How to Store Ground Coffee: What You MUST Know

Coffee is responsible for 75% of all caffeine consumed in the United States. About 65% of coffee drinkers get their dose during breakfast, and 55% would rather gain weight than give up their favorite cup! (1)

I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless.
Napoleon Bonaparte (2)

With sugary soda and energy drinks falling out of vogue in the young, health-conscious consumer market (3), coffee is the timeless choice for a quick caffeine boost. It’s important to know how to take care of your beloved coffee beans at home so that you can have your favorite cup fresh, hot, and ready.

How to Keep Ground Coffee Fresh – Our Top 3 Tips

1. Know the Four Factors of Storage: Moisture, Air, Heat, and Light

Coffee grounds come in all types of packaging, but it’s essential to put them in a bag with a near-perfect vacuum seal. Many brands feature one-way vented bags,designed to expel gasses from the inside. However, it’s important to note that the grounds will only last a week to ten days as far as the coffee’s original taste is concernedonce you break the seal.

To deal with moisture, heat, and light, simply put your grounds in a heavily tinted or black container that’s airtight with a vacuum suction feature. Put it in a place away from direct sunlight and the extreme cold. The ideal place for coffee grounds is somewhere cool, dark, and dry.

2. Keep Your Beans and Grounds Out of the Fridge

Storing fresh grounds in the fridge is one of those fads that isunexplainably popular but wrong. Coffee beans are porous, so they readily absorb humidity and condensation. They will also take in any lingering food smells in your fridge, which will affect their taste in the cup.

3. Is Freezing Your Coffee a Viable Option?

Freezing can be an effective way to store your coffee beans and grounds, but you have to do it right. You have to freeze them immediately after roasting in airtight containers in a cold chest-style freezer. Beans used for espresso will have a remarkable storage life of nearly four months.However, you’ll need to thaw them overnight before use, or they might damage your grinder and espresso machine.

Summary: and BEST Way To Store Ground Coffee Is…

The best way to store coffee grounds is in an airtight container, at room temperature, right on your countertop or in the pantry. We don’t recommend the refrigerator or freezer for your daily coffee storage.

If you’re planning to go beyond two weeks without using up your grounds, place them in an airtight container in the freezer, and when it’s time to use them, thaw them overnight and use them regularly from there. A trip out of the freezer is one-way. It is unadvisable to refreeze coffee beans.

FAQs

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding how to store ground coffee properly. Coffee experts, these are for you!

1. Can You Freeze Ground Coffee?

Generally, for excess coffee grounds, freezing is a great storage solution. Very cold temperatures are great at slowing down oxidation and preventing the loss of sealed-in aroma, but you have to store them at -20 degrees Celsius or below.

2. How to store fresh ground coffee?

Store your fresh ground coffee in an airtight and opaque container at room temperature to keep it tasting fresh and fabulous. Many stores sell vacuum-sealed containers for $10 – $15, and they’re a great value when it comes to preserving the shelf life of your coffee.

3. How to store ground coffee long term?

The best way to keep your coffee grounds fresh for the longest time possible is to freeze them.A study from Penn State found freezing not only kept coffee fresh, but preserved its aroma. (4) However, you need to use a truly airtight container to prevent freezer burn, and to return the rest of the coffee to the freezer quickly before condensation forms on the remaining grounds.

4. Should ground coffee be refrigerated?

In general, coffee hates to be cold or hot. If you’re planning on using your coffee grounds over the next ten days, it’s unwise to store them in the fridge, freezer, or on top of the fridge or a cabinet near the oven.

References

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/americas-coffee-obsession_n_987885?_guc_consent_skip=1590445408
https://www.bluepod.com.au/blog/historical-figures-on-coffee/15
https://fortune.com/2016/03/29/soda-sales-drop-11th-year/
https://phys.org/news/2019-01-coffee-beans-aroma.html