If you are reading this, chances are you are a coffee lover, just like us. You are committed to making your coffee experience each day as enjoyable as possible. We can all agree, that there’s just nothing like starting your day with a warm, fresh cup of quality coffee.
That’s just the thing. Coffee has to be fresh in order to give us a high-quality experience. This may have you wondering, are the beans in your cabinet fresh? How would you know?
Does Coffee Expire?
Coffee actually doesn’t expire in the same way other food and beverages do. You likely won’t find an expiration date on any bag of coffee you buy. What you may find, however, is a “best by” date. This indicates a relative time in which your coffee should stay fresh.
Coffee beans are a shelf-stable good which means they can stay on a shelf in their original packages without going bad, similar to rice or pasta, or other goods you may keep in your pantry.
Unlike these shelf-stable goods though, coffee will lose its freshness while it sits on your shelf and ultimately the quality of your cup of coffee will decrease as beans sit over time.
Here’s why:
Coffee beans go through a degassing process that releases carbon dioxide. This is why almost every bag of coffee has a small hole — so that carbon dioxide can escape. Once they’ve finished releasing carbon dioxide, they start absorbing oxygen. Once they begin to absorb oxygen, they start to lose their fresh flavor.
Tips to Store Your Fresh Coffee
- Store it in a cool, dry place- Exposure to moisture and heat is not beneficial to keeping coffee fresh.
- Don’t store coffee in a glass jar- Glass jars expose your coffee to light, speeding up the process of making coffee go stale.
- Only buy in smaller quantities- In order to keep the freshest coffee on hand, buy smaller quantities of coffee. It can be tempting to stock up to save money or ensure you never run out but ground coffee only stay fresh for about a week.
- Buy whole beans instead of pre-ground beans- Invest in a coffee grinder and grind whole beans at home. Whole beans stay fresh much longer than ground coffee and will give you the fresh ground coffee taste each morning.
Fresh Coffee Cafes at The University of Minnesota
At 7 Corners Coffee, we only serve the highest quality fresh coffee to our customers. Whether it is at home or at a cafe at the University of Minnesota you deserve the best coffee experience possible!
