How to Store Coffee Beans?
One of the most common questions I get is how to store coffee beans once opened, what's the best place to store them, can I store coffee in the fridge or the freezer, and so on. Coffee bean storage does actually make up a fairly hefty chunk of the advice emails and comments I get.
In case you were wondering if this is a daft question, it really isn't. You're definitely asking a good question here. How to store coffee beans is actually the latest video in my simplifying espresso making series on YouTube because it's so important! Although I do get a lot of emails asking me where to store coffee, I get even more emails from people describing an issue that they don't realize is happening because of where they're storing their coffee beans!
In this post, I'm going to answer the question of how to store coffee beans in a positive sense. I'll tell you the best places to store your coffee beans and the places you shouldn't store them. This includes one HUGE no-no: the no.1 most popular coffee bean storage solution.
Wait, one of the WORST places you can possibly store your coffee beans, is also the no.1 most popular coffee bean storage solution? Yeah!
Just a little spoiler - I'm not talking about the bag the coffee came in, I'm not talking about the fridge and I'm not talking about the freezer. With that said, let's get to it:
Why is Properly Storing Coffee Beans Important?
It Depends on What Coffee You’re Drinking
Let's be completely honest here. If you're buying mainstream, commodity coffee beans, from the supermarket, with a loooong sell by date, and without a roasted on date, storing your beans isn't actually all that important.
This kind of coffee isn't usually freshly roasted (you'll usually know if it is, as it'll have a roasted on date), and it doesn't generally have any subtleties or vibrancy that you'll want to lock in for as long as possible so that every cup of coffee you get from it captures how special this coffee is.
This kind of coffee is relatively "meh." It's much of a muchness, and I'd challenge anyone who doesn't have an amazingly well-trained palate to detect in a blind taste test the difference between this coffee freshly opened and this same coffee from an opened, unsealed pack a few days later.
When Storage Starts to Matter
But if you're drinking SPECIAL coffee, you'll want every cup to taste special, right down to the last handful of beans.
What is Speciality Coffee, Anyway?
Special coffee is speciality coffee. If you've not been bitten by the speciality coffee bug yet, then you might not be entirely sure what I'm harping on about, and if so, then you may have heard this term "speciality coffee" floating around, and you may think it's just a fancy pants name for pricier coffee beans, but it's not, it's the name used for a buzz that began in the 1970s (no, not that kind of buzz!) for very special coffee beans, which slowly took hold of the world, and is just now starting to break out into the mainstream.
Preserving Flavour: Why Storage Matters
If you're drinking this kind of coffee, then there are flavour notes that you'll want to keep intact until you've finished the bag. Of course, as soon as coffee is roasted, the staling process begins, and your special coffee beans will begin to lose their je ne Sais quoi (and yes, I did have to Google how to spell that!).
Bad Storage Can Affect Espresso Consistency
This is why where you store your coffee beans is essential. However, dialing-in issues can be prevalent, particularly with espresso, and this can be down to where you're storing your coffee beans.
If you've been plagued by shot inconsistency for reasons beyond your understanding, and you've done everything you've been able to find on Reddit threads and youtube videos, you're weighing stuff, you're stirring your coffee with sharp pointy stuff (WDT tools), you're doing distribution, in fact just making a sodding coffee sounds like a cottage industry round at your place ;-), and inconsistencies still vex you, it could literally be as simple as where you're storing your beans!
In fact, I won't keep you in suspenders any longer on this point, let's start out with the aforementioned No. 1 most popular storage solution for coffee beans, which is also one of the worst:
Don’t Store Your Beans in Your Hopper
Why Hoppers Aren’t Designed for Storage
As you'll learn if you keep reading this post, your storage location must protect the beans from a number of things, and guess what? The bean hopper protects them from zero!
