[barbarake]

I have the opportunity to buy about 50 lbs of roasted coffee beans at an excellent price. I don't mind grinding my own but does anyone know how long the whole beans will stay good??

I tried finding information on the internet but everything I found must be geared toward coffee gourmets. Heck, one site said "Roasted coffee beans only last 4 to 7 days maximum before they oxidize and lose their entire flavor". Yeah, right. I've used ground coffee that was three years old (from a sealed can) and it was just fine. I would think that the whole beans would last longer than that...right??

 

[Shrek]

I regularly store bags of roasted whole beans for up to 3 years in my coffee stockpile. All I do is heat the roasted beans to 250 degrees for about 45 minutes before grinding. The coffee is up to my standards when used t and I am always able to get the lowest price this way. If the beans arnt in a vacuum sealed bag, I use my seal a meal to vac seal them.

 

[jerneeon]

Also, if you keep them cold they last longer.

 

[CJ]

I grind my own coffee every morning, and I keep my beans stored in the freezer.

 

[Soni]

I have heard from coffee aficianados that cold storage actually decreases their flavor (freezing being bad for the flavorful oils or some such). Much back and forth about that. I would run a blind test and bag up two identical sized portions from the same batch and freeze one (store the other at room temp in an airtight container) for about 3 months and have a taste test.

Let me know what you find, eh?

 

[HermitJohn]

I have the opportunity to buy about 50 lbs of roasted coffee beans at an excellent price. I don't mind grinding my own but does anyone know how long the whole beans will stay good??

I tried finding information on the internet but everything I found must be geared toward coffee gourmets. Heck, one site said "Roasted coffee beans only last 4 to 7 days maximum before they oxidize and lose their entire flavor". Yeah, right. I've used ground coffee that was three years old (from a sealed can) and it was just fine. I would think that the whole beans would last longer than that...right??

Ah, phooey on the 4-7 day stuff. I roast my own and dang they dont even make a really decent cup of coffee until at least 3 days after roasting (depends on variety). Same with freezing. I've had some whole bean 8oclock coffee in freezer for a year that was ok. Just let it warm before brewing and maybe you really dont have to do that. Green unroasted coffee beans will last far longer. Many commercial unroasted beans can set in warehouses for YEARS. Newer the better I'm sure for highest quality (gourmets say unroasted beans keep high quality for a year), but it says they are useable for very long time.

Depends on amt coffee you use, but maybe safest is to vacuum seal it in bags like shrek, then freeze it. Can always reroast it a bit again like Shrek. I remember when I was a kid and crackers/cereal/etc came in wax paper instead of sealed plastic, they would get bit stale during summer (no air conditioning) and Mom would retoast them. Helped quite a bit. With coffee beans, it probably would bring some more oils to surface. Maybe not absolute highest gourmet quality but sure no worse than that stuff they sell in a can anymore. (Dont think its just me, canned coffee used to be whole lot higher quality.) Imagine lot of those way overpriced preroasted whole beans in grocery store have set on shelf for lot longer than one would care to imagine.

 

[diane]

We had some that somehow avoided the rotation that were in the large, air tighted CO2 sealed buckets that were still good after 10 years. They were stored in a building that experiences the normal seasonal changes found in south central Michigan. For 50 pounds I would not even bother with the CO2 seal, but I would put in a tightly sealed container.