Beans go stale before you get to them
“From messy drawers to a digital archive” — real buyer, https://beanbook.app/
Tracking beans by roast date matters because coffee has a window. Most light roasts hit their peak roughly 7 to 21 days after the roast date printed on the bag, and aroma compounds start fading noticeably past about six weeks. If you have several bags open at once, it is easy to lose track of which one you opened first and end up brewing a bag that has quietly gone flat. The fix is to record three dates for every bag: the roast date, the date you opened it, and a rough remaining weight, so you always know what to reach for next.
Good inventory tracking also closes a second loop: remembering which beans you actually liked. Logging the roaster, origin, and process (washed, natural, honey) alongside a personal rating builds a preference profile over time. After a couple of months you stop buying the same bag out of habit and start noticing that you consistently rate naturals from one roaster higher than washed lots from another. That turns 'messy drawers' of half-finished bags into a record you can actually shop from.
Coffee Studio's Bean Inventory does this without a spreadsheet. Each bag stores roaster, origin, process, roast date, open date, remaining grams, and your rating, and the dashboard flags bags past peak or open too long so you use them before they fade. It is offline and one-time-purchase — no subscription, no cloud — so your bean history stays on your device and is there the next time you open a new bag from a roaster you have not tried.
Coffee Studio — one file, offline, yours forever.
No account, no subscription. One purchase, personalized with your name, works without internet.
Common questions
- How long do roasted coffee beans stay fresh?Most light and medium roasts are best from about 7 to 21 days after the roast date and begin losing aroma past roughly six weeks. Tracking the roast date on each bag lets you brew within that window instead of guessing.
- Why track roast date and open date separately?Roast date tells you overall freshness; open date tells you how long the bag has been exposed to air since you broke the seal. Both matter — a bag can be within its roast window but degrading fast because it has been open for two weeks.
- How do I remember which beans I preferred?Record the roaster, origin, process, and a personal rating for each bag. Over time the ratings reveal your real preferences so you reorder what you actually enjoyed rather than repeating the same purchase by default.