Bean hoppers on coffee grinders make sense in a commercial setting, and as coffee grinders for the home are based on commercial grinders (some of them are commercial grinders). Cafes will go through full hoppers of coffee in relatively short timeframes; in fact, in some coffee shops, the beans will only ever be in the hopper for an hour or so before they need refilling.
It’s a Dispenser, Not a Storage Container
Just note what the name means: "bean hopper." It basically means a coffee bean dispenser. They're not made for long-term storage.
So when you get a bag of coffee beans, you open it and fill your hopper with it, which'll remain for several days, or longer. You're using the hopper - the short-term coffee bean dispenser - as a longer-term storage solution for which they're rubbish.
Oxygen Is the Enemy
I'll get into these a bit later in this post, but the number one function of a coffee bean storage solution is to keep out air. The key cause of staling is oxidation, so by keeping our coffee beans in airtight storage, we help slow down oxidation, and therefore, to a certain degree at least, we help slow down the staling process.
But My Hopper Has a Lid…
A common thing I've heard about some hoppers, particularly the hoppers on the Sage grinders and the Sage integrated grinder coffee machines, is that they're airtight because the lid has a hopper. So many people think this, and to be honest, I do seem to recall that just a handful of years ago when I was first making my tentative steps into speciality coffee & the home barista hobby, I think I thought this too until something dawned on me: Ground coffee is quite a bit bigger than air ;-).
The Flawed Airtight Assumption
There may well be a gasket on the lid, which will keep air out from the top, but as far as oxygen is concerned, there's a massive gap between the burrs (massive when compared to oxygen) and an even bigger gap known as the grinds chute ;-).
This would be a good place to go over the tick list of features that good coffee storage solutions offer:
1. It must be Airtight
As we've just covered, preventing or slowing down oxidation as much as possible is key when it comes to where to store coffee beans.
2. Expel The Air
Airtight jars or tubs are better than nothing, but the less oxygen trapped in with your beans when sealed, the better, so if your coffee beans storage solution has a way to push out the air, mega.
3. No Bright Lights
It's essential that you don't let your coffee beans get a sun tan, or they'll end up being darker roasted than when you bought them. OK, I'm joking ;-), but both natural and artificial light can be bad for coffee beans simply due to a chemical process called photodegradation. This is a process in which the more light-sensitive polymer chains begin to degrade or something, I'm no scientist ;-), in caveman speak "light bad".
4. No Wet Stuff
Moisture is a big no for storing coffee beans, so it's important to keep moisture out of your coffee beans, while they're in storage, and it's not just about keeping moisture out, either, but also keeping the moisture stable rather than storing your beans where the humidity will continually change.
It's fine to spritz coffee beans with water before you grind to reduce static, by the way, a technique known in the home barista community as "RDT" or the Ross Droplet Technique (named after David Ross, who appears to have invented the method). However, you'd do that when single-dosing, just before you add the beans to the grinder. You certainly wouldn't want to spray water into your coffee beans.
5. No Hot Stuff
Heat is another problem for coffee beans, not just heat as such but also fluctuations in temperature. So, a coffee bean storage container that does a good job of keeping the beans at a relatively stable temperature is a great thing. However, you'll probably find that with any storage solution, putting the container itself in a cupboard away from any wild temperature swings provides the best results.
From this tick list, it's clear why hoppers are one of the worst places for longer-term coffee bean storage.
Hoppers don't protect coffee beans from oxygen, heat, light, or humidity. This is why, I believe, many people have dialing-in issues that they can't seem to fix regardless of what they try.
They empty the full bag of beans into their hopper or fill it as full as they can, and from this point on, they may as well have a pile of coffee beans sitting on the kitchen work surface. The beans will be affected by constant temperature, humidity, light, and heat fluctuations in that room, as they don't have any protection from these elements.
Just to get an idea of what I'm talking about, get yourself a really cheap, really small room thermometer with humidity reading. I know devices of this type won't be 100% accurate, but they'll still give you an idea of what's going on. If you stick this in your hopper and look at it at different times of the day, you may be surprised at the difference in temperature and humidity within the space of a couple of hours.
