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btimup
45
Oct 28, 2017
I have a feeling in my gut that it's bad to freeze coffee beans, whole or ground. My father in law keeps his Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee in the freezer and although it's supposed to be amazing coffee, it has never impressed me. Can someone share with me if and why it's bad to freeze the beans/grinds? Thanks!
Tadami
6
Oct 28, 2017
btimupFreezing is ok. Kinda. It's all about preventing condensation. In my experience, if you have a sealed bag of whole bean, you can freeze it at low temperatures. I would not advise taking it out of the freezer, taking beans out of the bag, then returning it to the freezer, however. This promotes condensation, which essentially starts the brewing process.
SHodge
8
Oct 28, 2017
btimupWhole beans will last a long time if they're frozen, but as soon as they thaw they spoil. So it's pointless to keep beans in the freezer to "preserve" them. Your beans will stay fresh of you put them in a dark, dry, room temp. place.
btimup
45
Oct 28, 2017
TadamiThanks for the tip!
btimup
45
Oct 28, 2017
SHodgeI figured as much! Thanks for the insight :)
EagleRock
74
Oct 28, 2017
btimupI always buy my beans in 1kg batch, then vacuum it to 5 bags, for me it works great, coffee stays fresh. The most important part to remember is when talking the bag out from the freezer, you will need to let it get to room temp before opening it.
compliance
45
Oct 29, 2017
btimupFreezing is fine. The colder the better. You can freeze in the original airtight coffee bag (tape the valve closed) or do what I do and split larger bags into small mason jars. I buy all my coffee freshly roasted, freeze right away then unfreeze bags as needed and used within a week or so. Tastes almost as fresh as it did going in. Still good for espresso too. Grinding the beans while frozen is actually one of the latest fads espresso geeks are doing to get more even particle distribution in the grounds.
compliance
45
Oct 29, 2017
complianceThere's more recent articles than this but here you go. One of the first blind taste test comparisons of frozen vs never frozen. They couldn't tell https://www.home-barista.com/store-coffee-in-freezer.html
kingfisher
Oct 31, 2017
btimupI think that humidity is the problem, and that’s going to be inevitable in self defrosting freezers, which do their defrosting by continuously varying the temperature. It would probably be a lot better to put the coffee in a constant temperature chest freezer.
i don’t freeze coffee at home, but we are on the road for weeks at a time. Since we’d be at the mercy of unknown coffees, I freeze it in measured quantities, ground, in vacuum seal bags. Ground, because it packs tightly with a lot less air space. Works great.
kw1lts
2
Nov 1, 2017
EagleRockWhy let it get to room temperature before opening? Not sure of the rationale for this. Can you explain?
pdxguy44
7
Nov 1, 2017
btimupMy parents do the same thing with their coffee, buy and freeze. And it is usually ill-advised, but if you vacuum seal the bags first then there is no problem! The problem is with condensation build up causing the beans to go bad, but if you suck all the air out than condensation can't occur and your coffee stays great-tasting for much longer!
EagleRock
74
Nov 2, 2017
kw1ltsOnce you take the beans out from freezer to room temp, humidity will build up around the vaccum bag till they come to room temp. if you open the bag then that humidity will ruin your beans.
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