Storing Your Beans

Last week we discussed the importance of keeping your coffee whole bean and grinding it as close to when it is brewed as possible. We delved a bit into the science behind this, and this week we will discuss different ways to store your whole beans, focusing on a few options that have the science behind coffee in mind. I’ll try to keep it brief!

The brown TCC Kraft bag that your coffee comes in may seem like a good storage method, but, ideally, this bag should only be used to transport the beans from the roaster (me) to the brewer (you) 😊. After you’ve received your coffee, it is best to then store it in a durable & reusable vessel that has built-in qualities/features/tools that are meant to prolong the life of the coffee’s freshness. Remember, being exposed to oxygen allows oxidation to happen, which causes the coffee to stale.

Try looking for an airtight metal, ceramic, or plastic container to store your coffee. In addition to being airtight, there are a number of containers that have been designed to take it a step further by incorporating tools to slow down the degradation of coffee. Here are a couple examples:

Coffee Tin with One-way Valve*

Airscape (Amazon & Seattle Coffee Gear)

I won't go into too much depth here, but both of these options are great, in that they not only are airtight, but also incorporate a de-gassing valve (tin) and allow the beans to be stored with very little exposure to oxygen (Airscape).

As previously mentioned, Seattle Coffee Gear is a great resource when it comes to coffee supplies. In addition to their online store, they also offer in-depth reviews for a wide variety of their offerings on YouTube. Here is a link to their coffee storage offerings.

*Let me know below if you’d be interested in Town Crier’s Coffee offering this as an option on the website. If there enough people interested, I'd consider it as a tin+coffee combo. Unfortunately, it only holds 12 ounces of coffee (as opposed to a full 1-lb. TCC bag), but it is a great storage option to start out with. I would probably sell it for the normal $12 or $14 price, but instead of getting 1 lb. of coffee, you'd get 12-oz. and the tin. Moving forward you could go back to buying in the Kraft bags and refill the tin.