Coffee Beans

[ARW1971]

These might have obvious answers but:

Does coffee last longer once ground?

What I have read so far on the subject seems that once beans are roasted they only last a week or so but if you buy ground coffee it seems to last months.

Someone help please.

[Confuzius]

It pretty much depends on how picky, err refined, you are.

Store bought preground coffee (foldgers etc)will seem to last for ages, because it's not that great to begin with.

Beans you grind yourself at the store will seemingly last less longer than the pre-ground stuff.

Beans you grind at home as you need will last longer than if you grind them all and put them into a separate container.

If you homeroast your own, chances are your definition of "fresh" has a lifespan of hours rather than days or weeks.

[sehrgut]

What I have read so far on the subject seems that once beans are roasted they only last a week or so but if you buy ground coffee it seems to last months.

Coffee can't get much worse an hour or so post-grind, so however fresh it is, n time units post-grind, it's the same crap it was an hour post-grind. *grin*

[Scotto]

These might have obvious answers but:

Does coffee last longer once ground?

What I have read so far on the subject seems that once beans are roasted they only last a week or so but if you buy ground coffee it seems to last months.

Someone help please.

Nope. Once it is ground, it is stale within hours. Drinkable? That's a different question that depends on your taste.

[Monkeyboy]

The oils inside a coffee bean that contribute to its flavor and aroma are delicate. When the bean is fresh roasted it starts venting out CO2 gas and this action keep oxygen out and helps keep it fresh. When you grind a bean, this protective structure is gone and the aroma immediately begins to escape.

Coffee once roasted is truly fresh for only two weeks. Coffee should ideally be ground just before brewing.

[R-James]

Does this mean I should invest in a cheap grinder and buy my coffee whole bean?

[Confuzius]

I find a vast improvement over pre-ground coffee, even with just cheap beans.

[letterk]

Does this mean I should invest in a cheap grinder and buy my coffee whole bean?

That would be the next step better coffee.

[R-James]

Right I am now going to go on ebay and find a hand grinder. This calls for a new brewhouse thread.

[Readerbob]

Grinding your own beans is a definite first step. Before you'll know it, you'll be buying green beans and roasting your own coffee. I began doing that about two years ago, and it's hard to drink most other coffee now. Also, in the past, it was hard to tell the difference between coffees. Now it's much easier to tell after fiddling with different roasts (light/dark, etc.) and different origins (definite difference between Kenyan and Costa Rican beans, for example, although I like them both).

[ScottS]

The most consistent store-bought bean I've found is Dunkin Donuts. Honestly, I have better experiences with them than with some of my local roasters.

[Alacrity59]

Does this mean I should invest in a cheap grinder and buy my coffee whole bean?

Yes, and if you can find a spot that roasts on site and/or has high turnover so much the better. This is not to say that Folgers and other brands are not good but more to say that the wow factor is best found with fresh roasted with a fresh grind.

[ouch]

Think of roasted coffee beans as you would peppercorns- grind them immediately before use.

[ScottS]

Does this mean I should invest in a cheap grinder and buy my coffee whole bean?

Find a cheap burr grinder, if you plan to get serious. The blade grinders add too many variables.

[Wisdom]

The oils inside a coffee bean that contribute to its flavor and aroma are delicate. When the bean is fresh roasted it starts venting out CO2 gas and this action keep oxygen out and helps keep it fresh. When you grind a bean, this protective structure is gone and the aroma immediately begins to escape.

Coffee once roasted is truly fresh for only two weeks. Coffee should ideally be ground just before brewing.

I agree.. When I make Espresso, I buy fresh beans from a local coffee shop. If I grind them immediately and make Espresso, I get a nice, rich crema and a wonderful tasting Espresso. If I grind the beans and let the ground coffee sit overnight, it comes out a bit thin with little crema. After about a week, I start to notice a significant difference in the quality of crema on the Espresso. As the beans deteriorate, the taste becomes more bitter and less chocolaty.

Green beans can allegedly be kept indefinitely. Once the beans are roasted, they have a shelf life.
-\Visdom

[Chuckaluck]

Think of roasted coffee beans as you would peppercorns- grind them immediately before use.

+1.... fresh ground coffee smells so good!

[ARW1971]

Thanks for the help. Still a slight grey area.

For me I buy my beans from a vendor and I can't imagine the bean turnover in that particular shop are that high. The hopper is fairly large and that seems to mean that if the beans in that hopper have been roasted over two weeks ago they will not be that fresh.

My grey area question is. If I buy beans that are at least two weeks from roasting date. Will keeping them as beans prolong there freshness or is it already gone?

Once again everyone thanks, as usual, for your help, and helping me spend some more money.

Shaving, whisky, now coffee. Note to moderator; please do not start a forum on Mega Yachts.

[Sabledog]

yes, a month old whole bean will be better than a month old pre-ground.

One coffee forum member put it this way, a bit simplified, but it gets the point across:

Green (unroasted) coffee is good for 2 years, fresh roasted coffee is good for 2 weeks, ground coffee is good for 2 minutes.

It does all depend on what you are used to, but the roasted coffee in the bins are likely months old, not to mention usually over roasted. I would like to know how long ago the pre-packaged pre-ground coffee saw a grinder.....I think they've already gone passed the stale point, so they don't really degrade from there.

Also, with flavor, the darker they are roasted, the more you taste the roast qualities and not the origin qualities so they will taste more similar regardless of origin which means the nuance of the coffee is really already gone.

[DeaconKC]

Well, rats. I get up much earlier than my wife and grinding would wake her. So I guess I will have to stick with preground.

[Sabledog]

If you are not a purist, you could grind then night before and keep it air-sealed; still better than ground 2 months before!