There’s nothing better than spending a little time sitting in a coffee shop drinking lattes at your leisure. It’s also uplifting to savour a takeaway when you are on the go.
But as nice as it is to drink coffee when you are out and about, most of the beverages you consume will likely be brewed at home. If you benefit from a grinder, you will be investing in bags of coffee beans.
The flavour and aroma of those beans will begin to diminish as soon as you open the bag. You are unlikely to use an entire bag of beans in one brewing session.
So, if you wish to preserve the finest qualities of the beans, how do you store them?
Why do coffee beans degrade?
Coffee beans are organic material and so will eventually degrade regardless of how they are stored. But the process of degradation can be slowed down considerably by storing beans in the right way.
Your beans’ greatest enemies are air, moisture, heat, and light.
Clearly, they will be contacted by air and light the second you open the bag and the longer you wait before storing them, the longer they will be exposed to outside elements. For this reason, it is best to prepare your beans for storage immediately after opening any bag. In addition, it makes sense to purchase beans in small quantities, but this will likely increase your costs.
Here’s how to store coffee beans:
- Use opaque, airtight containers: Airtight to prevent your beans being exposed to oxygen and opaque to ensure the beans are not impacted by light.
- Consider investing in vacuum storage cannisters: These remove oxygen from the container to keep beans fresher for longer.
- Place beans in your chosen containers immediately after opening a bag: Make your first coffee and then store the remaining beans.
- Use small containers: Every time you open a container it will expose the beans to the elements. You would need to open a large container several times to use all the beans. So, separate your beans into small quantities.
- Place your containers in a cool, dry place: It is not a good idea to keep your beans close to your kettle or coffee machine as this will expose them to both heat and moisture – repeatedly. Avoid shelves or windowsills where containers will be exposed to direct sunlight.
- Store away from potential contaminants: It isn’t advisable to keep coffee beans in the fridge as it could contain a variety of strongly smelling foodstuffs such as onions that will impact the taste of the coffee. There’s nothing worse than tainted coffee!
- Avoid the storage of ground beans: Ground coffee loses as much as 60% of its flavour within 15 minutes of being ground. It’s far better to freshly grind beans for every drink you make.
How long will stored coffee beans last for?
Ideally, you should sore coffee beans for no longer than 6 weeks. But to assess the appropriate storage time more accurately, you will need to know when the beans were roasted. You should also factor in the type of roast and how the beans are to be stored. Lightly roasted beans tend to remain fresh for longer than dark roast beans. Coffee kept in opaque, airtight containers that have not been opened could be stored for the abovementioned 6 weeks. But when stored in an unsealed bag or container, coffee could be far from its best after just one week.
What about your hopper?
If you benefit from a coffee machine or a grinder then you will need to load beans into a hopper. But you probably wouldn’t grind the entire contents of your hopper in one go. Your beans will be degrading while they sit in that hopper. It’s best not to fully load it as beans could then sit there for some time. Try loading your hopper only with sufficient beans for that day’s brewing.
Underfilling your hopper will give you fresher beans and will also enable you to clean the hopper more regularly to remove the inevitable build-up of oils.
Can you freeze coffee beans?
You can freeze coffee, but it isn’t the best option due to the moisture present and the potential for other foods in the freezer to impact the coffee.
If you really feel that you need to store beans in the freezer, use sealed containers and use the coffee within 6 months. If you don’t happen to boast the memory of an elephant, it will be difficult to recall when your beans entered the freezer, so record the date on the containers. As with any coffee storage, freeze your beans in small batches.
When you are ready to use frozen beans, ensure that they have completely defrosted and have reached room temperature before you grind them. Cool beans can damage grinders.
What can you do with old coffee?
There may be occasions when, despite your best efforts, you find that your coffee has gone stale or is at the very least past its best.
Don’t throw away stale coffee beans!
Try cold brewing instead!
Cold brewing involves steeping beans for hours and so enables you to extract intense flavour, even from beans that might otherwise have outstayed their welcome.
Alternatively, if you enjoy baking, use the stale beans to create coffee for flavouring cakes.