September 16, 2026 · 4 min read
Coffee with the roast date on the bag
"Fresh" is a word. A date is a fact. Turn the bag over. If there is no roast date, that is the answer.
The roast date is the one claim on a coffee bag that you can verify. Every other word, fresh, premium, small batch, artisan, is marketing. A date is either there or it is not, and if it is there you can count the days.
Roast date versus best-by date
A best-by date tells you when the roaster would prefer you stop asking questions. It is usually set twelve months after roasting. Coffee is not unsafe at twelve months. It is just no longer coffee in any sense worth paying for.
A roast date tells you when the beans came out of the drum. From that day you can work out where the bag is in its life.
How to read it
Coffee needs a few days after roasting to release carbon dioxide. It is at its best from about day 5 to day 21. After that it drifts, slowly at first, then quickly past six weeks. The full timeline is in the freshness window.
We write the date out in full, "Roasted 24 Mar 2026", not "3/24", because a customer once read a numeric date as a year and threw a good bag away.
Why almost nobody online tells you the date
Most coffee sold online sits in a warehouse first. A roaster who prints the date is telling you how long it sat. Most would rather not. That is why "roasted fresh" appears on ten thousand product pages and the actual date appears on very few.
How we do it
We roast every Wednesday and ship the same week. Every bag is dated by hand on roast day. US orders are roasted in Charlotte, North Carolina. Canadian orders in Mississauga, Ontario. EU orders in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. UK orders in Glasgow, Scotland. Nothing crosses a border after roasting, so the date on the bag is close to the date on your doorstep.
The full spec sheet, prices and subscription terms are on the facts page. Bags are in the shop.
What to do with a bag that has no date
Use it for cold brew, where staleness hides best. Then buy the next bag from someone who will tell you when it was roasted.
Questions
How long does coffee stay fresh after roasting?
It peaks between day 5 and day 21 and is clearly past its best by six weeks. Whole bean holds longer than ground.
Is coffee roasted two months ago still good?
Safe, yes. Good, no. Most of the aroma is gone and the bitterness is what is left. That is the coffee people add cream and sugar to.
Where can I buy coffee with a roast date on the bag?
From roasters who print or write it and ship the same week they roast. Wolfmilk hand-dates every bag and roasts on Wednesdays.