Buying coffee beans from grocery stores sounds like a bad idea but in fact, Whole Foods Market is a popular destination for coffee lovers. They are offering a great selection including a mix of in-house roasted beans and selections from local and national roasters.
Let’s see how fresh the coffee beans are. One of the biggest indicators of coffee bean freshness is the roast date. Their peak flavor is often within 2 to 4 weeks of roasting. At Whole Foods, the freshness of the beans can vary. Some locations roast their own beans in-house while some partner with local roasters, so you could get beans roasted within days of purchase. Unfortunately, Whole Foods’ bags don’t have roast dates printed on them, so we can’t tell exactly how fresh they are. You can also get coffee beans from the dispensers but they also don’t have roast date info; all I’m seeing is the filling date. From what I was told, the filling date is often within a few days to a week of roast date.
If you buy packages from local roasters, most of them are not really fresh as they are often roasted around a month earlier, at least at my local Whole Foods. Therefore, buying Whole Foods’ beans from bags or dispensers seems to be the better choice. They package their coffee in airtight bags equipped with one-way valves, which is a standard in the specialty coffee world. These valves allow carbon dioxide (released by the beans post-roasting) to escape without letting oxygen in, which helps preserve flavor. Once you get the beans home, Whole Foods recommends storing them in an airtight container at room temperature – not the freezer, despite what some might think.
For the casual coffee drinker, Whole Foods offers a convenient option and there is a good chance you could get beans at their peak. I enjoy their coffee beans from their dispensers and they are quite affordable as well; even the most expensive beans cost just around $18 per lbs.
