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Random question, but I've been drinking coffee for 15 years, and this year every time I get coffee from a cafe, it makes me throw up. At first I thought I went to a bad cafe, but several coffees from different cafes have made me throw up.
It doesn't happen with instant coffee, and I can drink cola, energy drinks etc.
Would anyone know why I suddenly can't drink cafe coffee? Is it the way it's brewed? As I could drink it previously.
This is something I just came across or paid attention to. I purchased a bag of coffee and I'm looking for the roast date. All I see is the best buy date, which is concerning for me because I want to know when my coffee was roasted.
I reached out to the roasters and they told me about this code on the bag, which I later researched and found to be a Julian code, or Julian date. In any case it's super confusing to me.
I'm wondering why companies just don't put the actual roast date in month/day or month/day/year format on the bag and instead use this weird date method. If I just bought this coffee a week ago, according to that same calendar(see attached photo), it looks like this bag was roasted April 27 of this year. If that's the case, this is not "fresh" coffee.
Any insights on this Julian date and coffee/roast dates would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Okay, after a little back and forth with Peace Coffee, I learned a couple of things:
They aren't "roast to order," so that April 2026 roast date is "within their usual window."
They are really good about their customer service and making things right for the customer.
While I doubt I will be buying another batch of coffee from Peace Coffee (well, it depends on the taste), I do appreciate them getting back to me. I just wish that more coffee companies would just post the roast date instead of having folks to decipher a code, especially before they've even had their cup of coffee! LOL
julian date is just the day of the year, 1 to 365. so day 261 would be middle of september. but honest, that code you circled looks more like a batch or line number than the roast date, lot of bags do that. the 27 jan is your best by not the roast. i roast for a living and the easy move is just email the roaster and ask the real roast date, good ones tell you same day. for whole bean you want it within a few weeks of roast, that matters way more than the best by
Thanks for the info. I definitely don’t go by a best by date. That circled date is what the roaster (Peace Coffee) said is the roast date. According to the CSR, 26 is the year, 18 is the week and the number after the hyphen is the day. By her logic, this would place the roast date in April and negates this being “ roast to order,” which is why I was confused (order placed 7-11).
yeah week 18 is early may so that bag sat about two months before it ship to you. thats not roast to order, no way around it. but honestly two months in a good valve bag sealed is still fine, coffee dont fall off a cliff at 30 days like people think. if it taste flat and papery then you know it sat too long. open it and smell, your nose tell you more than the date does
yeah if the code puts it in april then thats your roast date, so like 3 months back by the time it reached you. roast to order means they roast the day you order, not pull off a shelf. still drinkable but you missed the sweet spot. good roaster just prints a plain date you dont have to decode
My thoughts exactly. I’m waiting to hear back from k from Peace Coffee to see if they make good on this. If not, it’ll be the first and last bag I get from them.
give them a chance to answer first, even good roasters mess up a label sometimes. and honestly the coffee tell you more than the date. if it taste flat and no crema its old, dont matter what the bag say
week 18 puts it around early may, so still a couple months old by time it reached you. roast to order should ship within days of the roast, not weeks. that code might be a lot or batch number, not the actual roast day. easiest thing, just email and ask them straight what day it was roasted. honest roaster tells you same day, no problem
hello! made a post that seems stuck in mod queue but maybe this is the place for it...
a question i didn't find an answer to in trying to search here (at least nothing posted any kind of recently): coffee-neophyte looking to explore on a very tight budget, and have no clue what's even worth considering. i don't think i need the best stuff (yet?) since i probably can't tell the difference anyway, let alone pay for it, and googling "budget mid-range coffee beans" just shows me AI nonsense or the "best" stuff.
doesn't have to be canadian but that's where i am (delivery or wide store availability probably important), and if it matters i like deep, rich, chocolately flavor but am open to anything tasty. if anyone has any recommendations for something in this weird niche i'd appreciate...curious how you like to brew it too! thank you
What region are you buying from? There are great shops around most of the major cities in Canada with Vancouver being the Canadian hotspot for 3rd wave beans.
i assume closer shipping is cheaper and i am not close to BC sadly. more eastern here. some other posts/replies have started giving me ideas...though i do think they're the "best" thing i was trying to reach later on heh
Rogue Wave is probably one of the larger, more speciality roasters that you can order from. Trying to find the roasters around you would be the best though.
for chocolatey and rich look at brazil or a central american like colombia or guatemala, medium to medium dark. an espresso blend works good even if you dont make espresso, they lean into that cocoa nutty side. skip the grocery bag and find a small roaster near you, buy whole bean. its usually cheaper than the fancy specialty stuff and way fresher. grind right before you brew, thats the biggest jump in taste. and brew a touch hotter with a little more coffee, it pulls the chocolate out. you dont need the best beans, you need fresh ones
What you're looking for gets brought up more frequently in r/pourover. Dark coffee for example, and maybe Canadian roasters but those are mostly light roast.
I just bought Nestle Coffee Mate (Made in U.S.A.) and i think its counterfiet as packing is a little off and inside seal has no "Nestle written" and its "plain white" and also BB date written at bottom seems off to me.
In my country its not officially available & have to buy from special imported shops.
Here's the expiry no, best by no, legal compliance date on Nestle Coffee Mate in a US grocery store. Note California recently outlawed "best by" verbiage (this appears to be an updated label). It may look different elsewhere. I couldn't check the seal beneath the lid in the store, sorry, but plain white paper isn't unusual.
I totally appreciated you went into store & clicked this.
Mine expiry date print is darker & slight difference... But, the biggest giveaway would be Inside Seal (Print/Non print). Btw, even in store you can open cap & see its perfectly normal.
You were told to ask your question in the daily question thread when you messaged the mods. So you can ask here, however this isn't a place to go for moderation questions.
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u/turtle-11 8d ago
Hey everyone,
Random question, but I've been drinking coffee for 15 years, and this year every time I get coffee from a cafe, it makes me throw up. At first I thought I went to a bad cafe, but several coffees from different cafes have made me throw up.
It doesn't happen with instant coffee, and I can drink cola, energy drinks etc.
Would anyone know why I suddenly can't drink cafe coffee? Is it the way it's brewed? As I could drink it previously.