June 28, 2018
Freezing Roasted Coffee
It is striking how many specialty coffee companies recommend NOT freezing your roasted coffee. They are wrong.
I have found that just one day after I have opened a bag of coffee, thereby exposing it to oxygen, it has lost much of its dimensionality; it is a shadow of that first glorious day – assuming it was a great coffee, perfectly roasted to begin with!
You cannot simply put it in a container and remove the oxygen as if it were a wine: carbon dioxide pours out of fresh coffee, eliminating any sealed vacuum you may have started with. Keeping it cool and dry does nothing to stop the already oxygen-contaminated coffee from becoming zombified. But take a thick zip-lock bag, place the beans in it, squeeze most of the air out, and freeze it on the spot and you stop all transactions cold. Our coffee bags already have a zip lock; there is no need to transfer.
Next day: grind the coffee right away, the colder the better! The colder the beans are, the more brittle they are, and the more evenly they grind. That’s what the 2017 USA Barista Champion did with his espresso beans! His professional jurors were more than convinced.
Brew immediately after; no need to wait. All our single-pour coffees are kept frozen at our café in Downtown Crossing. If you want some of your roasted coffee to be around for over a couple of weeks, vacuum the coffee in a pouch and freeze it. Enjoy!
– George Howell