When you remove coffee beans from the package they come in, you’ll need to store them properly if you’re not grinding them all at that moment. Keeping your coffee beans in a room temperature, dark, and dry area will ensure your coffee beans stay fresh and maintain their quality.
Since heat, light, and moisture are the enemies of coffee, finding an appropriate container to store them in is important. Doing so will ensure that your coffee tastes delicious and as it should instead of stale and weak.
Vacuum sealing is all the rage for keeping products fresh, so can you vacuum seal coffee beans to maintain freshness?
You Can Vacuum Seal Coffee Beans
You absolutely can vacuum seal coffee beans. Sealing coffee beans tightly into a bag will preserve their freshness and flavor. But before you begin vacuum-sealing bags of coffee beans, there are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind. The biggest thing is where to store the coffee beans once they’ve been vacuum sealed.
Where to Store Coffee Beans That Are Vacuum Sealed
The big four enemies of coffee beans are heat, light, moisture, and oxygen. When you vacuum-seal your coffee beans, you’re removing oxygen from reaching the beans and preventing moisture. But most vacuum seal bags are translucent, so light can still seep in, and depending on where you keep the coffee beans, they can be subject to heat.
If you’re going to vacuum-seal your coffee beans, you’ll still need to store them away from any heat and light. You probably think that since the coffee beans are in an airtight bag, you can just keep them in a cabinet away from the heat of the oven.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even in your pantry, which sees minimal light, putting your vacuum-sealed coffee beans in there will cause the coffee beans to release carbon dioxide. When they release this gas, it fills the bag, defeating the purpose of vacuum sealing them in the first place.
Where can you store vacuum-sealed coffee beans, you may ask? How about your freezer! Many people are against putting coffee beans in the freezer because it can leave them subjected to moisture and potential light, but that’s only if they’re not in an airtight container.
Since the vacuum-sealed bag makes these coffee beans airtight, moisture cannot seep into the bag, nor will carbon dioxide release and fill the bag. You will need to hide them so light doesn’t get in when you open the door, though.
If you choose to keep your vacuum-sealed coffee beans in your freezer, you’ll need to pull them out the night before you want a fresh cup of coffee. Doing this ensures that your coffee beans are at room temperature, the desired temperature, before brewing that perfect, energizing cup of joe.
Tips for Vacuum Sealing Coffee Beans
If you’re dead set on vacuum sealing your coffee beans, here’s a tip that will help you keep as many coffee beans as fresh as possible. Instead of using a large bag when vacuum-sealing your coffee beans, consider using individual portion-sized bags.
Portioning out your coffee beans helps preserve our coffee beans by only unsealing the coffee beans you need per morning rather than the entire batch.
When you can’t think of a better way to store your coffee beans than vacuum sealing them, the best way to do so is to use a back that is not translucent. If you can find a bag to use that can protect the coffee beans from any light.
Since you’ll still need to put the coffee beans in the freezer to prevent carbon dioxide from being released and filling the bag, at least the opaque bag will protect the coffee beans from any light that appears when the freezer door is open.
Why You May Want to Try Vacuum-Sealing Coffee Beans
Besides the obvious that vacuum-sealing can keep moisture and oxygen out of the coffee beans, as long as you store them properly, there are other benefits to vacuuming-sealing your beans.
Vacuum-sealing any ingredient helps you save space. It makes the ingredients more compact and easier to store. If you’re a coffee lover and have a lot of coffee beans on hand, vacuum-sealing them can save you space in your freezer.
The Downside to Vacuum-Sealing Coffee Beans
The biggest downside to doing this is that off-gassing can happen if you don’t store them in the freezer. Another downside that may not be an issue for you but is for some is that vacuum-sealing all your coffee beans can be time-consuming than pouring beans into an airtight container.
The final downside to doing this is another thing that may not be a huge deal for you but is for some. Vacuum-sealing coffee beans mean using extra plastic, and it may contaminate your beans. This can be wasteful and may potentially leave plastic remnants in your coffee beans.
Alternatives to Vacuum Sealing Coffee Beans
If you’ve ever vacuum-sealed anything, it is very pleasing and can help keep various ingredients fresh for a more extended period of time.
But with coffee beans, there are some extra steps involved. If you don’t want to buy the products to vacuum seal your coffee beans, here are some alternatives you can consider for storing your beans.
Using Airtight Containers
If you’re not going to use vacuum seal bags for your coffee beans or grounds, you need to use an airtight container.
Airtight containers help to keep oxygen and moisture out of your coffee beans. When oxygen and moisture seep into the container that your coffee beans are in, your coffee’s flavor is going to taste rather awful.
When you’re choosing an airtight container, the ideal container is going to be opaque. You can find opaque, airtight containers online or at several container stores.
Finding an airtight container that doesn’t allow light into the coffee beans is better for the coffee because you don’t need to store the beans in the freezer necessarily, and you don’t risk carbon dioxide being released within the bag.
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