When we talk about aged coffee, we don’t mean old, expired coffee. We are talking about a technique that was quite popular in the 1500s. Nowadays, it’s making a little comeback. Let’s discuss the term.
The meaning of aged coffee
Aged coffee is not the same as old coffee. Producers stock the green coffee carefully in barrels. Most of the time, it’s aged for a couple of months. However, some people say you can age coffee up to three years. While performing this technique, the coffee is regularly monitored, and the beans are rotated.
History
It was in the 1500s when Europe first came into touch with coffee. At that time, the only coffee Europe ever got to taste, was aged coffee. Simply because the batches came from Yemen, and it required a long shipment to get the coffee to Europe. That way, the coffee had enough time to age. The long trip in combination with the salty sea air, made the coffee taste a certain way. Later when Europe could get coffee a lot faster, their preference was still for this coffee with a unique flavor.
Types of coffee
Over the years, fresh coffee became more popular, and aged became less desirable. However, in recent years, the trend is becoming more popular again. People think about it the same as they think about wine. Though, if a coffee is bad, aging it will not improve the quality of the coffee. Besides that, not all types of coffee are suitable for this technique. They must age under the right circumstances otherwise; they lose the oils which give coffee its aroma and flavor. Beans that are suitable for aging, mostly come from South America.
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