Freezing Coffee Beans Retains Freshness - True or False ?

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 method which we often hear is that of putting the 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. Freezing even maintains many of the vitamins and nutritional value of a wide variety of foods. Coffee, however, isn't as likely a candidate for storage in the freezer.

Coffee Beans have four main enemies against freshness: air, heat, light and moisture.

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 take on the flavour of the other foods in the freezer 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 can cause deterioration and loss of flavor. The more often you take coffee out of the freezer and put it back in, the more moisture absorption takes place into the bean. If you absolutely need to freeze some coffee because you have a large excess you'd like to keep, only freeze it once. The more you take it in and out of the freezer, the more damage you do.

Freezing also breaks down the oils in the beans. The oils contribute to the flavour of the coffee. As the oils are broken down the coffee loses its flavour and the distinctive taste of the coffee is lost.

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.