Received soft bricks of ground coffee, stale??!
Received soft bricks of ground coffee, stale??
I don't own a coffee grinder, so I order my espresso ground already. It normally comes in very hard(freeze dried??) bricks. When I received via UPS the coffee bricks the other day, one of the four bags was really soft. I was told that would not make the espresso stale; sometimes that happens in shipping/handling. Also told only way it would be stale, would be if coffee was leaking out of bag. Is this true? I was under the impression the coffee brick staying really rock hard is what kept it from becoming stale. (I do know coffee can begin the "stale" process immediately after being ground, but it is still much, much tastier than store bought coffee/espresso). Thanks in advance.
Answers:
Your coffee brick bag is soft because it is no longer sealed air tight. The length of time it's been soft effects freshness. Coffee needs to be sealed so it won't go stale or absorb odors.
The brick can break up to the point where it's not really a "brick" anymore, if it is crushed or handled roughly.
As long as the bag is still sealed, the coffee shouldn't be stale. It becomes stale when it's no longer airtight.
The coffee should be fine, as long as the bag was sealed. Coffee, in cans, is fresh when you open them and they're not "bricked".