If you love coffee so much then now is the time that you should begin to understand how to get the best deals when buying your coffee, what are the best ways of grinding the beans, a wise way of storing the coffee and the proper way of preparing it to enjoy your coffee.
Many suggest buying coffee from a local roaster. I agree. Beginning with your local roaster gives you a couple of advantages. First, one is the freshness. You are somewhat guaranteed that what you get is quite fresh since these local roasters roast the coffee in smaller batches which also results in a tastier and more aromatic product.
When you buy coffee, make sure that you buy just enough for two weeks at a time. Buying a large stock is not good. At the end of the two weeks, the coffee begins to lose its rich flavor. It doesn’t matter whether the beans were roasted locally. Storing them for weeks is never good. Also, on a related note, you should stay away from shops that display their coffee in bins. The air that enters the display bins helps quicken the phase of flavor loss. You will loose a lot of the coffee’s flavor when you exposed a freshly roasted batch of beans to the air.
Most of the aroma and flavor come from the oils that come out after roasting the beans. The oil will evaporate when exposed to air and along with that the flavors and aroma of the coffee. Aside from air, heat, light and humidity are added factors that can increase the drop of the quality of the coffee.
When storing coffee, use vacuum containers. Some advise storing your coffee beans inside the freezer. However, if you’re going to store it in a freezer don’t make a habit of taking them out. When the coffee beans warm up, the condensation can damage them causing loss in flavor and aroma.
Ideally, never store ground coffee. What you should do is grind only the amount that you will need and store the beans. If you will store ground coffee, place it inside airtight containers and at room temperature. If you’re going to store coffee beans, make sure that you store only for a week, two weeks maximum. Storing beans any longer than that can drastically affect the overall taste and smell of the coffee.