What Does Stale Coffee Taste Like? Try This When Brewing

What does stale coffee taste like? 

Let’s face it, great aromatic coffee is such a delightful experience – who wants to drink coffee that doesn’t taste right? But what causes your coffee to taste like stale and is its taste as terrible as it sounds? Stick around, in this article, I go over the best practices for making coffee that tastes great every single time. 

Let’s jump straight into it. 

What does stale coffee really taste like? 

The definition of the word stale is ‘food or drink that isn’t fresh and has unusual and unpleasant smell’. Stale coffee tastes like not fresh coffee that has lost its aroma and it’s not pleasant to drink it. Bacteria start spreading all over your drink causing a noticeable change in taste.

How to tell whether your coffee is fresh or not

This is a million-dollar question.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb that helps you identify fresh coffee in 2 seconds:

Take a whiff of the coffee (whether it’s coffee beans or brew), it will tell you instantly whether it’s fresh or not. For example, open a coffee bean bag and you’ll get hit by the aroma if the coffee beans are fresh. But if they’re not the aroma isn’t going to be pleasant and intense. 

The same goes with an actual coffee brew, it smells so delightfully when it’s fresh that you want to gulp it down, while when the aroma isn’t there you can sense that it’s something wrong with your coffee.

Good vs. bad coffee flavours

Here are some good coffee flavours:

• Intense aroma
• Citrus hints
• Chocolate hints
• Vanilla hints 

Here are some unpleasant ones:

• Dry
• Mehhh
• Cartboard-like
• Musty 

As you might have guessed the fresh the coffee beans are the more delicious your coffee is going to be. It’s wise to keep an open bag with coffee beans for no longer than 3 weeks as we already said bacteria formation starts developing across the coffee beans and the taste and aroma starts waning. 

Can stale coffee cause health issues?  

The short answer is: not really.

Although it tastes horrible, it can very rarely cause health issues and if it does, the issues will be minor like stomach ache. So it’s safe to drink it. 

But let’s get real here. Who wants to drink coffee with no aroma that tastes just BAD? Especially, if you’re a real coffee lover you can’t even stand the idea of doing this to you.

The truth is all of us want to enjoy this sacred drink, any time of the day we have it. 

4 tips on how to avoid stale coffee 

Let’s go over a bunch of simple yet effective tips that will help you avoid stale coffee: 

• Go for coffee beans instead of preground coffee: I know what you’re thinking ‘This means more work and mess in your kitchen’. That’s right my friend, doing the grinding yourself is a hassle since it takes time and you might make a little mess in your kitchen, especially at the beginning. But grinding your own coffee beans makes your coffee fresher. All you need to do is find a good grinder which is a small investment; you’ll be able to find a good one for around $10.

• Use your preground coffee as fast as possible: I get it, not everyone has the time to do the grinding themselves. What you can do instead is, buy preground coffee but use it within 7-10 days. The moment you open the pack (the countdown starts) it starts losing its flavour and aromas. So, if you use preground coffee that has been staying in an open pack for longer than 10 days (you guessed it) your coffee will taste stale. It’s wise to think of how much coffee you drink per day and buy a pack that covers your coffee needs for the next 10 days. Say for example you drink 2 cups a day and for each cup, you use 11 grams (2tbsp)for each. This means that you need 22 grams of coffee every day and 220 grams for 10 days – opt for a 220-gram pack – you get the point.

• Check the roast date: this is often overlooked by many, A good rule of thumb is to buy a pack of coffee the roast date isn’t longer than one month. If it’s longer than a month, the coffee has already started turning into stale. 

• Store your coffee beans the right way: this is another key factor that will stop your coffee beans from turning into stale. Once you open the pack put your coffee beans/grounds in a container and seal it properly. Avoid keeping the container in a spot in your house with humidity or exposure to sunlight. 

How long does coffee last? 

Let’s go over different types of coffee and see how long they last.

How long do whole coffee beans last? 

An unopened bag of coffee beans can last up to 6 months (if you store it the right way and you keep it away from sunlight), but once you open it the flavours and aromas will gradually go away. After 20-25 days your coffee beans will start turning stale, so as mentioned above there’s no point in buying huge coffee bean bags if you don’t drink much coffee – go for smaller ones to brew delicious coffee every single day. 

How long preground coffee last? 

It lasts less time than whole coffee beans and in fact, after 10 days it starts turning stale when you open the pack. To keep your unopened pack fresh longer, you can keep it in the fridge which is a method used by many coffee lovers. 

How long brewed coffee last? 

Experts say that an espresso starts losing its aroma 4 seconds after you brew it and after 12 hours the coffee starts turning stale. It’s wise to have your coffee right after you are done with the brewing. This way you’ll drink delicious coffee full of flavours and aromas. 

Let’s wrap it up 

Let’s ask this question one more time: what does stale coffee taste like? Obviously, stale coffee is something you want to avoid at any cost. Instead, use the best practices you’ve learned in this guide and brew delicious coffee for you and your family. 

FAQ

Do you have a burning question? Keep reading I go through some of the most common ones. 

What does stale coffee taste like? 

The short answer is: horrible.

It doesn’t really taste right, you can tell that it has an unusual taste and drinking this kind of coffee isn’t pleasant at all. 

What does stale coffee smell like? 

The short answer is: nothing

Freshly made coffee has an intense aroma and it really makes you want to have a sip whereas all the aroma is gone in a stale coffee and it’s rather just not good. 

Are there other ways to tell whether your coffee is stale? 

A simple way to check whether your coffee is fresh or not is to see the crema layer on top. If it has crema and it’s formed evenly on top, the odds are your coffee is fresh. If the crema layer looks uneven and not completely formed on top this typically means that your coffee has been sitting there for so long.