If you brew coffee at home, then you keep it at home as well. I’m going to tell you about the ways to store it properly.
To get a tasty drink, you need to get fresh coffee. That is why the way you store it is important. After roasting, coffee is getting stale quickly: its taste becomes unpronounced with notes of unpleasant rancidness. The reason is that roasted coffee tends to absorb moisture and take on foreign odors. To put it simply, the smell is fading because essential oils present in coffee beans react with oxygen and oxidize.
The shelf life of coffee depends on three factors: a storage place, packaging, and coffee bean milling. In each case, oxygen, moisture, heat, sunlight, and foreign odors affect coffee in different ways.
It is best to buy whole-bean coffee and grind the required amount each time before you’re going to make a drink. In this case, it can retain its taste for another one or two months. If you buy it from coffee shops or roasters, it is usually packaged in opaque ziplock bags, often with a degassing valve. These bags prevent coffee from interacting with oxygen and direct sunlight. Also, you can store the beans in a ceramic or dark glass jar with a sealed lid.
The freshness and taste of ground coffee are fading in no time since it is more vulnerable to the environment. Because of grinding, the entire inner part of beans has access to oxygen. However, store it in the same way as whole-bean coffee, avoiding its contact with foreign odors, water, and sunlight.
Unfortunately, after a couple of days, the taste will be significantly different from the original. You can calculate the approximate amount of ground coffee you need to make drinks throughout a week and have it ground at a nearby coffee shop. Yes, this way is a bit time-consuming, but it will allow you to enjoy delicious drinks longer.
I don’t recommend storing coffee in plastic bags because these packages are often not airtight. They don’t protect the contents well from sunlight, and over time, coffee may get a smell of plastic. Each time, check that the lids on storage containers are tightly screwed. Don’t keep coffee in the fridge, which is the worst place for storage. The temperature inside it is unstable because we open and close it periodically. As a result, condensate and excess moisture appear on the coffee. The worst thing is the smell of products that you keep inside because it passes into the beans instantly. If you are a regular brewer, keep a pack of coffee in the kitchen, possibly in a cupboard, far from spices, or in a dark corner on a shelf.
Try not to buy too much coffee for future use. It is better to purchase it more frequently but get fresh each time. If you happen to have many kilograms of coffee at home, you can store it in the freezer but under certain conditions. The packaging should be tightly sealed and not transparent.
Before placing the bag in the freezer, remove excess air through the valve to reduce the chance of condensation.
If you plan to store coffee in the freezer and sometimes take it in portions to make drinks, you need to distribute it in portions in advance. For example, make a serving that is enough for weekly brews. If you take coffee out of the freezer even for a minute, you cannot put it back. After you’ve taken the coffee out, leave it at room temperature to warm. For example, take it out of the freezer in the evening and use it for making coffee in the morning.
I hope these tips will help you enjoy high-quality and aromatic coffee more often.