Coffee is a fresh food that will stale inside of approved packaging. The only way to ensure fresh roasted coffee is to purchase online from a specialty supplier who places the roast date on the pack.
Recent trends to "improve" upon the processing methods and techniques of Sumatran coffees are resulting in some mixed outcomes. OK, let me confess upfront I am a fan of quality Sumatran coffees. Sumatrans are an ugly looking green bean, they don't smell particularly nice in green or fresh roasted form and can at times have all sorts of various colours and shapes (screen size).
Direct trade coffees is used by brands to market a false or misleading sense of exclusivity of their ingredients and products. Our blog post unpacks the realities of direct trade coffees and explains why there is so much smoke and mirrors.