Storing ground coffee?

[Whisky]

as others have mentioned by the time ground coffee hits the shelves it’s already not at its peak. Does the way you currently store it give you a cup that’s acceptable and enjoyable for you? That’s all that matters. You could get a vacuum canister to keep the o2 away which may slow down the decline of the grounds somewhat but it’s another expense and piece of equipment to keep around.

 

[Ad Astra]

We burn through a vacuum pack of Bustelo or La Llave per week, so freezing is moot. We store it in a plastic vacuum box in the pantry.


AA

 

[TexLaw]

Since it's come up in a couple more posts, allow me to reiterate:

Don't store coffee in the refrigerator.

I am surprised that none of the owners of the large coffee brands (Nescafé, Maxwell House, Folgers, Starbucks, Dunkin, ...) have figured out a better packaging system for their pre-ground coffee. Something like a detergent pod, a sealed packet of coffee that will make a pot or a half-pot.

I'm sure they've figured out. However, I bet they also figured out that very few want to pay for that expensive packaging.

There's also the problem of how limiting that is. How much does it take to make a pot or half pot? I'm not sure if I know two people who use the same amount of ground coffee to make their favorite pot.

It's like when Heinz or Hunt's (can't recall which) partnered up with Tabasco to make a Tabasco version of their ketchup. It sounded like a good idea since so many folks add Tabasco to ketchup (at least in some regions). Well, it sold terribly because everyone adds different amounts of Tabasco to their ketchup.

 

[steveclarkus]

A 12 oz bag of coffee hardly lasts me a week so I never thought about it.

 

[StillShaving]

I'm sure they've figured out. However, I bet they also figured out that very few want to pay for that expensive packaging.

There's also the problem of how limiting that is. How much does it take to make a pot or half pot? I'm not sure if I know two people who use the same amount of ground coffee to make their favorite pot.

It's like when Heinz or Hunt's (can't recall which) partnered up with Tabasco to make a Tabasco version of their ketchup. It sounded like a good idea since so many folks add Tabasco to ketchup (at least in some regions). Well, it sold terribly because everyone adds different amounts of Tabasco to their ketchup.

Maybe, but with the commercial success of relatively expensive pods I would expect that some people would pay a slight premium for the convenience of individual ready to brew packets if that delivered a better pot of coffee. Like having various packaging sizes for candy bars, snacks, drinks, etc, companies could experiment to discover what the market will bear if anything. It might be that those who don't drink a lot or who value convenience have already settled on instant coffee or pod machines. While the coffee devotees have their grinders and brewing equipment and would not be interested either.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

as others have mentioned by the time ground coffee hits the shelves it’s already not at its peak. Does the way you currently store it give you a cup that’s acceptable and enjoyable for you? That’s all that matters.

t
I think this seems to be the nearest answer for me from this thread. On the whole, I am completely satisfied with what I get from a store bought pouch of ground coffee. Any improvement I might get from grinding my own, would not warrant the costs for me (not just financial- see earlier health related posts), if indeed I noticed any benefits at all.

I have drunk freshly ground coffee in the past... and it just tasted like any other coffee to me

As to the decline in condition towards the end of a slowly consumed bag, or should I drift away from coffee for a while, before a bag is finished, I may have a plan. Coffee hair rinses. Apparently, they are a thing. Drink the good stuff at the start of a bag, and if it dips below the point of being up to my modest standards, wash my (waist length) hair with the rest. No drinking coffee I don't enjoy, and no waste of stale coffee either. Win-win.

 

[Phoenixkh]

I just grind enough for each pot. I do buy whole beans 5 pounds at a time... keep the air out of the bag in between each use but I don't vacuum seal it. Maybe I should. I don't notice a difference from first use to last. I don't have a very good sense of taste, though. My wife does... and she doesn't notice it either.

I just grind the beans, use a simple coffee brewer and enjoy. I can afford so many rabbit holes these days.

 

[Phoenixkh]

Use a vacuum canister and store it in the refrigerator.

Take a small sample of the grounds and leave them in the foil bag like you normally do.

After 2 weeks compare the color of the grounds in the foil bag to the grounds in the vacuum canister.

