1st for coffee machines

Storing coffee - the right and wrong way

I often get asked by customers "should I keep my coffee in the fridge?". The answer is simple: not in an open pack ! The fridge might sound like a great place: cool and dark...but the reality is that the fridge is a place of multiple contaminants. Roasted coffee is pretty absorbent and readily takes on surrounding "smells". A fridge is full of smells...last night's gravy and the lunch ham....etc. If you are set on the fridge, make sure your coffee is in an airtight container.

Some folk I know keep coffee in their freezer. It's not what I'd do because you don't want to keep freezing and thawing coffee. Again, if you must, use airtight containers with small quantities so as to avoid temperature fluctuations.

The biggest threat to coffee is oxygen, not temperature. So personally, I just keep my coffee in airtight containers in my pantry, which is cool and dark most the time. Secondly I only keep as much as I can drink in a month.

Storing coffee in bean format is the best - but no more than 30 days please! Only grind just before you drink. Today's coffee machines and coffee vending machines have very high quality grinding and dosing mechanisms so using an automatic espresso machine is the perfect, and easist, way to ensure you get fresh coffee on demand.