So where’s the right place to keep ground coffee for maximum freshness?
Some folks and some container labels say in the freezer.
Some folks and some container labels say in the refrigerator.
Some folks and some container labels say at room temperature (assuming, I daresay, that’s not swelteringly hot).
Dunno if this has been hashed out before, and running a search didn’t indicate it.
Enquiring minds with coffee at hand want to know!
I’ve read all the advice too, and I freeze my big can of coffee, and use it to fill a small can I keep in the fridge. In the big can I drop the cut-off lid inside to keep most of the air away from the grounds.
I used to work for a company that wholesaled Starbucks to groceries. They kept their stock in a cool dark warehouse. But they kept everything else there too, so that proves nothing.
They did say that canned coffee can lose aroma in 4 months, despite the stamped sell-by date of a year.
Light and air are probably the two main things that negatively affect coffee beans. IMHO if you buy preground coffee it really doesn’t matter much. If you have one of those vacuum machines then keep your beans under a vacuum in a dark cool place. A fridge is OK, but room temp. is fine too. Coffee beans are oily, so they shouldn’t be frozen as it affects he quality of the oil, tends to make it separate and congeal. It’s also best to buy beans frequently, say a week’s supply at a time. I do not do this because it’s just to inconvenient.
That’s my take on it.
It depends on how long the coffee will be in storage. You can, in my experience, freeze a batch of coffee without horrible loss of flavor, but you have to a) seal it up good and tight, and b) not refreeze it once you’ve started using it. This works best with whole beans but will work with grounds, just not quite as well. In my experience, flavor goes off after four to six months of being frozen even under the best conditions. I’d only recommend this if you only keep coffee around for guests or very occasional use.
What you don’t want is lots of fluctuations in temperature, which leads to condensation, which leaches the good oils and flavors out. So if you must keep your coffee in the fridge, keep it out of the fridge (while you’re getting some to use) as little as possible. I can’t tell that keeping it in the fridge does much one way or the other so long as you’re not letting it warm up each time.
More important than temperature is air and how well your storage container keeps it out. Best of all is a vacuum container. Next best is something with an airtight seal that’s not any bigger than it needs to be (so there’s as little extra air in there as possible). You can keep a week or two’s worth of whole beans in an airtight canister on the countertop without noticeable loss of flavor – noticeable to me, anyway. If it’s preground, I start to notice enough flavor change to bug me after four or five days no matter where it’s kept.
Really, it’s not hard to get one spare batch of coffee, divvy it up into a few separate containers, and test for yourself. Everyone’s taste for coffee is a little different and storage methods that result in coffee I don’t care for might taste fine to you, and vice versa.
Here’s an expert coffee-snob cite. He’s definitely anti-refrigerator. A.R. Cane, this guy says:
But Wikipedia sez:
I have a feeling that coffee flavor chemistry isn’t as well-understood as one might wish.
What are people defining as a week’s worth of beans? I only make coffee at home on weekends so a pound of beans lasts me a month or more. The air tight canister (such as you see sold in sets for coffee/tea/sugar/flour) seems to keep the beans fresh enough on the counter top.
In a sealable bag, moisture-proof, at room temperature. Having said this, I have to note that you may or may not notice the difference. If you get good, fresh-roasted coffee you may notice the difference between coffee that was roasted that day, coffee that was roasted 3 days ago, coffee that was roasted 10 days ago, and coffee that was roasted a month ago. But, you may not.
I’ve been served coffee and made coffee that made me completely re-think my ideas of good coffee! So what makes good sense to me may make no difference to you, or may ruin the flavor you’ve become used to.
I like very light roast coffee with lots of body and a fair amount of acidity. It can taste very “bitter” (actually sour) to some people, but I find it stimulating and much more satisfying.
I make it in a press pot, using water at about 205 F, and roughly 35 grams of coffee for every 16 oz. of water. That’s not a standard recipe by any means!
I used to be a regular participant in the newsgroup alt.coffee. Opinions there varied widely and these are people who are pretty interested in coffee. The most often heard opinion was to keep the beans in an air-tight container in the freezer, but let them come to room temperature before grinding. This, of course, leads to other advice, like never buy ground coffee, buy only raw Kona whole beans and roast them yourself; grind it right before you use it, and use a burr grinder; etc., etc.
Every coffee drinker out there has an opinion, and one of the posters on that group wrote an essay called “What I’ve Learned About Coffee Here” and it had a very humorous list of conflicting opinions.
What really matters is can you tell the difference. Start from the most convenient method, and if taking it an extra step doesn’t matter to your palate, then don’t.
