How to store your coffee beans

Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh ground coffee or the taste of a freshly brewed cup? To get great tasting coffee you need good quality, fresh roasted coffee beans that have been stored properly.

I start with coffee beans from a local coffee shop that roasts their own beans on the premises — The Savoury Grounds Coffee Company or Balzac’s Coffee are my favourites.

Purchase whole beans instead of ground coffee

A lot of experts will tell you that “roasted coffee beans are partially stale after 2 weeks.” That bag of ground Starbuck’s coffee at your local grocery store was roasted weeks ago. Who knows how long it has been sitting on the shelf.

I’ve read in a few of different places that ground coffee loses a lot of its flavour shortly after grinding. My coffee always tastes best if I grind the beans right before I make it.

Always store your beans in an airtight container

Don’t leave your beans in a bag or paper container. Put them in an airtight container and store it at room temperature. Never put your coffee in your refrigerator. CoffeeOutpost.com offers this advice on when to refrigerate coffee:

Never, unless you are conducting a science experiment on how long it takes to ruin perfectly good coffee. The fridge is one of the absolute worst places to put coffee.

If you’re not going to use your fresh pound of beans right away, put them in an airtight container and throw it in the freezer. They’ll stay relatively fresh for a month or two but why bother? Just go to your local coffee shop and pick up some fresh roasted beans.

Posted in Food at 11:23 AM