You'd also be surprised at what a difference this can make when you're dialing in.
I need to do more research into this, but from the relatively crude testing that I've done to try to figure out why I need to dial in again when I walk up to a grinder an hour or two later, I can't find anything else but the beans being exposed to the changing environment being the main culprit.
Some people believe it's the changes that the room conditions are making to the burrs, but that doesn't make sense to me, it seems much more likely that it's the beans that are being affected by the fluctuations in room temperature and humidity due to having no protection.
I initially thought that some of the fluctuations reported using integrated grinder machines could be due to the fact that the hoppers are integrated, meaning that the beans are in a container connected to a machine that will fluctuate in temperature and possibly humidity, but the testing I've recently done appears to rule this out.
I tested putting the thermometer and humidity tester inside the hopper of a Sage Oracle at different points throughout the day and noting the changes in temperature and humidity in the hopper. I then did the same but just with the ambient room conditions, not in the hopper, and what I found is that the conditions in the hopper were no different from the room conditions.
Whether the machine was heating up or not, the temperature and humidity in the hopper were the same as those in the room, so from what I can gather, hoppers offer no protection from room conditions, regardless of whether they're integrated grinders or stand-alone.
So, the moral of the story is don't store your coffee beans in the hopper. Leave them in airtight storage in a cool, dark place, and just lob the beans into the hopper that you are about to use.
This doesn't necessarily mean you have to single dose, you certainly can do that if you prefer, but it's not necessary.
Single dosing is where you weigh the beans and grind what you're about to use. You can do this with just about all grinders, and the Sage integrated grinder machines, by buying a single doser add on which are short hoppers with bellows, used to push the last gram or so of coffee out of the burrs & the grinds chute.
If you're doing this, grab a single-doser attachment for your grinder and weigh the beans you're about to use.
Otherwise, just put fewer beans in the hopper. Instead of emptying the entire bag into the hopper, just put in the hopper a rough estimate of how much you're likely to use that morning, for example.
How/Where Should You Store Coffee Beans?
Firstly, let's just answer a couple of very commonly asked questions about how to store coffee beans in the fridge and the freezer.
Store Coffee Beans in The Fridge?
No. If you check that tick list, you'll see that the fridge is also a big fail when it comes to leaving most of these un-ticked. The light comes on every time the door is opened, air floods the fridge each time the door is opened, the moisture levels and temperature will fluctuate from removing from the fridge and returning them, and there doesn't appear to be any real benefit of keeping coffee beans at fridge temperature anyway.
Store Coffee Beans in the Freezer?
Yes, potentially, as long as:
1: You ensure the bag/container they're in is sealed before freezing.
2: The bag/container will not be punctured or become open while in the freezer.
3: Allow them to thaw before you break the seal.
4: Keep them in airtight storage after thawing and breaking the seal.
So, Where Should You Keep Your Coffee Beans?
Simply put, coffee beans will age the slowest when kept in storage containers that tick all of the boxes above, protecting them from all of the factors that speed up the aging process.
These are my preferred coffee bean storage containers:
Airscape Stainless Steel Coffee Canister
These are available in 250g & 500g capacities, and in various different colours, and they're my favourite coffee storage containers overall. They allow the majority of the air to be flushed out, and they do it in a very simple, effective way with a very simple, durable mechanism—basically, a second lid with a one-way valve that you push down until it contacts the beans.
I do realize that there are other containers that theoretically allow more of the air to be flushed out, the air between the beans, and that's great. My only issue with this is that achieving this usually requires slightly more fiddly and potentially less dependable mechanisms than simply a lid with a gasket and a one-way valve.
