Storing Coffee Long Term

[230gr]

I wrote this a few years ago so things like prices are not going to be current.
230gr

Storing Coffee Long Term

   While back, I found a glass jar of Folgers Freeze Dried stored since 1980 in my basement that had escaped rotation.  It was 24 years old at that time and as taste good as the day it was made. Much of the Shelf Life data that I found is very conservative and the 5 year shelf life often cited for coffee beans may be much too conservative. Instant coffee, with the bean oil removed, should store better and longer than ground beans (if stored in steel, glass or mylar w/o oxygen). 
    I looked into the best way to storage coffee long term and this is what I concluded:
Ideally, coffee should be ground, brewed, and consumed quickly to obtain the best flavor. Coffee beans are at their peak within 24 to 72 hours after roasting and begin to quickly stale after that with most of the original flavor will have deteriorated within a week. Vacuum sealing and over wrapped with aluminum foil and placing them in a freezer (the refrigerator is NOT cold enough) will extend it to 4 or 6 weeks. Which mean that unless you roast & grind your own (or go to Starbucks?), we are not used to grommet tasting coffee so I will settle for drinkable.

How can we best store drinkable coffee really long term as in years?
•   Green, whole beans store the best and stay reasonably "fresh" for up to a year in a metal, glass or foil lined bag container that are sealed from moisture and oxygen or for several years if frozen.
•   Vacuumed packed steel cans of roasted, ground coffee beans in 59o F storage may keep a year or two (though I suspect a longer), with tolerable drinking quality. Roasting the bean brings the flavorful, but brings the easily rancidzed oils to the surface of the bean and grinding exposing even more of the bean to oxygen. The heavier oils of the beans flow to the exterior of the bean often congealing during frozen storage and do not remix well when the coffee is brewed.
•   The best keepers are the Instant type and they come in two forms; spun dried powder and freeze dried. If instant is stored at 59o F, protected from light, in a metal, glass or foil lined bag container, sealed from moisture and oxygen it will keep at least 10 years.
•    IMO, the stored freeze dried was better tasting than the spun dried powder so that is what I store.  Also, from my own personal experience, Folgers Freeze Dried Coffee, stored in my basement storeroom for over 24 years in its glass jar. It was not only good; it was excellent in flavor.

How much should I store?
   Here is what I found for freeze dried, spun dry might be different. I converted grams to grains so you can use your powder scale to calibrate your coffee dipper for rationing purposes. Since I don’t know anyone who really drinks only a 6 oz cup of coffee for an eye opener so plan accordingly.

Freeze Dried Coffee Product Yield
Grams of Coffee per 6oz Cup (Regular Strength)
1.2 grams/18.5 grains 189 cups
1.3 grams/20.0 grains =175 cups 
1.4 grams/21.6 grains =162 cups
Grams of Coffee per 6oz Cup (Stronger Strength)
1.5 grams/23.0 grains =151 cups
1.6 grams/ 24.6 grains =142 cups
Grams of Coffee per 6oz Cup (Strongest Strength)
1.7 grams/ 26.2 grains =134 cups / Bag
2.0 grams/30.8 grains  =114 cups / Bag
Nescafé 100% Colombian Vend Pack Coffee-  1 (8oz or 226.7 gram) bag $19.95;  12 (8oz) Bags/Case; 1 case $219.00 
http://www.discountcoffee.com/nescaf...mbian_vend.htm

[230gr]

Another reason to store coffee.

[TWP]

I have some limited experience with out-of-date coffee.

My current stock is from the last of several boxes of ground, regular coffee, packaged as single pot (about 4-6 cups) servings in heat sealed plastic (mylar) bags.

They were being disposed by a coffee shop because they were approaching the "expiration" date and the shop would not have been able to use them before that date (yes, it was one of the major national coffee shop chains).  I happened to watch the manager drop the boxes into their inside trash bin and asked why?  and could I take them instead.  He didn't mind so...

Those boxes were marked 2010 expiration, so they are now almost six years past date.   They still smell fine when I open a package.  There is no evidence of out-gassing in any of the bags (no bags are swelling).

The coffee made from these is good (IMHO) and I will be sorry to use the last of it.

I did not refrigerate the bags, they sat on a shelf in the kitchen (warmest part of the apt.).

I think that, had I frozen these bags, they would have lasted Years longer.

This leads me to disbelieve the printed "expiration" date...

[230gr]

I agree on out date (use by) dates, unless you are storing food in your attic, they are fine for years beyond that. From my own personal experience, Folgers Freeze Dried Coffee, stored in my basement storeroom for over 24 years in its glass jar. It was not only good; it was excellent in flavor. Storing beans (especially pre roasted) or ground beans (even more so) lends itself to oxidizing (making rancid) the coffee oils. That is one of the reasons that I store Freeze Dried instant which is oil free the other is less storage space. 

[TWP]

My vote is on the freeze dried coffee for long term (prepper) storage
and green coffee beans because they might actually sprout and let me grown coffee (long shot here).

Worst case, I can always roast the green beans myself.

[Jerry D Young]

Ditto TWP.

Just my opinion.