Coffee beans have connotations of delicious coffee and the aroma that accompanies the perfect espresso. They are also the best way to extend coffee’s lifespan because their lower surface area keeps them from reacting to the environment too rapidly and losing their essence in the process.
To tell if your coffee beans have gone bad, you need to pay attention to the taste and smell. If your coffee tastes unusually bitter or smells sweet without additives, the beans might have gone bad. You should also look for signs of mold and keep an eye on how long the beans have stayed in the open.
In this post, you will learn more about different signs that point towards bad beans. More importantly, you will discover what to look for in taste, smell, and looks, so you can catch stale coffee before you consume it. Finally, you’ll find out how to extend your coffee beans’ lifespan, so they don’t go bad for months. Now, let’s get back to the signs your coffee beans have gone bad.
Coffee Tastes Extra Bitter
Kids don’t grow up on coffee, so there’s inevitably that point of introduction where one tries it for the first time. Since one’s reference to coffee, initially, is the sum total of other hot beverages, it seems quite bitter. This impression stays with us, and we get used to seeing bitterness as the norm.
It doesn’t help that instant coffee’s accessibility accustomed us to bitterness as well. Coffee made from properly ground and roasted beans shouldn’t be bitter; it should be mellow. If you have been using sugar to offset the bitterness of over-extracted espresso, you might not notice when your coffee has gone bad.
Have decently extracted espresso with only a little sweetener so when it starts tasting bitter, you can take a step back. Unfortunately, this symptom is so difficult to detect for those who consume sugary coffee that it cannot be used as the sole indicator of staleness or freshness.
The Beans (Or Coffee) Smell Different
While the taste of your coffee can be altered by sugar so much that you cannot detect a shift in bitterness, the smell of bad coffee cannot be covered up by any amount of sweetener. However, it is easy to look past this initially because our point of reference for “food gone bad” is actual food.
The unbearable smell of rotten food is nowhere near what coffee beans smell like when they go bad. They smell different. Fortunately, you don’t have to try too hard to detect the difference because it is noticeable right away. More precisely, you must look for a sweet and sickly smell reminiscent of caramel. If you detect even the lightest notes of such an aroma, you have to look at the calendar.
Enough Time Has Passed
No indicator in this post is complete without cross-referencing with this one. Well, no indicator except obvious molding. Otherwise, only time can tell if your coffee has gone bad. Whether your coffee smells different or is too bitter, if not even a week has passed since you bought freshly ground beans, your coffee hasn’t gone bad.
Usually, two weeks is the lifespan of coffee grounds, after which they are definitely not fresh. In contrast, coffee beans don’t go bad for a long time. They can last for months in a freezer but a month in a moist kitchen environment? That’s where you have to start getting suspicious and take a closer look.
You Can Detect Traces of Mold or Mildew
Upon closer inspection of beans that have stayed outside for a few weeks, you might notice traces of mold or mildew. These can be easy to miss if you have a glass container because the glare makes such inspection quite difficult. Use a spoon to lift beans from the container’s topmost layer and place them on a white sheet.
Then, use the bowl of the spoon to press the beans against the sheet until you have a dark patch on the sheet. If there are any traces of green, light brown, or white, you have early-stage mold or mildew. You need to take these steps only if the molding isn’t too obvious, but the coffee tastes or smells different. It goes without saying that you have to throw away the coffee beans if you can see mold or mildew without even having to test for traces.
The Coffee Beans Are Wet
If you open the canister and coffee beans tend to stick to each other as you scoop them up, you have to do a double-take. The beans stick together when they are wet, and that’s not something you want in coffee beans that have been sitting in a canister.
If your coffee beans have been wet for over a day, you’re already on a short clock, but if it has been a week, your coffee has probably gone bad. Day-old wet coffee can still be used for a coffee cake, frappes, and Spanish latte, but if the beans have been wet long enough and your home environment is humid, you cannot guarantee the healthiness of the extracted espresso.
How To Extend Coffee Beans’ Lifespan
If you have to look for how you can tell whether your coffee has gone bad, chances are you store the beans longer than usual. That’s okay; some people store coffee beans in bulk because it takes them significant time to get them.
Others like to store in bulk for their remote coffeeshops. Regardless of why you’re storing the beans, you have to do the same thing: use a freezer. With a thoroughly dry container that is opaque, airtight, and filled to the brim, your coffee beans will be safe to consume in a freezer for months to come.
Final Thoughts
Coffee beans take longer to go bad compared to coffee grounds. Still, all organic matter decays and some signs of your coffee going bad include:
- Sickly sweet smell or notes of apple
- Extremely bitter brew without changing the brew time or ground dosage
- Faded look or mold on the beans
- Wet beans that have stayed outside for a few weeks