You will know that the vacuum canister is working to keep your grounds fresh because the color of the grounds will be different from the grounds in the foil bag. The grounds in the vacuum canister will not have changed. Maybe this isn't scientific enough to prove anything, but the color and flavor of the coffee stored in the vacuum canister doesn't seem to change. I keep the grounds stored this way for up to 2 months with no noticeable difference (but I'm not a coffee snob, so maybe I couldn't tell the difference anyways).

I use the "Prepara" brand vacuum canisters. I got mine from Amazon. I have both the medium and large. The medium is glass and the large is plastic.

IMO, unless you're an absolute coffee snob, these will keep your grounds fresh enough.

Thanks for the recommendation about the Prepara cannisters. I just ordered two of the 1 kilo stainless steel ones.... since I buy 5 pounds of whole bean coffee at a time.

 

[zenex]

Thirty-two years of drinking coffee everyday have taught me the following:

-the ground coffee that smells "meh" or "so-so" often produce the most delicious beverage.

-since 2021 I switched to whole beans (and pour-over, a Timemore Chestnut C2 manual grinder and Hario V60 drip kettle) but I still have a stash of grocery-bought pre-ground vacuumed coffee, each pack being another composition and from different producers. When I first open the "brick" the resulting coffee is not the best. The taste seems to improve as I dig, every morning, to the bottom of the pack. A pack of 250 grams of pre-ground coffee (0.55 lbs.) is consumed in 6, max. 7 days, never more. I don't seal the opening or refrigerate the opened pack, I just use the daily dose and put the rest in the pantry. So the coffee is in full contact with the air for 7 days, yet the taste seems to improve. In other words, the staler it becomes, the better it tastes. I'm aware that this might be only my taste buds who are adjusting to the newer taste encountered at the beginning of the new pack.

-For me, what makes a great cup is not the freshest beans or the so-called pre-ground supermarket "crap". It's not the water, filtered or not. It's not the water temperature, the brand of the paper filter or the preliminary soaking with hot water. It's not important to religiously measure the coffee each time, the eyeballing works equally well (after 32 years). The resulting liquid is not fundamentally affected if I pour the water from an ordinary coffee pot, although I enjoy the much better control of a goose-neck kettle. I instinctively refuse fancy methods like "osmotic flow" or "4:3 method" and such silly hipster inventions created by guys with too much free time, without a real job (don't tell me you can earn a living just by pouring water on ground coffee) and whose sole purpose in life is to come with a new, "revolutionary" method for the next Pourover World Championship or whatever is called.
So, no. All you need is the coffee you like. The brand you like. This is the most crucial element for a great cup you like. This and the coffee-water ratio you like. Making coffee is not rocket-science, it's common sense. Same for shaving, cooking and so on. Life is complicate enough and some guys complicate it even further. Let's put our best efforts to solve the most challenging aspects. And let's the simplest things as they are and should stay like this - simple.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Thirty-two years of drinking coffee everyday have taught me the following:

-the ground coffee that smells "meh" or "so-so" often produce the most delicious beverage.

-since 2021 I switched to whole beans (and pour-over, a Timemore Chestnut C2 manual grinder and Hario V60 drip kettle) but I still have a stash of grocery-bought pre-ground vacuumed coffee, each pack being another composition and from different producers. When I first open the "brick" the resulting coffee is not the best. The taste seems to improve as I dig, every morning, to the bottom of the pack. A pack of 250 grams of pre-ground coffee (0.55 lbs.) is consumed in 6, max. 7 days, never more. I don't seal the opening or refrigerate the opened pack, I just use the daily dose and put the rest in the pantry. So the coffee is in full contact with the air for 7 days, yet the taste seems to improve. In other words, the staler it becomes, the better it tastes. I'm aware that this might be only my taste buds who are adjusting to the newer taste encountered at the beginning of the new pack.

-For me, what makes a great cup is not the freshest beans or the so-called pre-ground supermarket "crap". It's not the water, filtered or not. It's not the water temperature, the brand of the paper filter or the preliminary soaking with hot water. It's not important to religiously measure the coffee each time, the eyeballing works equally well (after 32 years). The resulting liquid is not fundamentally affected if I pour the water from an ordinary coffee pot, although I enjoy the much better control of a goose-neck kettle. I instinctively refuse fancy methods like "osmotic flow" or "4:3 method" and such silly hipster inventions created by guys with too much free time, without a real job (don't tell me you can earn a living just by pouring water on ground coffee) and whose sole purpose in life is to come with a new, "revolutionary" method for the next Pourover World Championship or whatever is called.
So, no. All you need is the coffee you like. The brand you like. This is the most crucial element for a great cup you like. This and the coffee-water ratio you like. Making coffee is not rocket-science, it's common sense. Same for shaving, cooking and so on. Life is complicate enough and some guys complicate it even further. Let's put our best efforts to solve the most challenging aspects. And let's the simplest things as they are and should stay like this - simple.

