Should you store coffee in the fridge, freezer or shelf?

Is it best to store coffee beans in the fridge, freezer or on the shelf? It’s a question we get asked a lot.

To get a definitive answer, the people in white coats at our Coffee Science & Education Centre put together these tests to find out.

Sections in this video:
0:00 Introduction
0:32 The quick answer
1:20 The tests
2:10 The results
__________________________

___________________

[thatsmuzik]

How refreshing to have someone tell you the answer up front. I still watched it all the way to the end! Thank you!

[smariko]

Would be keen to know how well a sealed bag of coffee in the freezer stored say >6 weeks compares with a fresh sealed bag!

[mawo]

I was born in Colombia. My grandmother(RIP) was a coffee grower in the mountains. She did the whole process from working the land, planting the seed, caring for, collecting the bean, peeling it through the machine, sun drying, peeling again, roasting, grounding, to finally making a jar.
My siblings and I had the pleasures to visit her at the farm after school was out (summer months here in the US) and we’d often watch the whole process! 😅 There was no electricity so no fridge. She’d store her coffee in a sealed container in the pantry and even later on when she could have a fridge, never did.
I can say that only a couple of times in my life I had tasted coffee as perfect as she used to make it (once in Salento, Colombia; another time in a very unexpected place in Costa Rica and a cup offered by an Italian man). Delicious!
Now… I’ve said this happened in the mountains of Colombia where it gets warm during the day and cools significantly down at night, so I believed this had to help!
I live in the northern part of the US now and just keep storing my coffee the way my grandmother did. I guess if you live in a hot climate might as well put it in the fridge. Honestly, I’d never freeze it just because that doesn’t feel right to me and my grandma would probably go 🙄!
😂

[bikersoncall]

Thank you for giving the short answer at 1:00

[martyns]

The common reason cited for not storing in the freezer is that repeatedly opening the bag in warm air and then cooling it again leaves the coffee subject to condensation which harms the flavour.
Did you only open the bag after 14 and 28 days? If so, this probably reduced the impact of this effect.
Any chance of repeating the test but with opening the bag once or twice a day to simulate how people are likely to use their coffee if single dosing?

[alanscott]

I am no expert. But I freeze my beans in their sealed bag. I have purchased resealable coffee bags with the 1 way vent so that as soon as I open the first time I put the beans into smaller batches and place them immediately back into the freezer. I single dose and have found consistency in flavor and grind size with the frozen beans. Again as a non expert I have found what works best for me and also allows me to buy beans in larger quantities. Freezing beans is a WINNER 🏆 🥇 👍

[MaxO]

I've got a Fellow Atmos vacuum storage container and would love to know how much I benefit from it! There's a noticeable improvement over shelf storage but i've always avoided freezer storage as the beans would be opened and exposed to the moisture every day.

[elburro]

Great info on the different ways to store coffee beans. Freezer was pretty good but the reason or at least mine is to keep things in the freezer frozen til i need them not be opening the freezer everyday that I want to make coffee. You did give alternative ways .

[jamesberry]

Totally agree a sealed bag works best for me. Unfortunately not all coffee beans come in a resealable bag (a clipseal ). I will definitely be getting my coffee beans in 500g bags rather than kilo bags. Thanks for the info.

[MaxairEngineering]

So what are frozen beans going to do to my grinder?thx 🙏

[gregmeissner]

This was awesome, thanks for such an intelligent answer to this question.

[MrSteamDragon]

Great video. Are we talking about storing unused beans in the freezer then, after say a couple weeks taking them out, and using them without putting them back in ? Or are you suggesting we can take the beans out of the freezer, use some, and pop the rest back in again ?

[ivondavid]

thank you Mr. Coffee Roasters for that fine info

[akshaynigam]

Love the detail you've gone into here with the results! Hardly see that attention on any other coffee videos :) Thanks and look forward to seeing more of these.

[larryduran]

The video left me wondering how a sealed bag of coffee stored in the freezer would have compared to the other options mentioned for the two test time periods and for longer storage periods.

[marc-oliviergiguere]

Cool info! So if I have an unopened coffee bean bag and wrap it in cling film, that should give the best results even after a few months, right?

[arch-rival]

Would we need to defrost if we store the coffee beans an air tight container in the freezer? Also, if we do defrost, can we re-freeze? Thank you in advance!

[jonathanmcalroy]

Should you let the coffee come to room temperature before grinding? or grind straight from the freezer?

[Marlonorellana]

I premake my coffee so I don’t have to wait for it. I usually use glass jars to just store them. Is there a better way?

[louisirvinelim]

I tried freezing coffee on the first time and it tasted well a few months after roasting! just some zipbag without fancy vacuuming