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Permalink Reply by Brady on October 29, 2008 at 1:49pm

Cool, dark& airless. Use asap (max life depends on the bean). I currently keep them in the original plastic bag, roll down the top, clip (like potato chips), and toss in a cabinet. This is probably not optimal though. I've considered some of those jumbo-sized ziplocks with the little vacuum pump or jar that performs the same task but not done it yet.

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 29, 2008 at 2:00pm

ya definitely something completely airtight, not sure how effective the pegging the top of the bag would be TBH!! I usually keep beans/ground coffee in the fantastic invention that is Tupperware :)

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Permalink Reply by Brady on October 29, 2008 at 6:34pm

I do like the idea of something that lets you minimize the air inside the container every time you take some out. We store our espresso in an 8qt Cambro, and that last pound looks awfully lonely in there...

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 30, 2008 at 11:59am

ya you can get those containers now, that have a little valve and you can suction the air out once its closed creating a vacuum. perfect :)
Brady said:

I do like the idea of something that lets you minimize the air inside the container every time you take some out. We store our espresso in an 8qt Cambro, and that last pound looks awfully lonely in there...

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Permalink Reply by YeeZa on October 30, 2008 at 6:29pm

Umm airtight, dark, cool.

The VacuVin stuff where you pump out the air are great at keeping the beans alive for longer, but consequently suck the CO2 outta the beans past their equilibrium point and they end up flat and lifeless. Not necessarily stale, just flat.

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Permalink Reply by Trevor on October 31, 2008 at 8:24am

As a roaster who is emphatic about only using and serving fresh roasted coffee, keeping it in a bag with a one way-valve and only buying enough to use within the first three weeks its been roasted is ideal. Also, I've found that after opening a bag a fresh roasted coffee and then storing the coffee in an airtight container, with no way for the CO2 to be released, causes the oils in the coffee to come to the surface faster and actually accelerate the staling process. My recommendation. Buy fresh roasted coffee, place in kraft bag, use within a week or by the suggested date of your roaster.

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Permalink Reply by Chris DeMarse on October 31, 2008 at 9:22am

When we train everyone at our coffee school on buying and usage habits, we always tell them a good rule to generally follow is 2-10 days for peak freshness. I might tolerate 2 week old coffee, but not likely. We always encourage all our customers to buy less quantity more often rather than stockpile. I hung out with Scott at Alterra a month ago and he says their espresso is best seven days out, which throws a loop in the freshness obsessed folks, i'm sure. But I will say that overfresh coffee can be almost as bad at times as stale coffee.

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Permalink Reply by Brady on October 31, 2008 at 10:34am

Trevor said, among other things:

Also, I've found that after opening a bag a fresh roasted coffee and then storing the coffee in an airtight container, with no way for the CO2 to be released, causes the oils in the coffee to come to the surface faster and actually accelerate the staling process.

Wow... that explains so much. I've wondered why my espresso beans occasionally kick out surface oils so much faster than any of the other coffees... that's the only one that goes into the perfectly-sealed container. Not a problem we've seen as much since we've been resting it in the original (one way valve) bag for 5-7 days before using.

Maybe I ought to drill a hole in the lid and glue one of those valves on? We toss 8-10 of them a week... so they're easy to come by.

Then, at a later time, Chris DeMarse said:

When we train everyone at our coffee school on buying and usage habits, we always tell them a good rule to generally follow is 2-10 days for peak freshness... But I will say that overfresh coffee can be almost as bad at times as stale coffee.

Yeah, explain THAT to a customer. "I'm sorry.. all we have is that coffee that was roasted yesterday. It's too fresh, you wouldn't like it." I do forget this sometimes... last week I made someone a french press of Dilworth's Papua New Guinea that had been roasted the day before. This coffee is always smooth, balanced, nuanced& easygoing... but at that point it was SO HARSH... I'd have been better off serving the batch from two weeks prior. Brewed it the next day and it was beautiful. What a great problem to have, though.

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Permalink Reply by Joel F. Eugenio on October 31, 2008 at 10:36am

basically, the fresh coffee beans should be protected into four bad elements... light, heat, air and humidity... after three days from opening the packet, you will be able to notice the big difference in texture, smell and the taste of the coffee thus lessening the quality of the product.... it is recommended to store the unused coffee to chiller and consume immediately the following day...

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Permalink Reply by Trevor on October 31, 2008 at 10:51am

Brady~
Yeah, we have wholesale accounts that we actually deliver coffee to in 5 gallon paint buckets that we reuse to reduce waste. We poke a couple small pinholes in the top so as to let the CO2 escape and they are using it fast enough that having one way valves really isn't an issue.

To support what Chris said, our house blend espresso is best right around day eight or nine. At least for us. It tends to be the sweetest at that point. We've found every coffee is different. Its great fun playing with our coffees to find when they are the most flavorful. Some coffees our great two days out and some really develop after a week and half or so of resting.

Gotta love coffee.

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Permalink Reply by Chris DeMarse on October 31, 2008 at 11:44am

I used a Costa Rican Herbazu for my comp espresso last year that had wild berry notes about 3 days out... It was an amazingly flavorful coffee. but, of course, you have to deal with the bubbling that leads to fast dying crema in those situations. It's good to remember that gastronomy is chemical and that our reactions to food are dependent on our intake of certain chemicals is what shapes our "taste" of any given item. If coffee is wildly aromatic and fllavorful (only 1% of actual makeup with strong flavoring agents), then the aroma indicates a volatile chemical change/loss of chemicals. We want to preserve the volatiles by trapping them in airtight situations. I actually wanted to develop a tinted glass container with a vacuum lid that had a one-way valve. I imagine that if you pump air out of the container but allow it to degas, your coffee would maintain higher qualities of extraction in terms of flavor and aroma as time progresses.

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