Aging Daterra pulling too well?

Tonight's espresso was from "old stock" Caffe Fresco Daterra Reserve that I had on hand, unfortunate or so I thought, since I had just run out of Counter Culture Toscano. I jumped on the Caffe Fresco bandwagon a month ago, mainly to try out the famed Ambrosia blend (suh-wheet) and got a bag of Daterra as well because I had heard good things.

Normally I would shy away from using month old beans and wait for a new delivery, but founder Tony Sciandra has this roasting technique that prolongs the lifespan of a roasted coffee bean, to quote Tony:

"My slow, gentle roast style yields a bean with most of its outer cell structure intact and incased with a sugar-brown enamel. You'll see. The beans are dark in color and dry. I feel the prime flavor window is between days 6 through 10 after roast. Some customers like it all the way out to day 14. I even have had customers tell me that an unopened bag was good out to 20 days after roast."

True enough, and I'm here to tell you that 28 days out of roast works in a pinch. Certainly the blend has lost some of its subtleties, yet when I pulled it as a ristretto I still found it to be luscious and chocolatey, with hints of dried fruit that were suprising (I couldn't peg the flavor) and a bright candy-sweet finish on the last sips.

Bravo Tony.