A disturbing thought indeed, but an important question to ask: Does coffee have mold?
The answer is there is a low chance your coffee has mold, but there are multiple stages throughout the farm-to-cup process that can make your coffee susceptible to mold and other contaminants.
Here are three factors that can increase the chance that your coffee has mold.
#1 Factor How Coffee Can Mold: Low Farm Quality Control
Mold on coffee can be present as early as on the coffee plant when it’s still growing.
When the coffee plant is not well taken care of, and is not attended to by the farmer.
This issue is amplified when massive, commercial coffee fields have so many plants, that not all of them can be attended to.
This is why buying hand-picked and hand-sorted specialty coffee is extremely important. Farmers and sorters can accurately discern between a ripe, healthy coffee cherry and a poor coffee cherry.
Every farm’s coffee is graded by official coffee graders who look for a number of defects per 350g of coffee beans.
With specialty coffee, you can be certain that there are at most a few, if not, no defects with the picked coffee beans. That is why Happily Coffee Roasters chooses to only buy specialty coffee.
As a result of a stricter grading process & being hand-picked from the plant, specialty coffee tends to have fewer defects such as mold.
#2 Factor How Coffee Can Mold: Poor Roaster Quality Control
The company who roasts your coffee can either be a line of defense against mold, or a mold instigator.
Most large, commercial coffee roasting companies roast in large batches, making hard to analyze the individual quality of each bean. This opens the door to potential coffee beans with mold or roasting defects.
As a consumer who is looking for coffee with no mold, it’s important to prioritize smaller coffee roasters who roast in small batches that can quality control each bean, like Happily Coffee Roasters.
While traces of mold on coffee beans may be difficult to spot on each bean, the taste is not. Many coffee roasters “cup” their coffee to analyze its taste, flavor profile, and overall quality.
Many coffee roasters are trained on detecting roast defects and even mold with their coffee. If your roaster is performing routine cupping inspections, then you may be in a better situation to avoid coffee with mold.
#3 Factor How Coffee Can Mold: Improper Coffee Storage
The storage of coffee beans can contribute to mold on coffee.
Mold, in general, thrives in warm and humid environments. If unroasted or roasted coffee beans are stored in such environments, then the risk of mold development becomes exponential.
Commercialized coffee has an increased risk of mold due to the large volume and scale they produce. With more coffee comes more storage, and even when that coffee is moved to grocery stores and retail locations, it is exposed to numerous types of environments.
Adding to the problem, when the coffee sits on a shelf for too long, it can slowly develop mold in these environments over time.
The sooner that you can buy coffee from when it was roasted, the better in terms of reducing the risk your coffee has mold.
At Happily Coffee Roasters, we roast your coffee when you place your order, and ship it out the next day so it doesn't have a chance to oxidize or go stale.
Bonus Tip: How to Reduce Mold in Coffee
Believe it or not, you can be the reason why it has mold!
It’s incredibly important that you descale your coffee machine on a regular basis to avoid the build up of mold.
After all, your coffee maker is a warm & humid environment, which can help mold thrive in it.
Final Thoughts About Mold in Coffee
Is there mold in your coffee? From poor quality control on farms & at the roaster, to improper storage of coffee beans, there are many factors that can certainly lead to mold being in coffee, however, the risk is still relatively low.
As a consumer, it’s important to be aware of these different factors and to make decisions that lower this risk.
At Happily Coffee Roasters, we take all these factors into consideration and be sure to minimize the chances of any impurities in your coffee, to produce the smoothest & cleanest cup of coffee you can buy.
Recommendation: Happily Ever After Blend | USDA Organic
If you are concerned that your coffee may have mold, have you also thought about some of the other impurities in your coffee?
Read our article about the implications of drinking organic coffee here.
Let us know what you think! Leave a comment about whether you’ve thought about mold in coffee. Are you worried about it?