Are you Freshly Roasted?

So for what it is worth, we think our Coffee tastes better when it's fresh. Therefore we also believe that the fresher it is, the better it is for us. Think about it. Coffee is an agricultural product, just like many other items we consume. By nature of the roasting process, lots of chemical and physical reactions occur, which unlock and reform many of the hundreds of compounds that are available in each individual coffee seed.
  

Remember, coffee is simply the seed of a fruit. So think of the coffee cherry and its seed as a battery. One that stores energy in the form of edible fruit, and nutrients, and compounds in the seed. Logically then, the fresher your coffee - be it green or roasted - the better it is for you. Or so at least we believe. We recommend taking your coffee roasted, that green coffee will do a number on your teeth!

Oh yeah, about that battery. The nutrients and compounds that were stored by the coffee will dissipate over time, so it makes sense that you'd want to consume them closer to the point when they were harvested. I mean you don't eat your broccoli after it turns yellow - right?

But let's be clear, you still need to eat your veggies. While we totally stand behind coffee being delicious, we certainly don't want to imply that coffee is nutritious. But it's really the compounds that form the flavors and aromas during the roasting process, so naturally we want to keep those around.

At Wisecrack we don't just roast freshly sourced, high quality specialty coffee. We strive to perfectly roast every coffee we offer. It's in our nature, because we are proud, and we take pride in everything we do. We know it's a pursuit that has no end. But it's more than just that. It's about adding value to the chain.

If we are not providing value for our customers, then we are not doing our job.  Freshly sourced coffee is just one of the many values we can offer as a small, local craft coffee roaster. In fact most small batch, nano-type roasting companies can deliver you fresher coffee because there is less sourcing complexity involved compared to the Mega-roasters that line the shelves of your nearby Super Market.

So fresh is best you say? How fresh should my coffee be? Well since we already answered a similar question in our FAQ - we thought we would look at this one through a different lens. But first a brief plug for our home state....

Call it a chip on our shoulder, but New Jersey tends to be the punchline of many jokes. That's fine, let them have at it. We're tough. And we also know that NJ has plenty to offer. We have lot's of great secrets, and over time if you're lucky we will share some of them with you. If of course, you promise to commit to reading about all the interesting things we plan to write about on this site.

So if roasting fresh coffee starts with having access to, well, fresh green coffee. Then being close to that supply is a good idea, right? I mean if coffee was grown in the US then this would be easier. But since coffee must be imported from other climates, then it has to come in by boat. Since that is the case, and we agree that it is, then you could postulate that the closer you are are to the boats with the coffee, then the fresher your coffee may end up being?

Photo by Guillaume Bolduc on Unsplash

So what's our secret? Well, we have Port of NY/NJ located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Arguably the largest port of entry for Coffee (and other things) in the United States - along with Oakland, CA. Bingo - access granted! Our Coffee Importer is right here in good old NJ. And they are pretty darned close to all those boats loaded with coffee when they come in.

Thankfully, some of those big shipping containers have our Importer's name on it. And that's a great thing. Because that means that the sooner the Beans can get out of those ocean containers into the climate controlled warehouse at our Coffee Importer, the better. They get their green coffee as soon as it hits the port in Elizabeth NJ and clears customs. About as fresh as it gets in the United States.

So there your have it - value added. The fact that we are so close to the port of entry and our Coffee Importer gives us a bit of a leg up. We want to roast our beans as close to the Importing date as possible. We always do our best to  roast the most current crop so that you can rest assured everything is super fresh. Cheers...