Coffee Storage

What’s the Best Way to Store My Coffee Beans?

Coffee is perishable, so storing your coffee correctly is essential to ensuring you can enjoy a delicious-tasting brew.

Eighty percent of the flavour and aroma of coffee comes from the natural oils of the bean. These oils dissipate quickly when incorrectly stored and exposed to oxygen, moisture, heat and light.

Here we’ll share with you the best way to store your beans and ground coffee to ensure optimum freshness, and of course, taste!

Keep it in an opaque and airtight container

To keep your coffee fresh, store your beans or ground coffee in an opaque and airtight container that’s preferably not plastic, as plastics can also draw out much of the beans’ oils. Airtight glass or metal canisters are the most suitable storage options.

Oxidized coffee is not good-tasting coffee. Exposure to oxygen can cause the natural oils in the beans to evaporate, which leaves you with dried out, tasteless beans. That’s why you’ll find that most beans and ground coffee are sold in special one-way pressure-activated bags, which prevent the coffee (which, when fresh, releases carbon dioxide) from exploding the bag and letting in oxygen.

Coffee is highly absorbent

There are different views on whether coffee does well when stored in the freezer. Keep in mind that coffee is highly absorbent – not just of moisture, but also of surrounding odours and tastes. And while freezers are tightly sealed, they can still let in small amounts of oxygen, which as we explained above, are no good for the beans.

If you absolutely must store your coffee in the freezer, always use an airtight container, and only take out what you need. Ensure to place the coffee back in the freezer as soon as possible so that it doesn’t thaw out.

Instead of freezing your beans or ground coffee, you could try buying your coffee in smaller amounts more often so that you don’t end up wasting anything, and you’re using it while it’s at its freshest. Here at Cisco’s we sell our coffee beans online to make it easier for you to purchase only what you need, as often as you need. We also dispatch all online orders within 24 hours of roasting, so you only ever receive the freshest beans!

Coffee likes cool, dark places

Find a spot that’s cool (room temperature is best) and dark, away from direct sunlight or heat emitted from kitchen appliances. Coffee derives its flavour from the oil in the beans. If exposed to heat and light, these oils will leach out, meaning your coffee won’t taste like much at all. We also suggest storing your beans in a low cupboard, as heat rises.

The shelf life of beans correctly stored should be 3-4 weeks. Ground coffee, correctly stored, should last 2-3 weeks.

The shelf life of beans correctly stored should be 3-4 weeks. Ground coffee, correctly stored, should last 2-3 weeks.

If you’re purchasing unground beans, many coffee experts will tell you that to yield the best flavour and to maintain freshness, you should only grind them just before use.