Coffeevac Coffee Container
Also available in 250g and 1 kg are plastic coffee containers with a one-way seal in the lid. They're often sold as vacuum storage containers, which is not quite right, as they only allow a relatively small amount of air to be pushed out. Given that the valve is in the lid, they can't create a vacuum in and of themselves.
If you put freshly roasted beans in a Coffeevac that are still gassing off, then a vacuum may be created that way, but just closing the lid is unlikely to create a vacuum. Having said that, I do like these containers for storing full of freshly roasted beans, as you can push out quite a bit of the air, and more air will leave the container as they continue to off-gas, and Coffeevacs are much more cost-effective than some of the other options.
Fellow Atmos
These are true vacuum-sealing coffee storage containers from Fellow, available in various sizes and in both glass and stainless steel. If I'm honest, I can't say I completely understand the reason behind the glass option. Glass is much more brittle than steel, of course, and clear glass won't keep out the light. They're the same price, too, so I'd definitely be buying the steel one if I was buying one of these.
They're perfect when it comes to the fact that they create a true vacuum, you just keep twisting the lid until the button on the lid is sucked in, showing a green ring which tells you the vacuum seal has been created, and then to release the vacuum you just press the button in the middle of the lid.
The only issue I can see with them is that they seem slightly hit and miss when it comes to keeping the vacuum seal. Quite a few users report that the vacuum is often lost after several hours, and this seems to be more common with the steel version than the glass. I'm not 100% sure why, but I think that in some cases, cleaning the edge of the container before sealing may help.
This could also be because in some cases, people are storing ground coffee in them, and some chaff is getting in between the side of the container and the lid. Whatever the case, though, Fellow does seem to be really responsive and helpful if anyone contacts them with a problem.
The only other thing to say is that it's a shame that the biggest one isn't just a bit bigger in capacity. It'll depend on the bean, mainly on the roast profile, but with most beans, the max capacity is going to be around 450g, and as I'll explain shortly, having 2 x 500g containers is the best way to allow you to purchase your coffee in the most cost effective way without it going stale, so it would be ideal if it would take 500g, but it's not a huge deal.
The Most Cost-Effective Way to Buy & Store Coffee Beans
Why Buying Small Bags Adds Up
Many people place orders for individual 250g bags of coffee because they think that if they buy in larger quantities, their coffee will go stale before they finish it.
This makes sense in theory, but in practice, unfortunately, it's much more expensive to buy your coffee in this way. Due to economies of scale, it's much more expensive to buy 250g bags of coffee than to buy by the kilo, and you end up paying more for delivery, too, if you're ordering online. If you're ever wondering why buying coffee by the kilo in smaller bags is so much cheaper, it's just due to the age-old economies of scale.
What We Recommend at Cworks
So when we get inquiries from Cworks customers about this, we explain that the most cost-effective way to order our coffee is to buy it by the kilo bag, and you get free delivery this way (free delivery when you spend over £10) too. So, for example, if you buy the No. 1 best-selling coffee at cworks.co.uk, which is the Chocolate Brownie blend, it'll cost roughly 80p per double espresso - in coffee beans, but by the kilo, with the same coffee, a double espresso will cost you 36p!
How to Store 1 kg of Coffee Effectively
But how do you deal with 1 kg of coffee if it will last you three or four weeks?
Use Two Containers
My solution is to have two 500g storage containers, one cheaper option, such as Coffeevac, and one more premium option, such as Airscape or Fellow Atmos.
Separate the 1 kg of beans into the two containers and put the CoffeeVac in the back of a relatively cool and dark cupboard. These kinds of containers are cheaper, but they don't push as much air out. You're going to be filling it and moving it to the other canister when it comes to using these beans, though, so it doesn't matter.
Rotate for Freshness
Use the beans in the CoffeeVac or Fellow Atmos daily so you can push the air out each time you access your coffee beans, and once you've used the beans, refill the CoffeeVac/Fellow Atmos. This way, a kilo of lovely freshly roasted coffee beans should taste great right to the last cup, even if the last cup is around 4-6 weeks from the first!
