5 May 2008 by Shifrah Combiths
Keeping Your Coffee Fresh
Some commonly held “knowledge” about how to store coffee actually violates the main principles of proper coffee storage. The main things to keep in mind when considering coffee storage are to keep coffee out of too much contact with air, moisture, heat, and light. Doing this will ensure that your coffee maintains its just-out-of-the-roaster flavor for as long as possible.
First thing first – purchase your coffee as whole beans and grind them yourself as you need to for consumption. The more surface area, like that which occurs exponentially when beans are ground, the more exposure to the elements that damage the freshness of your coffee.
Refrigerating or freezing coffee, as people traditionally do, causes the coffee to come into too much contact with moisture, which causes the coffee to deteriorate. Putting the coffee in the refrigerator or freezer is inadvisable because of the nature of coffee itself. For one thing, coffee is porous. This is great when the coffee absorbs its own oils and flavors back into itself, but much less than desirable when other flavors and essences, in combination with moisture, come into contact with coffee, lodge within your beans or grounds, and begin to break them down and alter their flavor. Frozen shrimp-hazed stale coffee is anything but enticing. In addition, the oils that give coffee much of its flavor are broken down when they’re frozen.
Keeping the coffee in the packages you purchased them in is also a big no-no, as these almost always allow too much air to come into contact with your coffee. A glass airtight container kept in a cool, dry, and dark place is the best home for your coffee as it’s waiting to be brewed, served, and enjoyed to its fullest capacity.
The amount of coffee you buy also directly impacts the way you store it. If at all possible, it’s best to buy coffee in small proportions so the freshly roasted flavor remains strong naturally as long as possible. It begins to lose its freshly roasted characteristic almost as soon as it’s done being roasted, so a good rule of thumb is to purchase coffee in amounts that you’d consume in about a one- to two-week period. Also keep this in mind: each time you open your daily coffee container, you’re allowing new air to come into contact with what remains in the container. Hence, it’s not a bad idea to divide even your daily coffee into a few small containers, keeping the larger unused portion in its own airtight container. This way you ensure the least amount of contamination of coffee’s fresh and pure delicousness.
There is an exception to the freezer rule. While you shouldn’t keep your daily coffee in the freezer, if you’ve purchased a large quantity of coffee that you won’t immediately use, you may divide it into smaller portions and keep them in airtight containers in the freezer for up to a month. Don’t, however, re-freeze any of these portions once they’re thawed out. The repeated process of moisture being absorbed into the beans will destroy their freshness. Once coffee makes its transition to your on-call daily beans, treat it as the above paragraph outlines. There’s no instance in which coffee should be refrigerated.
To enjoy the finest coffee you can, even in your own home, you must honor its easily alterable subtleties. Treat coffee right and it will reward you with itself.