Coffee Freshness Calculator
The roast date on the bag, in. The day to open it, the day the window closes, and the day it is cold brew, out. Today sits on the timeline so the answer is at a glance.
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Enter the roast date from the bag.
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the roast date printed on the bag. If the bag only has a best-by date, it is not telling you when it was roasted, and this tool cannot help; see below.
- Say how you will brew it. Espresso needs more rest than filter, and it holds up longer.
- Say how dark it is. Light roasts degas slowly and every date moves out; dark roasts move in.
- Read the timeline. The dark mark is today. The shaded band is the window.
Resting
Roasting fills the bean with carbon dioxide, and for the first days after roast it escapes fast. Brewed that early, coffee tastes gassy and flat, and espresso is worse: the gas fights the water, the puck channels, and the shot sprays and sours. Filter coffee is usually good from about day four; espresso is usually better from day seven, and many light roasts pull better at two weeks than at one. Resting is not a rule so much as a reason the first shots from a new bag disappoint.
The Window
Between the end of rest and about three weeks for filter, or a month for espresso, the coffee is at its best. After that the aromatics have been leaving with the gas, oxygen has been getting in every time the bag opens, and the cup goes gently flat: still fine, less vivid. The dates here are our working rules of thumb, not measurements, and a well-sealed bag with a one-way valve stretches them while a bag left open on the counter shortens them.
When It Is Past
Old coffee is not spoiled; it is dull. Brew it a little stronger to make up the difference, or turn it into cold brew, which is kind to coffee that has lost its edge. Better still, freeze what you will not finish in the window: whole beans in an airtight container, portioned so nothing thaws twice, will hold close to where they were for months. Grind from frozen.
Best-By Dates
A best-by date a year out tells you the bag was packed for shelf life, not freshness, and says nothing about when the coffee was roasted. Roasters who print the roast date are telling you they expect you to care. Our guide to where to buy whole bean coffee covers how to find them, and the roaster directory lists the ones we know by region.