Storing coffee beans properly at home - what really keeps your coffee fresh?
When it comes to storage and keeping, coffee belongs more to the category of "princess on the pea" than "prince charming". If stored incorrectly, it can quickly become bitchy and show its bad side. To ensure that this doesn't happen to you and that you can always enjoy the best coffee, we have collected a few tips and tricks on how to store coffee optimally.
Table of contents
The aroma: where does it come from, where does it go to
The Bad Boy Oxygen
During the roasting process, the addition of heat and the subsequent chemical reactions, such as the breakdown of caffeic acid, create a wide variety of aromas in your coffee bean. With longer roasting, more chocolaty-caramel aromas emerge, with shorter roasting times, fruity-fresh aromas. Freshly roasted coffee loses aroma over time, this is quite natural. Any contact with oxygen will cause the fats and oils in the coffee to oxidize, causing your coffee to lose flavor and eventually even go rancid. Therefore, try to avoid decanting your coffee beans too often.
Other natural enemies of the coffee bean: light, heat and moisture.
Besides oxygen, moisture, heat and light are not good for the quality of your coffee. To reduce these factors, you can use suitable containers to store your coffee beans. These include coffee cans made of:
- Ceramics
- Porcelain
- Glass
which are airtight and opaque. Ceramic has the least inherent odor and keeps your coffee fresh and aromatic for a long time. These tins are also suitable as a beautiful decoration on the kitchen table. In addition, always make sure that there is as little air as possible in the coffee container.
That's all too cumbersome for you? Our coffee bags are equipped with an aroma valve. This allows CO2 escaping from the beans to escape, but oxygen cannot enter. You should always close the bag as "tightly" as possible with a clamp.
The whole bean as a superhero - coffee beans instead of powder
Ground coffee has a much larger surface area to attack compared to bean coffee. As a result, it loses its aroma very quickly and also absorbs moisture from the outside more easily. Therefore, make sure to grind your beans directly in individual portions before preparation.
- Always fill your grinder or fully automatic machine only with the amount of beans you really need
- For French Press, espresso maker & Co. we recommend a hand grinder, with which you can freshly grind your coffee
- If you don't have a grinder at home, buy ground coffee in small quantities and consume it quickly as soon as you open the package.
Roasted yesterday - brewed today: coffee beans fresh from the roasting drum?
You should definitely not drink your coffee directly on the first days after roasting. The CO2 contained in the coffee bean first needs a few days to escape from the beans. That's what the one-way aroma valve on your coffee package is for. This is not for you to sniff the coffee, but through this valve the CO2 can get out of the coffee, but no oxygen can get into the package. When preparing your espresso, you will quickly notice if your coffee is too fresh: due to the high CO2 content, large bubbles form in your crema, which quickly collapse again and leave an unsightly image. Only a few days after roasting, enough CO2 has escaped from the bean and its full flavor can unfold.
Myth keep coffee in the refrigerator - the truth about "cold coffee".
Storing coffee - whether beans or powder - in the refrigerator is not a good idea. In the refrigerator, numerous foreign flavors and moisture collect, which are really attracted to your coffee. Variety of flavors in coffee yes, but please not after mountain cheese or liver spread sausage 😉. Storing in an airtight tin at room temperature is the better choice here.
And what about the freezer tank?
We would also advise against this. The freezer prevents oxidation of fats and oils in your coffee, but coffee beans and powder condense during thawing, which in turn brings moisture to your coffee.
How long will my coffee last now that it has been delivered?
We recommend that you use up your coffee in 4-8 weeks when ordering beans. Ground coffee should be used up in about 4 weeks. That way, you're guaranteed the optimal taste experience every time.
Here are our tips and tricks for storing coffee beans at a glance:
- If possible buy whole beans and grind yourself
- Only fill the grinder or coffee maker with as many beans as you need at any given time
- Optimal storage: keep away from oxygen, moisture, heat and light
- Do not buy coffee as a stock for a whole year
- Beans best consumed in 4-8 weeks, ground coffee in 4 weeks
- Do not store coffee beans in refrigerator or freezer, as they take on undesirable flavors and humidity
- consume open packs quickly - but that should probably be the least of the problems 😉