Still buying ground coffee? The most scientific guide to buying and preserving coffee beans, check it out here!

Are you still buying ground coffee? Are you scared of coffee beans on the shelf? How can you preserve the coffee beans you buy when you can't finish them all at once?

Drinking good coffee starts with buying and using good beans!

The purchase and storage of coffee beans has always been a difficult task to explain clearly in words, but today I will try to explain it to you as much as possible:

1. What should I pay attention to when buying roasted coffee beans?

2. How should you store coffee beans after you buy them home?

3. How to choose and buy green coffee beans?

one,

How to buy good roasted coffee beans?

The first consideration when buying coffee beans: freshness

Just like vegetables, fruits and various meats, coffee beans are also alive. Freshness, freshness, and freshness are the top priority when purchasing them.

Think about it, would mothers buy a month's worth of vegetables? Of course not, they would buy for the day, or just for one or two days. The same goes for coffee beans, you should buy as much as you want to eat, instead of buying a lot and keeping it there.

So how do we ensure that the coffee beans we buy are fresh?

Bean-growing period and best drinking period

The best time to drink coffee beans is about 7 to 30 days after roasting. The first seven days are called the bean-raising period, which varies depending on the type of coffee beans and the roasting method. You can ask the coffee shop what the most suitable bean-raising period is.

Figure: Changes in coffee flavor over time after roasting

Therefore, when buying coffee beans, you need to ask the store owner about the roasting date of the beans and only buy the amount that can be consumed within one month from the roasting date.

Coffee Bean Appearance

Don’t buy beans that look shiny!

There are two conditions that can make coffee beans shiny: too dark roasting and too long storage. Too dark roasting will lose the flavor of the origin; too long storage will make the beans taste bad!

Brewing method and roasting degree

Except for Italian coffee, there is no such thing as a certain utensil that is particularly suitable for a certain type of coffee beans, such as hand-brewed frother, siphon pot, French press, Aeropress, smart cup, etc., so there is no need to worry about the issue of matching coffee beans with the brewing method.

If you are brewing espresso at home, it is best to make it clear to the store, because espresso usually requires a slightly darker roasting degree than hand-brewed coffee.

Packaging and labeling

In order for coffee beans to be properly stored for a month, a low-oxygen, dry, low-temperature, and low-light environment is required.

At present, coffee shops generally use aluminum foil composite material packaging with a one-way exhaust valve. Because coffee beans will begin to emit a large amount of carbon dioxide after they are just roasted, one of the functions of this exhaust valve is to release the carbon dioxide to prevent the bean bag from bursting, while preventing oxygen from entering the bag and oxidizing the coffee beans, causing the loss of flavor.

After opening, if the bean bag has a zipper, be sure to let out as much air as possible and then zip it up. If there is no zipper, you must fold the straps several times and then clamp them with a clip to prevent air circulation as much as possible.

On the label, pay attention to whether there are a variety of descriptions, telling you the origin of the coffee beans, production process, production time, etc. Although more detailed does not necessarily mean better, the chances of it being good are higher than labels with nothing or a lot of sentimental articles written on them! And you can remember that the coffee you are drinking is from Sina Mandheling or Valmar Guatemala, not just Indonesia or Guatemala, which are names that are the same as saying nothing.

Next time you make a purchase, you can directly tell the seller what kind of coffee I want. You can directly tell the seller the name of the estate coffee beans you want, which I think is a very cool thing!

Tasting

Not providing a sample pack is a hooligan. Everyone has their own taste preferences, and the origin and degree of roasting will affect the taste. ☞ In-depth analysis of the impact of roasting on the flavor of coffee beans

Teacher Cha likes rich fruit acid and unique flavor of the origin, so he will choose lightly roasted coffee beans.

Coffee roasting equipment and others

For some very detailed and trivial points, you can ask the store more to learn more about the production process of coffee beans. For example, what equipment do they use. It’s not that I don’t like domestic roasters, but the stability of domestic roasters is not good enough, so it is difficult to produce coffee beans with similar flavors in each batch.

