There is nothing worse than handing over your hard earned cash for some magical beans and then when you finally have a moment to tuck into them, you discover stale beans. Stale beans are a tragic waste and right up there with some seriously heart-breaking moments. So, if you’ve just bought your favourite coffee beans and find yourself thinking:”how best can I store them and preserve the flavour.” You’re in luck, this is exactly what we will be dealing with today.
It’s easy for us to forget that the best cup of coffee starts from a long agricultural process to come up with quality coffee beans and must be stored properly to preserve their flavour and freshness.
Coffee becomes stale, flavourless and bitter if stored poorly.
Yes! Coffee can become stale if stored badly.
And stale, flavourless and bitter is not how we like our coffee.
Coffee must be kept in a clean, cool, dry, dark, airtight container and place. Here are some tips on how to store your coffee beans :
1. Dark Place
Always keep your coffee in a dark place (e.g., cupboard or drawer). Light tends to have
a negative impact on coffee beans especially direct sunlight. X-ray’s and UV rays da
mage the coffee beans and makes them stale. It is extremely important to store them in a dark area. We are entirely unsure why people are x-raying beans but, science?
2. Airtight
Oxygen affects almost everything living thing around. In terms of the beans it activates decay. Coffee beans contain enzymes that catalyse when they interact with oxygen, causing rapid strings of chemical reactions that destroy flavours and create strange
aromas. The coffee aromatic properties as well tend to evaporite. Always keep your coffee in an airtight bag or canister or container in order to preserve the freshness.
3. Cool
Heat is one of the major enemies of coffee freshness and flavour. Roasted coffee beans should be kept away from heat until they are ground and ready to be brewed. Do not keep your coffee beans next to an environment that heats up from time to time like for example, next to a stove or oven or on the window seal. Please note, cool, is not the fridge or freezer…so onto the next condition
4. Dry
This is where there is a lot of misconception. Keeping coffee beans in a fridge or freezer in order to store them is a BIG No NO!!! Moisture is an enemy of coffee beans. It makes beans go stale very quickly. As well as drastic changes in temperature and humidity as well affect the beans, which is why they must be kept in a cool dry airtight container in a cool dry airtight place.
5. Portion Grinder over Batch grinder
The Invention of the portion grinder was an answered prayer in the coffee industry, as it grinds freshly per demand. The batch grinder on the other hand, tends to make beans stale if not used properly. Ground coffee has a lot of surface area hence al
l the enemies of coffee infiltrate immediately and damage the coffee. Because you pre- grinding in batches, The cells will break down and along with their flavour dying out, the aromatic oils will evaporate faster, leaving the coffee beans stale, flavourless and bitter.
If you have a batch grinder, an idea is to only grinder per shot or per coffee you want to make at that time. This will help you preserve your coffee beans. Long story short, you want to grind as close as possible to the time when you are going to be brewing. Pre-ground coffee should be used up as quickly as possible, because despite all the wonderful atmosphere preservation in packing techniques, the truth simply is that the moment the seal is broken your grounds will begin to deteriorate.
6. Quantity
This is by far the easiest and mount effective tip one can use to always ensure have nice fresh flavourful cup of coffe
e. Try to buy your coffee in small quantities. If it’s for personal use, you know exactly the mount of coffee you consume and how long it takes you to finish a kg bag. If you a coffee shop the same applies, you know more or less your coffee consumption hence always make sure you buy your coffee in small quantities.
When filling the grinder, do not fill it up to the top unless you are sure you are going to finish those beans on that day like in high volume coffee shops that can go through quite a number of kgs in a day.
The secret with beans in the grinder is always fill in the amount which you going to use for that day in order to store the rest in a clean, dry, airtight place. For instance, if you drink 10 cups a day, then put beans in for 10 days. If you consume 100 cups a day then fill beans in the hopper for only around 100 cups.
Very simply, storing beans comes down to this: sealed environment, away from light, heat and moisture.
And lastly to make sure you drink it asap, and buy more coffee.