The best coffee is fresh coffee and the best healthy organic coffee you will enjoy is fresh organic coffee. Green coffee beans keep their freshness for a couple of years. Roasted coffee beans remain fresh for a few months. Ground coffee freshness is measured in days or even hours. Here are a few tips to keeping fresh organic coffee fresh.
Coffee Storage
Fresh organic coffee will stay fresher if it is stored in a cool place and if it is in an airtight container. Organic coffee antioxidants coffee antioxidants are largely responsible for coffee flavor. Heat and oxygen are their enemies. Think cool, dry, and air tight when you store coffee.
If cool is good, is cold better?
If you buy coffee that is in an air tight container you can add to its shelf life by freezing it. But, once you open the container you let air and moisture inside. If you then repeatedly freeze and thaw the coffee you will keep adding moisture the shorten the shelf life of its flavor.
Convenience can kill coffee flavor. That favorite spot on the shelf by the stove works great when you need to find the coffee in the morning. But the same warm location spells doom for fresh organic coffee. Pick a spot away from the stove or any hot air vents.
Beans, Roasted Beans, and Ground Coffee
Panama Mountain Grown Organic Coffee is often shipped to the USA for roasting. So is coffee from Colombia, Brazil and Vietnam. This is because coffee starts to lose its antioxidants and its flavor as soon as it is roasted. This is why most coffee roasting happens in the markets where the coffee will be sold.
While green coffee beans last a long time the clock starts to tick when coffee is roasted. In fact some of the most important antioxidants that give coffee its flavor and many health benefits are created when the coffee is roasted. Because only the outside of the coffee bean is exposed to the air roasted coffee beans still maintain most of their flavor for months. Putting them in an airtight container just after roasting them helps as well. When you grind roasted coffee you exposed a much larger surface area to the air and that is what denies you a cup of fresh organic coffee.
Preparing Fresh Organic Coffee
An ideal way to enjoy fresh organic coffee is to roast your own coffee every day or so and only grind the coffee immediately before making coffee. This is typically why coffee house coffee is so good. In coffee growing regions of the world roasted coffee beans are ground and put in a cloth strainer placed over a container. Hot water is poured over the ground coffee and the result is a delicious cup of coffee. An old recipe from Midwest farm gatherings is to grind the coffee and add to a large pot along with an cracked egg of two. Add water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let sit until the grounds settle. This recipe is meant to remove excess acidity from the brew. A French press typically works to make a nice cup or two of fresh organic coffee. However, the best coffee starts with good beans, usually Arabica, roasted and consumed shortly thereafter.