But Isn’t Coffee Meant to Be Used Quickly?
Yes, you'll usually see that specialty coffee should be used within a couple of weeks, but if you're doing everything you can to store your coffee beans in the best way to slow down the staling process, you should be able to enjoy your coffee for at least four weeks, if not slightly longer.
You can do the above with any coffee storage container; it doesn't have to be Airscape or Fellow Atmos & CoffeeVac. Ideally, the container you're using regularly should have some way to push the air out.
Don't Open The Bag...
Before we get into the FAQs, I'll just give you one really important tip for keeping your coffee beans fresh for as long as possible: Don't open the bag until you absolutely need to.
It's tempting to open your bag of coffee as soon as you have it in your hands so you can inhale that lovely (hopefully) aroma, but the issue with this is that you're letting oxygen in.
If you're going to put them straight into an Airscape or Fellow Atmos, for example, meaning you'll be pushing the air out, then that's fair enough. But if you're putting them in a container that doesn't allow you to force the air out, or if you're keeping them in the bag, I'd recommend not opening them until you're about to use them.
Most freshly roasted coffee beans come in a bag with a degassing valve. By the time you get them, most of the air that was in the bag when it was sealed has been expelled, so it makes sense to leave the pack sealed until you're about to use them for the first time.
Kev's How to Store Coffee Beans: What The FAQ
Q: Is it OK to Store Coffee Beans in The Fridge?
A: Nope. If you see the tick list above of all the features required in any coffee bean storage solution, you'll see that light (artificial or natural), moisture, and constant fluctuations in temperature and humidity are all bad for coffee beans. You'll find all of these in the fridge, along with smelly stuff that you really don't want your coffee beans tasting of.
Q: Is it OK to Store Coffee Beans in The Freezer?
A: Yeah, as long as the pack is not punctured while in there and is fully sealed when frozen. Let the beans thaw before you open the seal, and keep in mind that coffee beans that have been frozen tend to go stale faster once thawed, so you'll definitely want to keep them in airtight storage once opened.
Q: How Long Do Coffee Beans Last Once Opened?
A:It depends on what you mean by "last", really. As long as they're kept from moisture, coffee beans will last several months after opening. If you're buying "special" coffee beans, however, also known as "speciality coffee beans" then you're buying them, presumably because of how special they taste in the cup, so in this case it's not just about lasting, it's about still tasting just as special as the first cup, so for speciality coffee, you'll usually find that the suggested timeframe is up to about two weeks. As I've said, above, you can double this (or even triple it) by being smart regarding how you store your coffee beans.
Q: Is it Good to Store Coffee Beans in Glass Jars?
A: Glass jars, mason jars, etc., are fine for keeping coffee beans in, as long as they create an airtight seal, which many storage jars will. However, you must do one thing: keep the jar with your coffee in a dark, relatively cool, and temperature-stabilized place, such as a low cupboard (away from any heat sources).
Q: Is it OK to Store Coffee in The Bag it Comes in?
A: Yes, potentially. Firstly, if your coffee comes with a degassing valve, don't open the bag immediately; keep it sealed until you run out of coffee and need to open the new bag. Many people are tempted to open the bag and smell their freshly roasted coffee beans as soon as it lands on their doormat, and I can definitely understand the temptation, but freshly roasted coffee in a sealed bag with a one way valve, will have had most of the air flushed out of it via the beans degassing, so leaving it sealed until you're about to use your new bag of coffee is the best idea, unless, of course, you're going to put it straight into a vacuum sealed container.
Once you've opened the bag, though, then yes you can keep your beans in the bag, if it has a reseal strip, as long as you're careful each time you seal it, that the strip is properly engaged so that the bag is properly closed, as it's really easy to think you've re-sealed this type of bag, but come back to it the next morning and find that your lovely coffee beans have been left open all night, nooooooo!