Freshness and the peak window

This works on iPhone, Android and the web. The Switch bag sheet and its groups are on iPhone and Android. On the web, the same groups are on Beans in the shelf view.

A bag’s age

A bag’s age is the days since its roast date, less any days it spent in the freezer.

The peak window

Each coffee has a peak window in days: the stretch when it tastes best. A coffee added from the catalog brings the roaster’s window where the catalog has one. On the web you can type it when you add a coffee, as Rest min (days) and Rest max (days). Without one, the window is 10 to 30 days.

Before the window the bag is resting, and shots tend to come out gassy. Inside it, the bag is at its peak. After it, shots tend to run flatter and faster.

The app says where the bag stands, with the day it changes:

• Resting: Peak in 4d, and the day it opens.
• In the window: 6d of peak left, and the last day. On its first and last day it says Peak opens today or Last day of peak.
• After it: 3d past peak, and the day it closed.

On iPhone and Android the Cockpit draws this as a track under the coffee: the green band is the peak window and the mark is today. On the web the Cockpit says it beside the grams left under the coffee, and a coffee’s page on Beans shows the Peak window with its dates.

The bag also has a verdict: resting, at peak, rested (past the window, up to day 45), aged (after day 45), or past best-by once the bag’s best-by date has gone by.

Past day 45 a coffee has lost most of its gas, and the same grind runs faster. If its dial category is not Aged, the reading warns you. Set the dial category to Aged on the web dashboard: open the coffee on Beans and edit it. The phones cannot change a dial category after the coffee is registered.

Freezing pauses the clock

Days in the freezer do not count toward a bag’s age. A bag frozen on day 6 is still on day 6 when you thaw it.

That holds for every freeze. Freeze a bag, thaw it and freeze it again, and the days of both freezes stay out of its age. A bag refrozen before the app kept every freeze still counts its first freeze’s days as age: only the latest freeze was recorded then, and the app does not guess the missing days.

1. Open the coffee on Beans and tap Freeze bag (on Android, Freeze coffee bag).
2. Add a Storage location and a Freeze note if you want them, and tap Freeze.

While it is frozen, the bag reads Aging paused and shows no dates, because there is no day to count toward. To use it, tap Thaw bag (on Android, Thaw coffee bag), then Thaw. A thawed bag counts as open.

Which bags can be frozen differs. On iPhone, a sealed or an open bag. On Android, only an open bag: a sealed one offers Open coffee bag instead. On the web, any bag that is not already frozen.

The groups when you switch bags

On iPhone and Android, tap Switch bag on the Cockpit. The sheet groups your bags by where each one is, freshest first within each group:

• Open: bags you have opened. The line says how long, for example open 3 days.
• Ready to open: sealed bags that have reached their peak window, or passed it.
• Resting: sealed bags still short of their window. The line says when the peak starts.
• Frozen: the line reads Aging paused and thaw before brewing.

Finished bags are not offered. The bag in use carries Active. Open and ready bags wear a ring: the green arc is the peak window and the dot is today. Both turn gray once a bag is past its peak. Tap any bag, resting or frozen too, and it becomes the bag in use at once. The Cockpit’s locked recipe and advice follow it.

On Beans, the shelf view (Shelf on the web) uses the same groups, with Finished at the end.