Buying Coffee for Beginners #6

Okay, you’re facing the important choice of buying new coffee (beans). Do you actually know what to look out for? It’s quite difficult to determine exactly how a package of coffee beans from the supermarket or coffee shop will taste.

Coffee expert and Dutch Aeropress champion Edward from Trakteren Koffie in Amsterdam helps you develop your palate and translate it into a purchase.

#6 Storage

The rule of thumb is

: always store coffee in a watertight, airtight and lightproof container.

You can never store ground coffee for long, so use it as soon as possible. The longer you store the beans, the worse the taste becomes. Coffee is a natural product, and contact with oxygen affects its freshness. Ideally, you should brew ground coffee immediately to limit as much as possible the time the coffee beans are exposed to oxygen.

Packaged, unopened coffee beans are best stored in the refrigerator. In exceptional cases, the original sealed package can even go in the freezer if you have bought a lot. But once thawed, the beans must be used.

Read the coffee-buying guide #1 here, #2 here, #3 here, #4 here, and #5 to become a coffee expert.

With thanks to Edward Beumer from Trakteren Koffie.

Text: Nora van den Heuvel
Image: Shutterstock