How important really is storing your coffee correctly?
Important! We get this question all the time and most people don't realize how perishable coffee really is. We are all used to that 3 year old can of pre-ground coffee that sat in the back of grandma's freezer and was brought out once a year, because grandma is a tea drinker. Those days are over. Coffee is a perishable food! As soon as you lock that in the better your coffee experience will be, and sorry yes, you will be ruined forever once you've had freshly harvested, freshly roasted, freshly ground just before brewing coffee. You will be able to taste the aged notes of coffee and it will be hard to ever go back.
We source incredibly fresh coffee. If you have read our Coffee with a Conscience page you will know, we are proud roaster-members of Cooperative Coffees. We are a 22-roaster-member strong green bean buying cooperative. Built on the model that freshly grown coffee roasts best and coffee plants that are organically and well cared for, roast the best tasting cup. We have had relationships with our coffee farmers for at minimum 10 years and some as long as the Coop has been around for 25 years! We know our farmers by name, and now their kids too. We commit to buying our green coffee a year in advance so that our farmers have reliable income and also know that their yield is pre-bought.
We roast coffee that was harvested within the last growing year. A crop year is always the year prior, to allow for growing time, harvest time, drying time, milling, drying again, and then transport. We freshly roast those green beans daily and ship them the same day, and no more than the next day to you. Coffee takes 3-5 days to oxidize and reach peak flavor, by the time our freshly roasted coffee is arriving to you, it will be at peak flavor, and you want to lock that in for as long as possible. Which really is only 2-3 weeks max! Really!! You should not be sitting on coffee for longer than 1 month. You should find a roaster you love (Hi! :) ) and freshly order as often as it takes you to go through your volume in 2-3 weeks.
When it comes to storage, oxygen is the enemy with coffee. Storing your coffee in an airtight container with a tight fitting lid, away from direct heat and light (NOT in the freezer) is king. A Ball jar with a lid or we love Airscapes with their CO2 locking lids. They keep coffee freshy fresh! Ideally you are storing the beans whole and grinding on a regularly cleaned burr grinder just before brewing. Ground coffee loses freshness within minutes of grinding. We know, tedious, but if you take your coffee game seriously, this is the way.
Please do not store coffee in the freezer. The temperature of the freezer destroys the oil molecules of the coffee beans, which is where the flavor lives. The freezer deteriorates the quality of the beans, as well as altering grinding and extraction when brewing leading to clumping when grinding, and muted or non-existent flavor when brewed. Over 1,000 flavor molecules live in the beans and we want to taste all of those.
If you must store roasted coffee long term, beyond 1 month, an airtight container is a must, away from direct heat and light, and minimize opening the coffee regularly. It can keep, but know the flavor will likely change. The coffee will oxidize. When the beans are super oily on the surface, this is a sign of age, and oxidation. Darker roasted coffees oxidize faster than light roasted coffees because the oils start to be extracted during the longer time spent in the roaster.
Signs of aged coffee are a general flatness in flavor, less nuance, oil on the outside of the beans, especially with a dark roast, changes in grindability and extraction when brewing. Once brewed you may notice notes of paper or cardboard. Even under the best storage conditions, coffee will age, again way more perishable then you ever possibly realized. Freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee is the way to a perfect tasting cup every time! Order and drink fresh.