be rested for at least six months in order to let the "fire" wear off. I wonder what the principle difference between coffee and tea are in this regard?

Having five shots of espresso a day, İ barely let my coffee rest. Not that I become restless myself. Not yet.

Love the technical videos.

Have I found resting to be stressful or frustrating? No...not until I saw this video because I had no idea it was a factor. And that's why I keep coming back. These videos are great!

If I "aged" some fresh roasted coffee beans in liquid nitrogen and pull one shot each week for a year and tracked the progress via instagram stories, would you be interested in suggesting a varietal? The bean at some point should get so cold that off-gassing should be impossible and there is nothing toxic about nitrogen in its pressurized and liquid form. Could the coffee profile change in other ways if off-gassing was halted completely and the atmospheric environment was liquid instead of gaseous. I imagine a process where I would pull daily shots and weekly 3 cup tests with both frozen and defrosted beans. A frozen coffee bean should be easier to grind but might change the dialing process from week to week. It might also grab moisture from the air when you shake them around making misting unnecessary. Boom! Big time saver! You know for those of use who have a built in liquid nitrogen storage tank in our homes. I live in a small RV and have been watching your videos for a while and learning loads. I've studied beer tasting and see a lot of similar complexities shared between these experiences. For example how the malting process can control the Maillard reaction producing a wide palette of flavors, colors and aromas. I've been saving up for the last few months and finally found a used flair espresso maker that should fit my counter space. I just did the math and its around 5-6.5 kilos of coffee beans. Maybe I just start with 2-3 examples of light/medium/dark roasts and see if anything happens after 30 days and if it does pursue it further. I'll figure all that out but thanks for the great videos.

First!

I have experience as home and professional roaster, and still I got very nice information from you Especially that technique to fast degas just roasted coffee, by showering it

I am completely geeking over this! It’s awesome!

All I can say is THANK YOU JAMES!!!. It's about 1 year mark since I saw your first video and you helped me understand what coffee really is. For years I was trying to figure why certain coffee tasted better than others, well after watching all of your videos you explained most of the mistakes I did, mysteries around coffee that I had no clue and most importantly how to develop joy in making and drinking coffee. You are a true blessing to us. Thank you again

Between starting to roast my own coffee and baking sourdough, I’m in for it 🫠 this is extremely informative, thank you!

Great information. It explains a lot to me. A few years back, I visited a friend in Anchorage, Alaska. We stopped off at a Costco and I was surprised to see a rather large coffee roaster in the back of the store. My friend always buys the freshly roasted Costco coffee, and this trip was no exception. However, the next morning, he made some French press coffee using the bag he purchased the day before. I wasn’t all that impressed. The final product tasted rather sour to me, and I was a bit disappointed, as I thought it would taste very fresh and flavorful. But now having watched this video, I understand the reason behind resting the coffee.

I love resting and seeing anything else rest, whether: animal, vegetable or mineral brings me great comfort and encouragement. Rest on u resting army. 👍🏻👍🏻

I’ve been using a Foodsaver vacuum pump with Tilia, rigid plastic vacuum containers, for several years now. Typically I roast about 30 days, in advance and keep about 3 lbs of roasted beans on hand. I’m pulling some great shots of espresso, consistently, daily, on my La Pavoni, Europiccola and am extremely pleased with the results! Vacuum is the only way to store!

Awesome, very sensible way of talking about resting! Would be curious what others have found in terms of how quickly coffee goes stale, on the other side of the discussion? I buy medium-light roasts and rest it 4 or 5 days, not really on purpose though, I don't worry about it. It takes about two weeks to use a bag up for me, so it's never stale by then. I've had some stale coffee before of course- I probably wouldn't buy a medium or light bag that was roasted more than a month ago?

We need an audiobook - what a lovely voice to nod off to ❤

Thanks for the info on the Fellow Atmos container. I’ve noticed that many times with my container and thought it was faulty.