Should You Freeze Coffee Beans? Only if You Do It the Right Way

Coffee is a fast-ticking clock. And nan extremity of this stopwatch is thing you want. Fresh java is each astir aroma and intensity—the delicate notes of toffee aliases nectarine that make each legume distinct. Old java loses each of this. It tastes alternatively acrid and flabby, for illustration a cup of bedewed cardboard.

But freshness is simply a difficult target. I portion java astir for illustration a equine takes to water, but I bargain it conscionable arsenic impulsively. I americium besides perpetually testing retired java to find nan Best Coffee Subscriptions, and to springiness each marque a adjacent shake, I ever portion those caller successful nan optimal tasting window. Which intends nan rando typical container I bought for myself past Thursday often has to wait. And sometimes I can't negociate to brew each my java wrong a fewer weeks of its roast date.

That's wherever freezing comes in.

So, should you frost java beans? Or is freezing conscionable a caller measurement to messiness up java beans—by introducing frosty moisture, aliases tainting it pinch nan smell of nan stiff chickenhearted and peas successful your icebox? The answer, according to java experts and chemists alike, is that you're astir apt amended disconnected freezing java than letting lukewarm aerial do its slow work. But this is only existent if you do it correctly.

What's more, stiff beans tin successful truth lead to better spirit connected light-roast java successful particular, according to astatine slightest 1 study—because it helps you get much accordant java grounds and truthful amended flavor. More connected that later.

Here's a speedy rundown connected really to support your java caller without besides ruining it, and why stiff java sometimes trumps fresh.

When Does Coffee Start Going Stale?

Believe it aliases not, there's specified a point arsenic java that's too fresh. You astir apt don't want to brew java nan time aft it's roasted. For ray roasts successful particular, astir roasters thin to urge you hold 5 to 7 days aft nan roast day earlier brewing, successful bid to let your java to off-gas a spot and go a small easier to extract. This is particularly important erstwhile it comes to espresso, wherever extraction is simply a volatile and finicky process.

But, alas, if you conscionable time off nan java successful its bag, connected nan counter, it whitethorn commencement to spell old opening a mates weeks later. You cognize that bully smell of caller java beans? Those beautiful aromatic compounds are exiting nan beans, and dispersing into nan air: That's why you tin smell them. Eventually, they'll diminish. At nan aforesaid time, oxygen is sneaking successful to do its grim work, turning your beans to old rust.

Depending really it's stored, java tin statesman to degrade anyplace from 2 weeks to a period aft roast day (i.e., nan optimal model whitethorn conscionable beryllium a week aliases 2 for each bag).

You tin widen this a spot by storing nan java successful an airtight container. One that I peculiarly for illustration (and that we urge successful our Gifts for Coffee Lovers guide) is nan vacuum-sealed Fellow Atmos. This tin support your beans fresher for longer connected your antagonistic and besides support them from taking connected bad aromas successful your freezer.

When to Freeze Coffee Beans

If you cognize you're not going to get done a container of beans, nan champion clip to frost is not erstwhile your beans are already starting to spell stale. Rather, do truthful just before nan optimal spirit window.

The subject connected nan staying powerfulness of stiff java is somewhat thin, notes Christopher Hendon, a materials chemist astatine University of Oregon, whose research into java extraction and flavor has earned him nan nickname “Dr. Coffee.” But there's logic to judge freezing slows nan staling process but doesn't halt it.