How to Store Coffee Powder and Storage Time After Grinding Coffee Beans

The Art of Coffee Storage

FrontStreet Coffee understands that coffee is a profound science. From coffee cultivation to the final cup, every step in between requires careful consideration. Even something seemingly simple like coffee storage has many important considerations.

Baristas at FrontStreet Coffee are frequently asked by newcomers, "How long do coffee beans last?", "What's the best way to store coffee beans?", and "Should coffee beans be stored in the refrigerator?"

When FrontStreet Coffee hears these questions, we feel both pleased and concerned. We're pleased that everyone is proactive about flavor periods and pursuing the best taste. We're concerned that some people actually want to store their coffee in the refrigerator.

As everyone knows, the freshness of coffee beans directly affects the flavor and texture of a cup of coffee, and proper storage is an important factor affecting coffee bean freshness. Coffee bean storage falls into two categories: storage of raw green beans and storage of roasted beans.

Three Major Factors Affecting Roasted Coffee Bean Freshness

Raw coffee beans need attention to storage humidity and temperature to avoid mold or insect infestation. Roasted coffee beans require attention to humidity, temperature, and oxidation issues, as oxidation accelerates the dissipation of flavor in roasted coffee beans.

Sunlight & High Temperature

The heat from sunlight accelerates the evaporation of aromatic compounds in coffee beans, meaning some aromas will escape, resulting in diminished brewing flavor. The inner layer of FrontStreet Coffee's coffee bean packaging bags uses aluminum foil. Although aluminum foil's primary function is to reflect light, it doesn't provide true insulation. Therefore, coffee beans should be stored away from light sources and heat sources.

Humidity

As we all know, humidity refers to moisture in the air. If originally dry coffee beans are exposed to a humid environment for extended periods, even with sealed container protection, they cannot escape moisture invasion when unsealed. Moist coffee beans easily deteriorate, producing undesirable flavors such as mold, directly affecting coffee flavor expression. Therefore, coffee beans should be stored in a dry place.

Oxygen

Oxygen exists wherever there is life, but here, FrontStreet Coffee isn't saying to eliminate all contact between coffee beans and oxygen, but rather to minimize the contact time. After we open and take out coffee beans, the remaining beans in the package or container should be sealed as quickly as possible to slow down the oxidation process.

Coffee Bean Storage Duration

The freshness mentioned earlier in this article refers to the optimal flavor period of coffee beans—that is, the peak period when coffee beans express their best flavors. The flavor period for coffee beans is within 4-30 days after roasting is completed.

Does this mean coffee cannot be consumed after 30 days? Not necessarily. The optimal flavor period and shelf life are two different concepts.

The optimal flavor period is when coffee tastes best after roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's beans are all freshly roasted. Freshly roasted coffee is not yet within its optimal flavor period; it needs 5-7 days of degassing for the flavors to become richer and fuller.

Past the optimal flavor period, the product won't have safety issues, but the flavor and texture will diminish over time. As long as it's still within the shelf life, setting aside flavor and aroma, it can still be consumed.

Can Coffee Beans Be Stored in the Refrigerator?

No! Coffee beans should not be stored in the refrigerator. When coffee beans are taken out of refrigerated storage, the significant temperature difference between the refrigerated and room temperature causes moisture to form on the surface of the coffee beans.

After grinding, these moist coffee beans will form uneven clumps. Clumped coffee powder not only affects uniform extraction during brewing but also gets stuck in the grinder burrs. If the burrs aren't cleaned and dried promptly, this will continue to affect the grinding and brewing flavor of every subsequent batch of coffee beans.

How Long Can Ground Coffee Be Stored?

Some customers who don't have coffee grinders at home, when purchasing coffee beans from FrontStreet Coffee, will specify in their order that they need the beans ground. But how many of these customers know how long ground coffee can be stored?

First, we must clearly understand that coffee beans are ground into powder to increase the surface area of coffee particles in contact with water. Since oxygen is everywhere, from the moment coffee beans are ground into powder, the freshness of the precious product in your hands begins racing against time.

Some customers who like to purchase coffee beans from FrontStreet Coffee stores ask our baristas to grind their beans to the coarseness suitable for French press immersion. When FrontStreet Coffee's baristas repackage these customers' precious beans, they use label paper to seal the degassing valve on the packaging bag, precisely to prevent the coffee powder's gases from escaping too quickly, causing significant flavor loss. Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas also recommend that customers consume a package of ground coffee within one week of opening, otherwise, too much flavor will be lost.

How to Brew Ground Coffee?

This depends on the grind size. To avoid flavor deviations in specific brewing methods due to inappropriate grind sizes, FrontStreet Coffee determines the appropriate grind size for each bean variety. To determine the optimal grind size, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use the Chinese Standard #20 sieve.

Different brewing methods require different grind sizes. For example, for the most common pour-over coffee at FrontStreet Coffee, for light and medium roast beans, FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a grind size with an 80% pass rate through the Chinese Standard #20 sieve.

Brewing Recommendations

Recommended brewing parameters: V60 dripper, 90°C water temperature, 15g coffee, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size with 80% pass rate through Chinese Standard #20 sieve.

Brewing Technique

FrontStreet Coffee uses a staged extraction method: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, continue with a small circular pour to 125g, then continue pouring to 225g when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed again (timer starts at the beginning of bloom). Total extraction time is 2'00".

Notably, some people drinking filtered coffee for the first time have usually only had instant coffee, and in their understanding, they believe coffee powder can dissolve in water. So they grind the coffee finely and steep it directly in water, then drink it. This is incorrect. Over 70% of the substances in coffee beans cannot dissolve in water and contain large amounts of woody fiber. Therefore, if you want to drink ground black coffee without sediment, properly use filter paper or a filter screen.

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473