Roast date
also: roasted on date
The day the beans were roasted: the freshness clock that matters far more than a best-before date.
The roast date is the day a batch of coffee was actually roasted, usually printed somewhere on the bag. It is the single most useful piece of information for judging freshness, far more meaningful than a vague best-before or expiry stamp, which often sits a year or more out.
Why it matters: roasted coffee is at its best within a window, not indefinitely. Just-roasted beans are full of CO2 and need a few days to settle before they brew evenly. Most coffee tastes best from roughly 4 to 21 days after roasting, then slowly fades over the following weeks as it stales. A bag with no roast date is a quiet warning that it may have sat for months.
In your workflow, check the roast date when you buy and let very fresh beans rest a few days, especially for espresso. Store them well to slow the decline (see how-to-store-coffee). See why-freshness-matters and reading-a-coffee-bag for the full picture.