So how can I tell if it's fresh roasted coffee?
…..A brief understanding…..

This a good question and one that can be very confusing at times. Many roasters, coffee shops and stores will advertise their coffee as fresh. Fresh roasted coffee has a number of attributes that set it apart from day/days/week old coffee.

	The aroma of fresh roasted coffee is very powerful. The smell does not dissipate immediately, but lingers with the coffee (whole bean, ground or in the cup)
	Fresh roasted and then ground coffee exhibits a damp stickiness. Pinch some between your thumb and index finger. The coffee should loosely stick together with some adhering to your fingers (depending on grind and roast level)
	The process of roasting coffee extrudes all the wonderful oils to the surface. These oils give coffee all its characteristics (aroma, body, acidity, complexity, depth, etc.). Oils become visually noticeable on the surface of the beans with a full city roast and become progressively more pronounced through an Espresso roast, appearing wet to the eye and touch
	Cup taste. This is the single most discernible criterion. Stale coffee tastes bland, has a limited aroma and contains all the body of a cup of colored water (which at this point is all it is)

The next time you visit your favorite coffee shop to enjoy a cup or purchase roasted beans ask them this. When was the coffee roasted? More then likely they will reply with, "well, we have our beans delivered once a week on XX day". Now this would seem to imply that if I bought on XX day, I would have a good chance of procuring fresh coffee. Perhaps, perhaps not, as many of the larger roasters will only ship to their retailers when they have all quantities of their coffees, blends, single origin, and decaf completed. It's done this way to reduce shipping costs, maximize palletizing and limit daily delivery runs. Additionally, in many circumstances the roasting is done over a day or two! So even when the retailer receives the coffee it is 2-3 days old.

Now if the beans arrive on Tuesday with the coffee 2-3 days old and you happen to come in on Saturday to purchase or enjoy their Espresso/brewed coffee, the coffee is really 6-7 days old. If you happen to be the unlucky soul that arrives on Monday, then its 8-9 days old. Remember that roasted coffee starts to loose its freshness after 24 hours (once the oils extrude to the surface). How can they sell this as fresh roasted?

Our coffees are roasted the day you order, packed and shipped immediately. We only ship our coffees as whole bean to keep them fresher for you, our customer. Remember, only grind what you need on a daily basis before you brew. Fresh roasted coffee is an experience that deserves your attention. In many ways it's a throwback to the way things used to be before mass-customization and production, a true handcrafted process.