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I usually brew V60 at home with recently roasted beans that I grind right before brewing my coffee. I like fruity notes in my coffee, and what I noticed is that the first cup I make after opening the package is usually the most aromatic.

This doesn't surprise me much because I can understand that the most volatile aromatics might be dissipating quickly after I open the bag. But what I noticed is that if I keep the bag closed for a while (a week or two) the coffee again tastes better when I brew it compared to the consecutive brews.

Why would that be the case?

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  • We need more info to provide a good answer. How long does a typical batch of coffee last you? What is the volume of the bag or average weight of the batches? How often do you open the bag (or how much do you remove each time you open it and how many times do you do this per bag)? These factors all play into what you're describing.
    – R Mac
    Dec 1, 2021 at 23:42

2 Answers 2

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What we experience as "flavor" is really aromas we smell with our noses. And what we are smelling is volatile (= easily evaporated) chemicals from the beans or grounds. These aromas evaporate from the surface of the beans (or grounds) and dissipate in the air. That's why coffee loses flavor as it ages if it is not kept tightly sealed.

If you leave the container sealed for a few weeks, the volatile aromas work their way from the interior of the beans (or grounds) to the surface where they are available to contribute to the aroma.

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    But then you grind the beans before you brew, meaning any aromas trapped inside the bean get exposed when you grind that bean... The question asks why they get a better brew, not why it smells better.
    – R Mac
    Dec 1, 2021 at 23:17
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If the coffee has been roasted very recently, it needs a little bit of time to "rest": https://lenscoffee.com/resting-coffee-after-roasting/

How recently was the coffee roasted?

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