Do coffee beans go bad? A lot of people are wondering about that little question, myself included. I have been a coffee lover for several years now. I got the habit from my wife who is a certified coffee addict. She was the one who got me hooked when we started living together. After I became addicted to drinking coffee we started buying a lot of different kinds. There was one time that we bought four large bags by mistake. I was wondering if I should return them. I had no idea about how long they would be able to stay fresh and usable. So I did some research of my own and I tried to find out how long they would be able to last before the coffee beans went bad. Here is what I found out:
Coffee that is in a sealed and an airtight container should last for up to 6 months. Once opened they will deteriorate quite fast and I found out that it would be best if you can use the whole coffee beans within 2 to 4 weeks after opening the container. If they go beyond that, then the quality of the taste can really go downhill. Not that these coffee beans that have gone bad will make you sick, but rather they’ll just taste musty, yucky and gross! That is how I discovered that the way of storing coffee is also very important in ensuring that the drink can last.
Here are some useful and important tips that I have learned when it comes to storing coffee:
Freezing Coffee is Not a Good Idea
Some people think that freezing coffee is a great way of keeping it fresh for a long time. On the contrary, that is not a good idea. First of all coffee is porous which means that there is a good chance that the coffee that you place inside your freezer will absorb the flavor of the other foods contained in there – fishy coffee anyone ;). It can also absorb the moisture in your freezer which will deteriorate your coffee quite rapidly. Freezing coffee can also break down the oils that are essential for the flavor of the coffee.
Whole Beans
For the best flavor in your drinks the best method is to buy beans whole and then store them in dry, dark and sealed containers. Grind the beans just right before you will be using them. Storing ground coffee means that you are losing some of the essential flavors of the drink as the oils evaporate and deteriorate.
Vacuum Sealed Coffee
Buying vacuum sealed coffee means that you are buying a second rate coffee product. Coffee releases natural gases when it is roasted so it can not be sealed in a vacuum bag right away or it will inflate and burst the bag. That means that the coffee that you get in those neat little packages has been allowed to sit on some shelf for a day or two before packaging, which means it has lost some flavor.
This is why you’ll note that the premier coffee beans and coffee bean companies store their coffee beans in coffee bags that have valves in them to allow for this exchange of gas.
These are just some of the things to bear in mind in order to ensure that you will be getting the best and highest quality coffee that is possible and limiting the chances of your coffee becoming spoiled. If you really love coffee as much as I do then you can benefit a lot by learning from these lessons. So, do coffee beans go bad? The short answer is yessiree.