I have been a shift leader at a Starbucks store, and I’ve trained baristas. I’ve learned how to “taste” coffee, and I figured I was pretty knowledgeable about coffee.
We buy organic, free trade beans, grind them ourselves as we need them, and never put them in the freezer. Plus, we only buy the coffee a pound at a time, for freshness’ sake.
Only, I saw a TED talk by Asher Yarron a few weeks ago that made my jaw drop.
Even the organic beans you buy from…well, anywhere — not only are those beans weeks and weeks old, their age means that any health benefits you might get from coffee have long since evaporated. Coffee beans start to loose their goodness within one week of roasting.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t live next to the coffee fields in Guatamala.
The video explains that while roasted beans lose their benefits quickly, unroasted beans can be stored for a long while, without fading.
So.
We did some research and found (to our complete astonishment) that there is a coffee house in our neck of the woods that roasts its own coffee.
Roasti Coffee is in Sherwood Park. They have a coffee shop there, complete with the most steam-punkish coffee roasting oven you’ve even seen. It’s gorgeous.
We hurried over there to try their coffee and I have to tell you that my latte was one of the best I’ve had in years. I inhaled it.
We also bought a pound of coffee to take home with us. It isn’t too much more than the organic beans we already buy.
Roasti also supply a huge number of other retail establishments in the Edmonton area. If you’re local, though, do flip over to Sherwood Park and try their coffees. It’s worth it.
And if you’re not near here, then do a search for coffee roasting companies local to you. If there’s one here, in Alberta, then there is most likely one near you. Once you’ve watched the video, you’ll be curious to try freshly roasted coffee. It does make a difference.
Cheers,
.
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