How long will my coffee keep fresh?

We get asked all the time, how long will our coffee stay fresh? How long will it keep in tip-top condition? And the short answer is that in general, unopened, whole beans will keep really well for up to a year, ground coffee unopened will stay fresh for about 4-5 months.

Once opened, a bag of beans is at its best for around 2-3 weeks. A bag of ground coffee will be showing signs of staleness within a week. After this, even Dreambeans coffee will start to lose the high points and top notes that make it so amazing, and even though it will still taste better than the vast majority of coffee you can buy, you won’t be getting the full Dreambeans effect.

After roasting, coffee beans naturally outgas as they settle, releasing carbon dioxide gas at rates of up to 2000cc per kilo for a period of several days. This carbon dioxide (and a little nitrogen) pushes all the air and and all of the oxygen out of the bag through the one way valve, leaving the beans harmlessly blanketed in CO2. This is a very positive development from the beans’ perspective. Without oxygen, none of the yeasts, enzymes, bacteria or moulds which would cause the coffee to go off can live, so the coffee remains in perfect condition for a relatively long time.  This means that an unopened bag off coffee will stay fresh for a long time. Most coffee companies give a best by date of 1 year away.

Ground coffee goes off faster

At home, we go through a kilo bag of coffee beans in about a fortnight and that is absolutely fine. Coffee keeps for a long time once it’s properly packaged and stored. All our bags have one-way valves which allows gasses to leave the bag but not to enter.

We think 6 months is a good use-by period, but an unopened bag of beans will definitely be in great shape for at least a year. Once the bag hasn’t been opened and it is stored in a cool, dry place, Dreambeans coffee will maintain the high notes and the distinctive flavours that make it so exquisite. Once the bag is open, most people can start to tell the difference after about 2 weeks. It’s still better than everything else for about another week or two but once the bag has been opened for about 3 weeks to a month, it will start to taste the same as ordinary, mass market coffee like the big international brands you you can buy in the supermarket..

So if you buy 4 x 500g bags, unopened, it will definitely be perfect for 6 months and still in tip-top condition for up to a year. It depends on how quickly you use it up once it’s opened. See how you get through your current order. It’s best to open one bag at a time but it’s hard to resist trying out all the new treats…

By Pat McArdle