Thanks to the following lines, you will learn how to store your ground coffee or beans, in order to preserve the richness and complexity of its aromas for as long as possible... To make each tasting a unique moment!
The enemies of coffee conservation
The first enemy of life is its first friend: oxygen. We must therefore begin this chapter with this point. Like many organic products, and therefore perishable, coffee does not like extreme temperatures (cold or hot), light and humidity.
Coffee, especially ground coffee, is a real sponge. By placing it in your refrigerator, it is likely to absorb the odors of other foods.
A professional tip is not to freeze roasted coffee as is, but to vacuum seal it. This is in fact the best way to preserve your coffee for a long time and even for a high level extraction. How to do it? Divide your batch of coffee into smaller serving sizes. If you are making daily 50 cl filters then make doses of 25 to 30g of coffee.
Vacuum seal them separately and freeze them as soon as possible. This way, you create doses that you take out according to your consumption. The vacuum protects the coffee from humidity and odors and from the change in pressure!
One last tip, don't defrost your coffee before preparing it. The more it is frozen, the better it will be!
Note that coffee beans and ground coffee do not react in the same way to the sting of oxygen. By grinding the coffee, and this is all the more true the finer the grind, you multiply the surfaces of contact with oxygen and therefore deteriorate it quickly.
It is therefore easier to maintain the quality of a coffee bean than a ground coffee. We can only recommend that you get a manual or electric grinder.
How long does coffee last?
If, like many coffee lovers, you're wondering how long coffee can be kept, you're right! But the answer is more complex than it might first appear, because it depends on the type of roasting your roaster uses. So ask him! The brand of roaster, the machine, is all you need to deduce the rest, and therefore to know when the coffee will express itself the most and when it will start to decline. At L'Arbre à Café, it's simple: all our coffees are roasted on our machine, a Loring, which is 100% convection roasted.
For coffees roasted on classic roaster brands, such as Probat, Giesen, Detriech etc...., we recommend consumption within 3 months at the most, 6 weeks for optimal tasting, and after 5 days for espresso.
At L'Arbre à Café, and therefore for coffees roasted on Loring, we always recommend waiting for your coffee. This is because convection does little to deter the surface of the bean and develops it less, so the oils and soluble elements of the coffee are encapsulated in the bean and therefore protected. Drinking it too quickly, before 2 weeks after roasting, would be a shame, as the coffee would not express itself. Ideally, it should be prepared between 3 and 12 weeks after roasting. Some coffees taste even better at 4 or 5 months, provided they are perfectly packaged and protected from oxidation.
Coffee, like sugar, flour, semolina and many other food products, is a dry product that ages without preservatives.
Ground coffee and coffee beans have a UBD, literally a "best-before date", which appears on all L'Arbre à Café packaging. The UBD only begins on the coffee's roasting date.
It should be remembered that the legal rationale behind the UBD, which is now being called into question in the context of anti-waste policies, is to warn consumers of an "optimal" date. It is in no way an expiration date, which applies only to fresh products or those containing high levels of humidity, and therefore subject to bacterial and other growth.
It's important to respect the best-before date, because once it's passed, your coffee will lose some of its properties, and you won't be able to enjoy it to the full. But rest assured, this does not harm the consumer in any way. Their organoleptic intensity diminishes over time. As a result, the coffee will contain less and less carbon dioxide, its oils will oxidize, and it will become less fruity and creamy, but never harmful.
Hermetic packaging for better coffee conservation?
Like any other perishable product, coffee oxidizes when it comes into contact with air. This is why at L'Arbre à Café, it is packaged in airtight bags in order to preserve its properties as much as possible and to guarantee you an optimal tasting for as long as possible.
You now know how to preserve your coffee and avoid the most common traps. Now, we are going to give you all our secrets to make your coffee successful!
