How to Grind Coffee Beans

Keeping It Fresh

Coffee freshness is one of the essential ingredients towards creating Cup Perfection. What you may not know is that, roasted coffee has two enemies; oxygen and moisture. These two culprits are the bane of a coffee connoisseurs existence. The best way to keep coffee beans fresh is to store it in an airtight container at room temperature. Let’s just say it may be weeks before your coffee is being used, then it is best to store the sealed bags in the freezer, or in an airtight container in the freezer. Once you remove the coffee from the freezer, it does not go back into the freezer. Storing in the freezer will create moisture from condensation so once it is out of the freezer keep it on the counter in an airtight container. If the temperature is anything but freezing, the coffee will absorb moisture and aromas from the fridge and affect the taste.

Once your coffee beans are ground, there is now more surface area exposed to oxygen and moisture. You know that smell of freshly ground coffee? The delicious, wonderful, yummy coffee smells that makes you feel like you just want to roll around in it, like a puppy in fresh cut grass? Well, that smell is your coffee flavor dissolving into thin air. So basically, from the glorious moment when you savor that first sip of your coffee, you know, the moment when it feels like the heavens have opened up into a symphony? Well, the time between the grinding of the coffee beans and the brewing of the ground coffee needs to be immediate, otherwise the dreamy symphony of love you want to experience with your cup of coffee will diminish into an acoustic cover of a sad love song.

How to grind your own coffee beans

If you are a home grinder, then your coffee grinding equipment is your next consideration towards Cup Perfection. Before we talk about the choice in the coffee grind, we need to touch on quality of the coffee grind. The consistency of the particles of coffee in the grind is what determines grind quality. The Burr style coffee grinder offers the most control over the fineness of the coffee grind with more consistency in particle size, which then creates a consistency in flavor. The more common economical blade-style coffee grinder can leave you with a range in particle sizes, which can lead to both bitter and sour flavors coming out of the coffee.

Check our other blog which describes different coffee grinders.