Can freezers be used to store coffee
There are many different suggested ways to store coffee beans in order to make the most of your bean to cup espresso machine and maintain coffee bean freshness. One of the suggested methods is to put your ground coffee or coffee beans in the freezer. Is storing coffee in the freezer a good way to maintain freshness? Let’s look at the pros and cons.
Freezing is a traditional method used to preserve food and in todays modern kitchen with a fridge or freezer it is easy and convenient A diverse selection of foods can be frozen. Bread, meat, fruits, vegetables and even butter can be successfully stored in your freezer. Coffee, however, isn’t as likely a candidate for storage in the freezer.
Four main elements attack Coffee Beans stealing their freshness (and more importantly its taste
At first, freezing doesn’t seem to contain many of the offending enemies. However, appearances can be deceiving.
One problem is that the Coffee Beans are porous, and freezers are full of many strongly flavoured foods, odours and smells. The porous beans can absorb the flavors of many other frozen foods. Flavoured coffees can be pleasant, but no one wants to drink seafood or garlic flavored coffee.
Due to their porous nature moisture can also be absorbed by the coffee beans. Moisture attacks the Beans and causes the taste and flavour to be lost The more often you take coffee out of the freezer and put it back in, the more moisture absorption takes place into the bean. The only time you should even consider freezing coffee is if you have too much for normal use, in this situation freeze it only the one time. The more you take it in and out of the freezer, the more damage you do.
Once frozen these oils in the beans begin to break down. The oils contribute to the flavour of the coffee. Breaking down the oils means taking away flavour, and let’s face it, a large part of a good cup of coffee is the flavour.
The freezer is not the place to store your coffee beans. Keep coffee stored in a cool, dry, airtight container away from light. So although Coffee can be frozen it is best only to freeze it the once. The resulting loss of flavour and quality from repetitive freezing makes it a method of storage to stay away from.
Your best bet is to purchase only enough beans or ground coffee to supply you for 1-2 weeks. That way you will enjoy Coffee from your Expresso Coffee Maker or Coffee machine at its freshiest and best.
