How To Store Coffee To Preserve Its Freshness
An important part of keeping your coffee fresh and delicious is storing it properly. Stale coffee will not provide the same flavor as fresh coffee, and you should not have to choose between drinking bad coffee and throwing it away—which would leave you in the position of having to buy more coffee. So, let us talk about how to properly store coffee.
Whether you are storing ground coffee or whole bean coffee makes little difference. They are stored in much the same way. It is important to note that whole bean coffee lasts about ten times as long than ground coffee in storage. Ground coffee is good for about a month and whole bean for about ten.
With that in mind, make sure that your stored coffee, whether it is ground or whole bean, is protected from the following: air, moisture, heat, and light—in that order. Unfortunately, while some people appreciate the aesthetic of coffee beans, it is not recommended that they be stored in any ornamental containers out in the open. The light will do a lot of damage, and ornamental containers generally are not airtight, which is the most important factor in storing coffee. Ask yourself: Is being able to see your coffee beans out in the open really worth the price of bad, stale coffee?
Another point to consider: Avoid freezing or refrigerating your coffee. Any contact with moisture will, in fact, cause the coffee to deteriorate. Instead, find somewhere that is dark, dry, and cool to store your coffee. Also make sure that you put it in an airtight container. When looking for the right place to store your container, keep in mind that cupboards located near the oven are more likely to be warmer, which is a bad thing. Find a cupboard that is away from the oven, but that is also between other cupboards (so that it is the most blocked off from sunlight); this will be an ideal place to store your coffee.
In addition, keep in mind that the coffee containers that purchased coffee comes in are usually not very good for long-term storage. You are going to want to buy your own airtight canisters to make sure that the coffee is sealed properly. They are a small and worthy investment.
Lastly, keep in mind the amount of coffee that you actually drink. While some ways of storing coffee are better than others, it will still eventually go bad—and it will lose its freshness even sooner. Thus, if you buy much more coffee than you can reasonably drink within an appropriate timeframe, you are only wasting coffee—or tempting yourself to drink bad coffee in an effort to cash in on your initial investment. It is a lose-lose situation. But the solution is simple: Buy an appropriate amount of coffee, keeping freshness in consideration, among other things. And remember that whole bean lasts much longer than ground coffee. This is also true of some other coffee types, such as single-serve coffee pods. The individual coffee pods come pre-sealed, making them easier to store and longer lasting.
With this information in mind, good luck finding a system that works best for you. Enjoy your coffee.