I must confess that THAT ^^^ is why I have so few posts in this subforum. I have absolutely nothing against the enthusiasts here, or the exploits they get up to, and what they choose to spend their money on, but my preferences and methods for getting myself a drink, are far too simple and banal to be worthy of commentary.

Even when I do get something different, the details seem to have fallen out of my brain before I get to the forum For example, I'm currently drinking a loose tea from some vendor that weighs it out into bags, and it's a tea that seems better with honey and lemon, than the usual milk and sugar...

Can't remember the name of the vendor. Can't remember what type of tea. Didn't weigh it, just a couple of spoonfuls. Didn't time it, just waited till it looked the right colour. Tastes geat. Next one might taste different. That's fine too.

 

[Phoenixkh]

It seems, like the last two posters, I'm a pedestrian coffee drinker. I know what I like.... medium roast with low acidity. I recently switched to Don Pablo signature coffee beans because The Fresh Market Jamaican Blue Mountain blend changed. My wife notices it even more than I do. My taste buds are not all that accurate. Don Pablo Signature Blend - https://donpablocoffee.com/products/don-pablo-signature-blend-coffee?variant=33398534733912

What I don't like is Starbucks coffee.... as someone called it: Starburnt coffee. We take our coffee grinder and coffee brewer with us on long road trips if we are staying at a hotel along the way.

Now for the heresy. I might get banned from this thread. I use plastic cream (Coffee Mate) and raw sugar in my coffee. My favorite cup is a 30 ounce Yeti Rambler. I apologize..... I should repent in sackcloth and ashes.... but that's how I like it.

 

[StillShaving]

Thirty-two years of drinking coffee everyday have taught me the following:

-the ground coffee that smells "meh" or "so-so" often produce the most delicious beverage.

-since 2021 I switched to whole beans (and pour-over, a Timemore Chestnut C2 manual grinder and Hario V60 drip kettle) but I still have a stash of grocery-bought pre-ground vacuumed coffee, each pack being another composition and from different producers. When I first open the "brick" the resulting coffee is not the best. The taste seems to improve as I dig, every morning, to the bottom of the pack. A pack of 250 grams of pre-ground coffee (0.55 lbs.) is consumed in 6, max. 7 days, never more. I don't seal the opening or refrigerate the opened pack, I just use the daily dose and put the rest in the pantry. So the coffee is in full contact with the air for 7 days, yet the taste seems to improve. In other words, the staler it becomes, the better it tastes. I'm aware that this might be only my taste buds who are adjusting to the newer taste encountered at the beginning of the new pack.

-For me, what makes a great cup is not the freshest beans or the so-called pre-ground supermarket "crap". It's not the water, filtered or not. It's not the water temperature, the brand of the paper filter or the preliminary soaking with hot water. It's not important to religiously measure the coffee each time, the eyeballing works equally well (after 32 years). The resulting liquid is not fundamentally affected if I pour the water from an ordinary coffee pot, although I enjoy the much better control of a goose-neck kettle. I instinctively refuse fancy methods like "osmotic flow" or "4:3 method" and such silly hipster inventions created by guys with too much free time, without a real job (don't tell me you can earn a living just by pouring water on ground coffee) and whose sole purpose in life is to come with a new, "revolutionary" method for the next Pourover World Championship or whatever is called.
So, no. All you need is the coffee you like. The brand you like. This is the most crucial element for a great cup you like. This and the coffee-water ratio you like. Making coffee is not rocket-science, it's common sense. Same for shaving, cooking and so on. Life is complicate enough and some guys complicate it even further. Let's put our best efforts to solve the most challenging aspects. And let's the simplest things as they are and should stay like this - simple.

