Coffee and Oxygen

Yesterday I was at my local Fresh Market, and I needed some coffee to tide us over. The Stone Creek sadly is gone, and we needed something this morning. Fresh Market put coffee beans in a bin with a plastic lid on top. I know, not the best way to store beans. I saw one bin open. The issue I have is how long had that bin been open?

Let's assume for one moment those beans were freshly roasted(they aren't, but play along). That open bin means oxygen is now getting to those beans. Oxygen is the arch-enemy of coffee. Coffee desorbs CO2(my mom would be so happy I'm spouting science). As long as it's doing that, oxygen can't be absorbed. The problem is all of the CO2 is desorbed in about 10 days, and coffee begins to get stale.

At the Fresh Market, that bin has been opened many times. The coffee(assuming it is freshly roasted), is now rapidly becoming stale. Stale coffee is a bitter coffee. Now who wants that? Coffee has a limited fresh life.

(Graph from Kafexpress)

Make sure your coffee is sealed and has limited exposure to oxygen.

Charlie