Does Coffee Die?

A TEDx talk I gave on coffee was recently posted on elephant journal. A viewer asked the question, “Can anybody enlighten as to how he makes his claims? Coffee is ‘dead’ after 10 days?” Here is the answer to that question.

My claims are based on 10 years of research, having discussions with others, and more importantly, my own experience. Some of the words I use to describe coffee—dead, potent, vital, fresh living food—are usually not terms used when talking about coffee.

We need to change the vocabulary we use when we talk about coffee in order to describe the revolutionary discoveries that I—and other home roasters—have made.

Coffee literally dies about seven days after roasting.

During the roasting process, there are 1500 chemical reactions that take place. These reactions create chemical substances that, soon after roasting, are emitted from the porous coffee bean. Imagine the bean is breathing out these chemicals.

Once the process of breathing out is finished in about seven days, Oxygen can then enter the porous bean and destroy any freshness that is left, this is called oxidation which is the same process as when you cut open an apple and it gets brown.

I like to describe it as dying because the porous coffee bean has breathed its last breath. (This, by the way, is the reason the vacuum sealed packaging have one way valves. It’s purpose is to let these substances out of the bag otherwise the bag would expand.)

Now, just 24 hours after roasting forty percent of these beneficial chemicals have already left the bean with the remaining 60 percent leaving in diminishing increments in the next six days.

That is a huge number. I say “beneficial” chemicals because in the tests I have conducted when more of the chemicals are present the reaction on the human brain and body is a very positive one. I believe that certain areas of the brain are activated that cause the ability to focus our attention, happiness, an increase in present awareness and an increase in energy.

At the end of my talk I also recommend that everyone tries my theories out for themselves. I am not trying to convince anyone that I have all the answers. I don’t! I don’t know exactly what brain chemicals are present in fresh roasted coffee, I just know how it tastes and feels in my body and it’s pretty amazing!

We all must come to our own conclusions on what is best for each of us individually. I am simply presenting a possibility that is counter to the conventional wisdom which treats roasted coffee as a stable commodity—like table salt—and not as a fresh living food!

Asher Yaron has lived an adventurous life as an entrepreneur and world traveler. A passion for raw food and its preparation led Asher to become a Coffee Roaster. After several trips to Bali, Asher decided to move there and follow his desire to create a local, organic, sustainable business focused on food imbued with energy and life force. Asher created F.R.E.A.K. Coffee (Fresh Roasted “Enak” Arabica from Kintamani) which is involved in all aspects of thecoffee business “From the Cherry to the Cup”. He lives and works in Bali adjacent to the Green School (www.greenschool.org).

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Editor: Carolyn Gilligan