Are you tired of your coffee having a stale taste? You have tried the best-brewed coffees you could get your hand on but still, somehow, the first cup always tastes much better than the latter. You have sophisticated and expensive machines with which you can brew your coffee at home for your satisfaction but still somehow have the same problem? You get the best back of coffee you find in the store, you open it unleashing the irresistible aroma of coffee and capture the site of those fine beans. But you are still ending up with that same annoying problem. Well, we might know the basic reason behind it that is that whenever you are done making your first perfect cup of fresh coffee your mother’s voice plays in the back of your head telling you to store it in the freezer after you are done. Mothers are always right, but not this time. You are storing your coffee in all the wrong ways.
The reason behind the freezer being the devil for your coffee is that coffee is highly porous. It will absorb whatever is in its surrounding and your freezer has all kinds of aromas and gases in it. It is a cool dark place, isn’t it? But you are leaving the element of keeping it away from moisture out. The freezer has a moist environment which will make your coffee taste stale and bad after you take it out. The best thing to do is store it in an airtight jar in a dark and dry place. Unless you are conducting a science experiment in which you have to determine ways to ruin completely good coffee for good, you have no reason to put it in the freezer. There is no right time for that whatsoever.
Another myth that needs to break is to grind the coffee before storing it. That is absolutely wrong. The reason behind this is that the process of grinding coffee breaks up the beans and their oils. This will thus result in the coffee going stale much faster than usual. Especially for flavored coffee, this is the worst thing you can do. It is best to store them in a cool, dry and dark place as whole beans and grind them right before serving.
Some also say that vacuum sealed packaging for coffees is the key to make them stay fresh. Again, that is a big no-no. This is because, in the roasting process, the coffee beans emit carbon dioxide. When omitted in excess these could burst the bag due to which air will start entering the bad. This will result in coffee absorbing oxygen and turn foul tasting and stale. Although vacuum sealing can be considered best for pre-ground coffee which again has the disadvantage that it will not taste as good as freshly ground coffee.
The bottom line is that the best way of storing coffee and keeping it fresh is in an airtight jar before grinding and that too in a cool, dark and dry place.
