Dark Roast vs. Light Roast, Which Coffee Will Keep Better?

We all like our coffees in different ways. Some drink it straight black while some love their Starbucks-esque creations that usually contain more whipped cream and sugar than they do coffee. And even among the straight up, or minimally flavored coffee drinkers, everyone has their preference in terms of region or roast. But if you’re a coffee at home kind of person who can’t get through a bag of beans in short order, you may want to reevaluate your preferences, at least when it comes to roast. Dark roasted beans, you see, don’t keep as long as lightly roasted beans. Surprised? So were we. But here’s how Gabe Boscana of Máquina Coffee explained it in an article on Sprudge:

“When you're roasting coffee darker, you're breaking down the cell structure of the coffee and exposing the oils, those really dark chocolate aromatics—but it also means that you're degrading it enough that when you open it it's going to have a shorter shelf life. With a light roasted coffee, it has a longer shelf life because you haven't degraded the cell structure. If you're going to buy really dark roast I'd say the fresher the better. But if it's a medium, I'd say you could probably wait two, three, or even four weeks to brew it and it would be okay. You're better off with a lighter roasted coffee if it's going to sit there.”

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