How to Store Coffee

Airtight and Cool

Properly store your coffee will help you preserve the best flavor. It is recommended to store Ground Coffee in the refrigerator or at room temperature with airtight container.

Coffee’s worst enemy!
– Moisture, air, light, and heat will kill roasted coffee. Storing your coffee away from them will keep it fresher longer.
– The best environment to store your coffee is keep it in an airtight container, store in a cool, dry, dark place.

Freezing Coffee

Some people store their coffee in the freezer and thinking it is going to keep the coffee fresh.

Reasons why storing coffee in your freezer is a bad idea:

• Coffee is porous and coffee will 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 a freezer.
• Roasted coffee beans release oils and essences to give the coffee its distinct flavor. These oils are stronger on dark-roasted coffee and espresso. You are actually removing their flavor when you break down these oils by freezing.
• A simple idea, have you buy any coffee / coffee bean from frozen food section? If coffee tasted better and fresher from the freezer, then your local coffee shop might look more like an ice cream shop.

Storing Larger Quantities of Coffee
Normally, coffee should consume within 2 weeks from first day you open the packing. If you bought a bulk coffee in great price, but don’t plan to finish it within 2 weeks, then freezer can be an acceptable one-time shot choice.

It means that once you take it out of the freezer, it should never go back in. You will wreak havoc on your coffee if you keep changes in temperature. The reason in freezing coffee is to keep it away from moisture. Divide the amount of coffee you have into weekly portions. Wrap those portions up using seal-able freezer bags and plastic wrap. Excess air must suck out from freezer bag with a straw immediately. Remove the weekly portion when you need it, and store it in an air-tight container in a dry place like your pantry. Do not put it back into the freezer!

When to Refrigerate Coffee
Never, The fridge is one of the absolute worst places to put coffee.

Buy whole beans and keep them whole as long as you can.
For the best tasting coffee, buy your beans whole and store them in a sealed container in a dark place. Grind right before serving. 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. This holds especially true for flavored coffees!

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. Vacuum sealing is best for pre-ground coffee, which we already know is not going to taste as good as fresh-ground coffee.