Storing Coffee
There are a lot of misconceptions about how roasted coffee should be stored. The enemies of roasted coffee are moisture, air, light, and heat. Storing your coffee away from them will keep it fresher longer. Therefore, containers that provide an Air Tight, Light Tight, Moisture Proof, environment for your coffee is best. Your kitchen counter is the perfect cool (not cold) place for you coffee container.
Freezing Coffee
Some people store their coffee in the freezer thinking it is going to keep the coffee fresh. Here are a couple of reasons why storing coffee in your freezer is a bad idea:
- Coffee is porous. This is a good thing for fans of flavored coffee as the beans absorb the coffee flavoring syrups and oils that are used to make flavored coffee. However, if given the chance, coffee can also absorb other things like the flavor of seafood or the moisture that your freezer produces. This moisture will in turn deteriorate the coffee and even make it taste like, well... like a freezer.
- When coffee is roasted, the beans release their oils and essences to give the coffee its distinct flavor. You'll notice these oils are more prominent on dark-roasted coffee and espresso. When you break down these oils by freezing, you are removing the flavor.
Think about it...if coffee tasted better and fresher from the freezer, then you would buy it in the frozen food section, your local coffee shop might look more like an ice cream parlor, and our power bills would be through the roof trying to maintain a meat-locker the size of a warehouse.
Never freeze your coffee.
When to Freeze Coffee
Never!!! How long does coffee stay fresh? A good rule to use is two weeks. Buy enough beans for a week or two and enjoy fresh coffee all the time.
When to Refrigerate Coffee
Never!!! Unless you are conducting a experiment on how long it takes to ruin perfectly good coffee. The fridge is one of the absolute worst places to put coffee. Again moisture is the culprit. Every time you take it out condensation forms on the beans. Remember that moisture is only good when you are brewing your coffee.
Buy whole beans and keep them whole as long as you can.
Would you cut a cake into pieces the day before you plan to serve it? Would you buy it pre-sliced? Of course not! The pieces would quickly become stale and the frosting would start to dry out. The same goes for coffee. Grinding the coffee breaks up the beans and their oils, exposes the beans to air, and makes the coffee go stale a lot faster, no matter how you store it. For the best tasting coffee, buy your beans whole and store them properly. Grind right before brewing.
Vacuum-sealed coffee
Vacuum-sealed coffee does not equal fresh coffee. When coffee is roasted, it releases carbon dioxide and continues to release it for days afterward. Fresh-roasted coffee can be packaged in valve-sealed bags to allow the gasses to escape and will taste best about 48 hours after roasting. To be vacuum sealed, the coffee has to first release all its CO2 or it will burst the bag. The vacuum bag will indeed help preserve coffee longer while it ships and maybe sits on a store shelf, but before it’s shipped it had to sit around for a while before it was "sealed for freshness." Vacuum sealing is best for pre-ground coffee, which we already know is not going to taste as good as fresh-ground coffee.
A quick review for serving the best coffee:
- Buy whole beans directly from a coffee roaster if possible.
- Look for valve-sealed bags, not vacuum-sealed.
- Store your coffee beans in an air tight, light tight, moisture proof sealed container in cool place.
- Grind your beans just before brewing.
- Enjoy!
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