It’s been a while since I’ve had the motivation to review a coffee… life has been busy and to be quite honest, I’ve been drinking coffee mostly out of necessity rather than enjoyment. There’s a certain amount of mental energy I need to have available in order to analyze what I’m tasting, and I just haven’t had that most days. As further proof of this, I’d decided to pass along my espresso machine to a friend, because I’d stopped using it and I don’t foresee myself wanting to get back into the hobby anytime soon (Thanks for taking it off my hands, Nathan!). Espresso was great fun, but also mildly infuriating at times, and I genuinely get more enjoyment out of a cup of coffee these days vs. espresso-based drinks. So, going forward, there will be no more espresso reviews on this blog. I may review espresso blends, but they’ll be brewed as pourover/filter coffee.
When I began my specialty coffee journey around 2015, I learned about the rule of 15s: Green beans are good for 15 months, roasted coffee is fresh for 15 days, ground coffee is fresh for 15 minutes. With this logic, it’s best to buy coffee roasted no more than two weeks ago. Any coffee more than a month old is getting stale. However, I don’t think this “rule” applies equally across the board to all coffees anymore. Around the same time as I got this bag from Heart Coffee, I also picked up a bag from Native Coffee Company in Dallas (and I’m very excited to write that review soon) which came with the following instructions:
I’d definitely known that there’s such a thing as beans that are “too fresh” for espresso (I’ve done my fair share of cleanup thanks to espresso spurting everywhere), but the idea of waiting for 3-4 weeks to open a bag was new to me. I’ve done plenty of reviews where I’ve done the tasting something like 3-5 days post-roast. Was this a mistake?
Answer: it depends, mainly on the roast level of the beans. The darker that the coffee is roasted, the faster they start degassing and the quicker they’ll lose their freshness. So, if you’re drinking medium-roasted coffee, sticking with consuming the bag within 2-3 weeks of roasting is wise. But if you’re drinking a coffee that’s very light roasted, it’s not going to reach peak flavor within those first couple of weeks. You can keep a lightly roasted coffee on the shelf for much longer than you would be able to keep a medium or dark roast.
To test this, I tasted these beans from Heart at 4 days post-roast, and again 26 days post-roast. The difference was stark!
Whole beans: very small beans that had a sweet fragrance like springtime.
French press:
(4 days old) This coffee had a subtle floral fragrance that was nice but the coffee itself tasted hollow and watery. Rather bland. It had the barest hints of Meyer lemon and elderflower which came out more as it cooled. When the coffee was completely cooled off, the flavor was rather like lemon herbal tea + honey, but it was also unpleasant to drink lukewarm coffee.
Flavor intensity: 3/10 (bland)
(26 days old) MUCH more vibrant and interesting. Still a delicate coffee, but all the floral and juicy lemon notes came to the fore and made their presence known.
Flavor intensity: 7/10 (well-balanced and juicy without being too bright or sour)
Hario V60:
(4 days old) Bland, with barely any flavor. Didn’t change much from hot to lukewarm; quite a disappointment.
Flavor intensity: 1/10 (practically nothing)
(26 days old) Much more floral. Still a whisper-quiet coffee in terms of flavor, as I think the paper filter might have muted some of the characteristics, but better.
Flavor intensity: 5/10
Clever Dripper:
(4 days old) Only marginally more flavor than the Hario V60 cup. The filter seems to have taken away the lemony acidity I enjoyed in the French press cup.
Flavor intensity: 2/10
(26 days old) Surprisingly, not much difference! This was the only brewing method that didn’t improve with the coffee having ‘rested’ for close to 3 weeks.
Flavor intensity: 2/10
Chemex:
(4 days old) Most interesting brew method, but there’s still not much flavor! There was a bit of macadamia nut on the finish, with quiet hints of lemon and floral notes. Very subtle.
Flavor intensity: 3/10
(26 days old) Definitely an improvement. There were more of the juicy, floral notes in this cup. Much more interesting!
Flavor intensity: 7/10
Summary: If you’re drinking light-roasted coffee, and you feel like you’re not getting much flavor out of it, try waiting a bit longer than you might ordinarily would. I don’t think that the Ethiopia Mullugeta Mutasha qualifies as an ultra-light roast, but there are ultra-light roasted coffees out there for which their roasters recommendation waiting anywhere from 25-45 days before breaking into the bag. If you’re a fan of these, hope you’ve got a lot of patience!!! In any case, these beans did taste markedly better overall when I waited close to three weeks post-roast. Maybe it would have tasted even better after another week or two? Sadly, I can’t test this theory since I ran out of the 8 ounce bag after this second tasting was done.
From the roaster: champagne grape, elderflower, honey
Heart Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Mullugeta Muntasha
Review conducted 4 and 26 days post-roast.