The Coffee Truth: Why Freshness Matters
Hello, coffee lover. I’m Pak Kopi, and I am here with a new installment of Coffee University. This series is called The Coffee Truth, and in this episode, I want to take a look at some of the things I discussed in my recently finished book, Get Your Fix: How to Get High on a Potent, Good Cup of Coffee.
Nothing is quite like a freshly roasted cup of coffee. I make it every single morning. For those of you who follow me, who see my videos, or who have watched my TEDx talk, you know that the most important aspect I focus on when it comes to coffee is consuming it immediately after roasting. By far, this is the most critical factor.
To describe it, I compare coffee to baking bread. If you bake a loaf, it is best right out of the oven. If you take that bread and put it on a shelf without consuming it for a few days—even just a week—it will not be nearly as good. Coffee is exactly the same way. Just after roasting, it is at its peak.
In the case of bread, no matter how good the ingredients are—whether it is stone-ground flour or high-quality eggs—the taste is still superior immediately after baking. The same principle applies to coffee. While bread does not have significant nutritional differences over time, coffee has something else entirely: the “drug” aspect. Coffee is the most potent and widely used drug in the world.
To get the most out of coffee, you must consume it just after roasting. This ensures you have access to all the substances and chemicals that leave the coffee bean immediately after the roasting process. In fact, 40% of these beneficial compounds are already gone after just 24 hours. Therefore, the best way to maximize your coffee experience is not only in terms of taste and freshness, but also in its “aliveness.” You gain access to those potent chemicals that affect your brain, helping it work better.
I am convinced that coffee assists in the thought and focus process of your brain. There is something specific that it does, and I want to study it in the future to find out exactly what it is. However, when you have a really good cup of coffee, you notice the difference immediately. You feel alive, focused, and capable of doing anything. This is the process I do every morning, and I encourage people to do the same: roast, grind, and brew in the morning.
The roasting process only takes about 10 minutes with the proper equipment. It does not require expensive gear. However, when you follow the order of roasting, grinding, and brewing, you are getting the most out of it.
This serves as an introductory video where I want to discuss the history of coffee and what seems to have happened where we went off track. About 150 to 200 years ago, everyone was roasting their own coffee at home. They knew it was better because they were getting green coffee, roasting it themselves, and consuming it right away. I want to go back to that time but with today’s updated, more modern equipment, making the process easy and not so time-consuming.
Like all “good truthers,” I consider myself a coffee truther. I encourage you to do your own research. I am giving you one point of view based on my experience here, but I really encourage you to try this out for yourself. No one can convince you simply by saying something; that is how we have gotten off track. We have accepted what big companies tell us about coffee, which is often not true, and this has prevented us from getting the most out of it.
I encourage you to do your own research, try this out for yourself, and see how it feels and how it tastes. Notice the reaction you have. We will start with the history of coffee in the next video. I want to keep these videos nice and short. We will look forward to the future and continue exploring the truth of coffee.
That’s it for now. Thank you, coffee lover. Talk to you soon.
