Can freezers be used to store Coffee?

How should Coffee beans be stored, so you can enjoy the tastiest coffee from your bean to cup espresso machine One of the suggested methods is to put your ground coffee or coffee beans in the freezer. So does storing coffee in your freezer actually work What are the advantages and are there any disadvantages

Freezing is a traditional method used to preserve food and in todays modern kitchen with a fridge or freezer it is easy and convenient A diverse selection of foods can be frozen. Freezing even maintains many of the vitamins and nutritional value of a wide variety of foods. Unfortunately Coffee does not on the face of it have the characteristics of an item that would be suitable for freezing.

Coffee Beans have four main enemies against freshness: air, heat, light and moisture.

At first, freezing doesn't seem to contain many of the offending enemies. However, appearances can be deceiving.

Coffee beans have been roasted in order to enhance flavor. The beans are also porous. and freezers are full of many strongly flavoured foods, odours and smells. The porous beans can absorb the flavors of many other frozen foods. Flavoured coffees can be pleasant, but no one wants to drink seafood or garlic flavored coffee.

Due to their porous nature moisture can also be absorbed by the coffee beans. Moisture can cause deterioration and loss of flavor. The more often you take coffee out of the freezer and put it back in, the more moisture absorption takes place into the bean. If you absolutely need to freeze some coffee because you have a large excess you'd like to keep, only freeze it once. The more you take it in and out of the freezer, the more damage you do.

Once frozen these oils in the beans begin to break down. The flavours of the coffee are enhanced by the oils it contains. Breaking down the oils means taking away flavour, and let's face it, a large part of a good cup of coffee is the flavour.

Coffee Beans, in order to retain flavour and taste should not be stored in the freezer. The best results and to ensure coffee retains its taste store coffee in a cool, dry and air tight container away from the light and any source of heat. So although Coffee can be frozen it is best only to freeze it the once. The resulting loss of flavour and quality from repetitive freezing makes it a method of storage to stay away from.

Your best bet is to purchase only enough beans or ground coffee to supply you for 1-2 weeks. That way you will enjoy Coffee from your Expresso Coffee Maker or Coffee machine at its freshiest and best.