I get coffee gifted to me somewhat regularly, plus the beans I buy myself. These are just the specialty bags I’ve got going on right now, I have another probably 4-5 bags of commodity coffee as well. I also have another bag of the DeMello (yellow bag with a Tiger on it) but forgot to add it in the picture.
For those who have several bags at once, how do you decide what to brew at any given time? I try to rotate between them, prioritizing the best beans to use them up before they stale, but I don’t have a very good system for it. The two bags of Pilot (Ana Sora and Black Moon) are definitely my nicest and also my freshest, and they’re getting the most attention right now. They’re the ones I’m most worried about going stale. But I have a bunch of other bags too as you can see, and I don’t know how to properly rotate between them. On my days off it’s easier because I might make 4 espressos in one day, but when I’m working it’s usually espresso to wake up and pour over for work, then maybe espresso when I get home but not usually since it’s normally too late. I’m curious if anyone here has a better system for going through lots of bags.
My wife does also drink coffee but usually only one coffee a day, and it’s usually commodity coffee unless she’s not working. Her go-to has been Lavazza Qualità Oro.
I know some people are probably gonna freak out that my coffee is all going to go stale before I can drink it all, and I should only have one bag open at a time and whatever else, but having many options is part of the fun for me. I really enjoy opening the coffee cupboard in the mornings and having a bunch of options, I’m just not very good at then making the decision for which to drink. Coffee is fun, it’s basically my only hobby these days, and tasting different coffees is the most fun part of that. But then when I get to having 7-10 bags open I don’t really know how to drink it all. I should probably just only buy when I’m running low, but that’s not fun. So yeah, probably my own fault, oh well.
It’s like, I go out to a coffee shop, see a bag I might like and impulse buy it, then add it to the collection at home and get decision fatigue. Or sometimes, like in the case of the three bags at the back, I get gifted a tasting set and that’s now three more bags to decide between. My wife also loves trying new coffee so she’ll sometimes see a neat bag or maybe the grocery store has specialty coffee on sale, and sure it’s a bit stale but it might be only $12-15 compared to $22-25 elsewhere so she picks it up and then the collection grows even more. That’s where the DeMello came from, it was from $22 down to $12 and only 5 weeks off roast so she picked it up. But she got two bags and now that’s even more coffee to drink before it stales.
For those with large collections going on, I’d love to see what bags you have going on too. Drop a picture in the comments, I’d love to see.
I don’t. I open one at a time and the rest hang out in the freezer.
Tangentially related, though: I never know how to handle when the end of the current bag has fewer beans than I want to brew.
I usually brew a cup of the new bean, and then make the next one the impromptu blend.
There’s always a small amount of coffee beans in the room temperature, and everything else is sitting in the freezer. Doing it this way also allows you to switch between different coffee types each week.
Currently, I’m brewing espresso, so the basket size determines the mass of coffee beans that goes in for each cup. If the leftovers don’t match that, I’ll use an aeropress to make a custom cup. It’s a very flexible brewing method, so so it’s perfect for leftovers.
Option 2: end of one bag and the beginning of the next for a surprise blend cup.
I am frequently surprised at how good these blends turn out to be.
I more or less do the same, but I always keep a bag of good dark roast in my freezer whose main purpose is to finish off those last remaining lighter-roast beans that aren’t enough for a full brew. I’ve come up with some excellent ad hoc blends that way, while keeping the dark roast more or less constant so I know what to expect.
I’m a fan of mixing dark roast single origin with a light or medium roast single origin, I love the tangy depth it often brings out. I know not everyone likes mixing different roast levels, but I love it, though my main preference is a good medium roast single origin.
I’ve clearly thought about this too hard…
I usually just brew less for the last bit in the bag regardless, but almost always as a pour over since I’m espresso, puck depth is really quite important and I don’t have any step-down baskets. My brew might only be 5-8g but then I get to make another coffee shortly after (I always use up the last of a bag on a day off for this reason).
Consistently choose a dose that is a numeral fraction of the whole bag and you will never have the hassle ;)
Some how my 340g bags never seem to land on an even number of 20g brews.
I know it doesn’t make sense but here we are…
Mysteries just keep on piling, what a strange world
You definitely sound like the kind of person who weighs their scoops.
Well, OP too it seems!
Haha! Yup! I kinda love coffee nerds. But I can’t be arsed to be one. Best I can do is resist my wife’s Keurig and insist on grinding my own beans for my aeropress (2 scoops, btw).
Got me: in the office I still perpetrate the sin of going by scoops in the AeroPress 🫣
Dark and black. That’s how I decide.