Tuesday, February 28, 2012

How to Keep Ground Coffee Fresh

Keeping coffee fresh is as important as buying a quality product. Once coffee is no longer fresh it will have a stale taste to it and will not have all the notes of deliciousness that you will find in a freshly ground, freshly brewed cup of coffee. There are some tips and tricks to keeping coffee fresh and today I will discuss a few with you.

My first tip is to buy freshly ground coffee or even better, grind it yourself! If you do not own a grinder, and do not want to buy one, you can grind your own beans at the grocery store or coffee shop. These days almost every grocery store will have almost a whole aisle dedicated to coffee. You will typically find a machine to grind your beans if you do not own your own grinder.

Also, if you stop by your local coffee shop and pick up a bag of their coffee, they will be more than happy to grind it up for you. This is always a great place to try some different roasts and blends to find out what is your favorite. Not only is this a great place to do some taste testing, you are getting freshly ground coffee, and once you start drinking it freshly ground, you will never go back to before!

After you get your glorious coffee home, you want to keep it fresh until you actually consume it. It has been a long time misconception that you want to freeze your ground coffee to keep it fresh. This is bad for a couple of reasons. The first reason is coffee is very porous and will absorb not only moisture, but whatever else you have in your freezer. This is not good for the flavors of the coffee. Also when you freeze the beans you remove the natural oils and flavors of the beans, resulting in bland coffee.

The best way to store your coffee is in an airtight container. You want to store it in a cool, dry, dark place as moisture, air, heat and light are enemies to your precious coffee beans. I like to store mine in a large Tupperware container, in my pantry. My pantry has a doors and it is always dark and cool in there. If you do not have a pantry, you may want to keep the coffee in a cupboard away from an oven, stove or any other heat source.

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