Storing coffee: useful tips and tricks

Many of you will be wondering what are the best ways to store coffee but above all the causes of the rapid deterioration of our precious coffee beans ... let's see it now!

Let's try to extrapolate together the most common causes or the main elements to which we must pay attention when storing our beans or ground:

• air
• oxygen
• humidity (water vapor)
• heat
• light

As you can well imagine, having to guarantee a good organoleptic balance and the natural aroma of our coffee, we will have to preserve it from the elements listed above, as the main cause of deterioration.

AIR

Mainly composed of Nitrogen (colorless, tasteless, odorless and inert), other various gases in very small quantities, OXYGEN and WATER VAPOR, the latter which determines the degree of humidity in the atmosphere.

OXYGEN, as the name suggests, is the main cause, together with heat and light, of the so-called "rancidity" of coffee as the fats and oils contained in it tend to deteriorate prematurely with their contact ... a bit like those foods rich in fats that in contact with the air, therefore heat and light, tend to darken, change flavor and go rancid.

Now, if all this is true for whole coffee beans, then grains, it will be even more so for ground coffee; why will you wonder ?! 

Simple, the surface in contact with the air, once the bean is ground and broken down into many small pieces, grains of coffee, will be much higher than the whole beans ... try to add up the contact surface of a single grain with air, compared to the contact surface of a tiny grain multiplied by hundreds of other grains, and here is the answer.

We now come to the second "critical" element, namely HUMIDITY that could easily "cling to our coffee bean, weighing it down and further ruining its consistency, precisely because of its porosity and propensity to absorb water vapor and ODORS, after roasting phase, precisely because it becomes much more hygroscopic (ability to absorb water) than a natural, non-roasted green bean.

Well yes, you read that right, you must also be very careful about unpleasant or pleasant smells, because our coffee can absorb those too and you will find them in the cup, therefore away from perfumers, strong smells and tightly closed.

What can we do to avoid all these problems? 

 Let's try to follow a few simple steps:

1. if possible, always use unground coffee beans (whole grains), precisely because aromas and organoleptic balance lose their vigor in a very short time (in general we are talking about a few hours or even 30 minutes!) once these are ground;
2. pour and use only the desired quantity of coffee and at the right time, therefore just before its extraction; never forget that after about thirty minutes, as described above, our coffee could lose 50% of its aroma, and once in the cup it is strongly recommended to taste it within the first minute, precisely for the optimal maintenance of aroma, taste and flavor to our palate;
3. close hermetically or even vacuum-sealed, in a NON-TRANSPARENT container, or in its original packaging equipped with a safety valve, taking care to let any residual air escape, our coffee beans or already ground coffee; it is for this reason that we recommend buying packs of 250g, as a guarantee of quality and conservation in the short / medium term, even if they last well sealed up to 1 year.

Small curiosity:

we often read that keeping coffee in the refrigerator can help its conservation, and this is partly true, since it would help to slow down the process of deterioration and rancidity of the same, but one of the "risk" factors we have talked about would take over, namely humidity; do you know the condensation that often forms in the containers or packages we keep in the refrigerator? Here, this condensation or water vapor could in any case damage our coffee in these conditions, and that is why we recommend storing it in a COOL AND DRY PLACE, AWAY FROM HEAT SOURCES! Furthermore, some tests have shown a better yield in the cup of coffee stored in a cool and dry place, rather than coffee stored in the refrigerator or even in the freezer.

HEAT

Excessive heat, together with light, irremediably helps the deterioration of our coffee and accelerates the rancidity process; after all, which food likes heat and light? Exactly, so by heart I can't even think of a food that can like heat, light and air, so ATTENTION!

LIGHT

As we have already said, light and heat together are among the main causes of an early OXIDATION of badly stored coffee, and it is one of the reasons why coffee must be stored in the dark, therefore in hermetic opaque jars or in its original well-preserved packaging. sealed.

Try to follow these "little" tricks and you will see that your fresh coffee will surely have a better aroma and fragrance than usual ... unless you are already skilled conservation experts! 😄

See you next article!

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