You half joke about your taste buds adjusting and I do think that expectation is a bigger part of enjoying coffee than some realize. I am a coffee enthusiast who enjoys trying different bean origins, methods of brewing, etc. I enjoy the variety and have some favorites but most are pretty good and much better tasting (IMO) than pre-ground coffee that was opened months ago. When I travel to other places and drink such coffee, that first cup/pot can really be a shock to the taste buds. But by day 2 or 3, I begin to adjust and it starts to taste a lot more like "normal" coffee. After drinking that for a week or longer my fancy grade of coffee will again taste different when I come back to it.

 

[Legion]

I buy ground coffee because it is easier, and I don't want to wake the house up with a grinder each morning.

I open the bag, scoop out whats needed, roll and close the bag with a peg, and keep it in the freezer.

 

[razorboi]

You may have come to the wrong place to enquire of store-bought commercial ground coffee storage.
These are die-hard shaving nerds who hone their own straight-razors and brew their own lather in scuttles.
I'm surprised no one directed you to the thread about roasters.
Yes, there are threads about roasters, and bean selection, drying methods, filtering water, grinding and brewing technologies, &etc.
If the noise of an electric grinder bothers you, the obvious solution is to purchase a pair of aircraft marshaller's headphones.
If shelf-life is an issue, invest in an expensive vacuum storage system...but on no account sacrifice the optimal quality of your beans for mere convenience!
But honestly, half a pound is a small amount. Any air-tight storage medium should suffice.
Try this. When you get to the bottom of a bag, open a new one and make two separate cups. If you can taste a difference, then perhaps some action is warranted.
By the way, for the record, I keep my whole-bean coffee in the bag, in a rubber-seal clamped storage jar...in the refrigerator!

 

[Phoenixkh]

You may have come to the wrong place to enquire of store-bought commercial ground coffee storage.
These are die-hard shaving nerds who hone their own straight-razors and brew their own lather in scuttles.
I'm surprised no one directed you to the thread about roasters.
Yes, there are threads about roasters, and bean selection, drying methods, filtering water, grinding and brewing technologies, &etc.
If the noise of an electric grinder bothers you, the obvious solution is to purchase a pair of aircraft marshaller's headphones.
If shelf-life is an issue, invest in an expensive vacuum storage system...but on no account sacrifice the optimal quality of your beans for mere convenience!
But honestly, half a pound is a small amount. Any air-tight storage medium should suffice.
Try this. When you get to the bottom of a bag, open a new one and make two separate cups. If you can taste a difference, then perhaps some action is warranted.
By the way, for the record, I keep my whole-bean coffee in the bag, in a rubber-seal clamped storage jar...in the refrigerator!

I just ordered two 1 kilo Airscape stainless steel containers to store my whole beans in because of Eben Stone's recommendation.... I buy them in 5 pound bags to save on the total cost. They aren't vacuum sealed... but the inner lid slides down to the bean level as you use them. It will be more convenient than trying to squeeze the air out of the large bag from the supplier. I don't refrigerate my whole beans... An aside note: my wife is an interior designer and we recently remodeled our kitchen.... she insisted and I mean "demanded" we buy a counter depth fridge. We lost 27 cubic feet from our old fridge.... twenty-seven "Cubic" feet... I had to wrap my mind around that one.... but she knows more than I do... I just know how to install the cabinets and do the trim work. So... we don't have a lot of extra room in the fridge. I keep the beans in one of the kitchen pantries. If that isn't good enough... well... I'm in deep yogurt, but I think it's fine, truth be told.

 

[ChriWilson]

My fresh grind comes from Peet's.
What does not fit into the Illy container for daily use gets vacuum sealed for its turn in the can.

 

[TexLaw]

My fresh grind comes from Peet's.
What does not fit into the Illy container for daily use gets vacuum sealed for its turn in the can.

View attachment 1439304

We all have our turn in the can, don't we?

 

[Old Hippie]

When I'm roasting I do about a pound of beans at a time, grind them and then store them in the freezer.

When I'm being really picky I will roast just enough for a couple cups, put the water on the heat, grind the coffee and make it right away.

Since the pandemic shut down my local source for green coffee I've been buying whole roasted beans and grinding them as before. Makes an acceptable cup -- "session" coffee as opposed to connoisseur grade. Still better than gas station coffee!

One mug every morning usually does the trick. Takes me two weeks (one DE blade ) to go through a bag of coffee. Change blades, change coffee, lather-rinse-repeat.

O.H.