How the store controls quality, what steps and records it takes for quality control are also the focus of the inquiry.

two,

How to take care of the roasted coffee beans you bought home

Buy coffee beans and grind them at home

Teacher Cha repeatedly emphasized: Don’t buy ground coffee, as it will oxidize and lose its flavor too quickly. Wouldn’t that make all the trouble we put into selecting coffee beans in vain?

Sealing of container

If you choose to store in a jar, be sure to use a completely airtight type.

More importantly, please do not use ziploc bags. This is because all plastic materials are highly breathable (plastics are breathable!? Yes! Don't doubt it, but aluminum foil is very breathable, which is why most snacks and coffee beans are packaged in aluminum foil composite layers. Because of low breathability, the speed at which food oxidizes and becomes damp is very, very low!)

Refrigerate

Can roasted coffee beans be put in the refrigerator? No? Who said that? Come out, I promise I won’t hit you!

Of course you can put it in the refrigerator, and the lower the temperature, the longer it can be stored! But there are two key points: 1. The package must be absolutely sealed. 2. The package must return to room temperature before opening (otherwise, the surface of the coffee beans will condense water in the air and it will be easily affected by moisture).

three,

Purchasing and storing green coffee beans

After talking about cooked beans, let’s take a look at raw beans, which few people pay attention to.

Year of Green Beans

Before roasting, coffee beans are called green beans. Compared with roasted beans, the flavor of green beans is lost more slowly. But it does not mean that green beans can be stored indefinitely. The fresher the green coffee beans, the richer the flavor of the origin.

Therefore, we also hope to obtain green beans produced within one year at the origin.

Green beans packaging

Packaging also affects the speed at which flavor is lost. The best ways to preserve flavor are:

Vacuum packaging > GrainPro patented plastic bag > burlap bag

Vacuum bags and GrainPro are not affected by the environment before opening (after opening, they are just like burlap bags), so the storage environment should not be too extreme. However, if it is a burlap bag, due to its permeability, the changes of coffee beans will be very fast, so there are corresponding requirements for the warehouse environment.

Storage conditions

The best storage environment is a warehouse with a relative humidity of about 70% and the lower the temperature, the better.

Why is it 70% relative humidity? Do you remember the article about the refining method? ☞ If you don’t understand the refining method, don’t say you can drink coffee. In order to maintain the activity of cells in the coffee beans and avoid cell death and the rapid decay of flavor, the coffee beans will reduce the moisture to about 10~11% at the end. The relative humidity of 70% is exactly equal to the 10~11% moisture content in the beans. Therefore, the speed of moisture entering and leaving the coffee beans will be the same, which can keep the moisture content of the coffee beans at 11%.

But do you think the story ends here? Since coffee beans are alive, they will continuously consume energy, so some of the flavor substances in the coffee beans will deteriorate due to oxidation, and some will be converted into other substances due to the metabolic consumption of the cells themselves. So, what is so magical about vacuuming and GrainPro? In short, these two storage methods will put the coffee beans into a dormant state. The less oxygen content in the surrounding area, the less the amount of flavor substances in the beans will deteriorate due to oxidation, and the faster the coffee beans will enter dormancy. After dormancy, the overall metabolism will become very slow, and therefore the coffee beans can be better preserved.

What about the last influencing factor, temperature?

Basically, the lower the temperature, the better. What!? Below zero degrees is also OK? Of course, but to store green coffee beans below zero degrees, you can only use vacuum packaging, and before opening the package, the green coffee beans must be completely returned to room temperature. Otherwise, the coffee beans will be damp and the flavor will be greatly affected.

To sum up, there are only a few key points in selecting coffee beans.

1. Fresh, whether it is the raw beans or the cooked beans.

1. Use green beans within one year and drink coffee beans within one month.

2. Storage! Keep away from oxygen, moisture and high temperature

3. Clear production and sales record

4. The boss is handsome!

– END –

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