The Best Way to Store Coffee: The Coffee Drip
Coffee storage is easy when you know exactly how to store it for optimal flavor. Unfortunately, many people live with the misconception that the best way to store coffee is in the refrigerator or freezer. While that is kind of true if you’re storing coffee for long periods of time (6 months or more), it’s not the best way to store coffee that is fresh and will be consumed within a couple months.
Coffee’s flavor is defeated by 3 things: Light, Oxygen, and Temperature
When coffee is roasted, it’s roasted with the knowledge that those beans will be ground, added to a coffee maker, and will have near-boiling water poured over them. That is the next – and last – time that your coffee should see a drastic temperature change if you want to enjoy the absolute optimal flavor possible. Constant exposure to light actually “fades” the beans and their flavor “fades” (for lack of a better word) with them too.
Finally, Oxygen is the biggest thing to watch out for if you want to store your coffee. Many people go to the extreme of vacum-packing the coffee with one of those devices that suck the air out while they seal it shut. That works great but if you’re like most people, you want a quick and easy way to keep your coffee fresh. We recommend that you leave the coffee in it’s original package and roll down the top while squeezing out the air. After that, tape down the top. If you’d still like further measures to ensure freshness, a ziplock freezer bag works great!
If you ask us, the best way to store coffee is in a sealed bag or container up in a cupboard that you don’t access very often – but is near your coffee maker. Only open the package to get what you need out of it and immediately seal the package when you’re finished.