S4: Episode 7: Coffee In The Freezer: Brilliant Hack Or Bean Blunder?
Is it finally cool to freeze your coffee? In this episode, we explore the surprising shift in expert opinion on storing roasted beans in the freezer. Once frowned upon, freezing might just be your secret weapon for fresher brews—if you do it right. And in this week’s FACQ, we tackle the question: should you be freezing your coffee at home?
How to Store and Use Frozen Coffee ONA Coffee https://onacoffee.com.au/blogs/news/how-to-store-and-use-frozen-coffee?srsltid=AfmBOooJsjR7oADOH80vx0rCNrscWq0JIcDtxndMB6kRJ0vtJGHhPgol
The effect of bean origin and temperature on grinding roasted coffee Scientific Reports volume 6, Article number: 24483 (2016) https://www.nature.com/articles/srep24483#Sec8
What We Know About Freezing Coffee Beans by Manchester Coffee Archive https://manchestercoffeearchive.com/freezing-coffee/
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week's episode is on the much debated topic of storing roasted coffee in the freezer …and later I’ll be answering a question about whether you should be storing your coffee in the freezer so stay tuned for that…
Way back near the beginning of Season One I devoted a whole episode to ‘Why coffee storage matters more than you might think’. Some might have viewed it as an odd thing to focus on, but while it may not seem that important, the way that you store your coffee can have a big impact on what you experience in your brew. In particular poor storage that exposes it to air, moisture and high temperatures will all hasten the staling of your lovely coffee. And this happens even more quickly with ground coffee due to its larger surface area than whole beans. In that earlier episode I covered a lot of ground and briefly said that it’s OK to store coffee in the freezer under certain circumstances. What I didn’t mention then is that storing coffee in the freezer is - or was - something of a controversial position in the specialty coffee world as in the past it was generally considered to be even worse than keeping coffee in the fridge! But the ground has started to shift beneath the feet of the die hard freezer nay sayers as their stance has been challenged in recent years. So its high time to take a deep dive into the pros and cons of storing coffee in the freezer. It should be noted that scientifically speaking coffee beans don’t technically freeze in a freezer as they are already in a solid not a liquid state - but I will be referring to frozen and freezing beans as shorthand for ‘beans stored at below 0ºCelcius’ throughout the episode so don’t get mad. And now that’s cleared up, let’s get into it…
So firstly freezer storage and the bean
Around ten years ago any specialty roaster worth their salt would have told you flat out not to store their coffee in the freezer. The argument being that taking the beans in and out of the freezer repeatedly as you use them allows water to rapidly condense on the beans which reacts with the coffee oils and makes the beans go stale faster. And as coffee is effectively dehydrated by the roasting process it was believed that the coffee would more readily absorb that water. Introducing any moisture to coffee during storage is known to affect its flavour but actual scientific research about the effects of freezing on a coffee’s flavour is thin on the ground - although I did find one paper that I will be talking about later. Anecdotally, informal experiments with freezing beans suggest that it actually does have some benefits for both brewing and preserving the coffee’s flavour. In fact Australian coffee company ONA Coffee was so impressed with the results of their foray into freezing coffee beans that they now offer drinks brewed from frozen coffee beans to their customers. Now that’s a 180 that no-one saw coming!
Next freezer storage and the taste
Freezing beans does slow down staling which makes coffee taste flat so it is theoretically a good thing to do. But there is no denying that regular exposure of the beans to flavour-robbing air and moisture as you use up a bag stored in the freezer will degrade the coffee’s flavour over time. The solution, as ONA Coffee realised, is in the size of the batch being stored. And that it needs to be beans not grounds to minimise the effect on the coffee. They found that storing single-brew quantities of beans in airtight containers did preserve a coffee’s flavour when kept for long periods in a freezer. And storing the coffee in such small amounts meant that the beans weren’t going to be affected by being taken in and out of the freezer. You simply grab what you need and then use them all up. Storing beans like this not only extends the shelf life of a coffee, but it also allows roasters to ‘potentially’ directly compare the flavour of this year's coffee against future crops or to extend the opportunity for their customers to taste exceptional coffees long after they would normally have been used up. In an interesting twist ONA Coffee now suggests a ‘best freeze date’ for their coffees based on freezing them when they taste at their best after roasting. What a difference 10 years makes eh?
Finally freezer storage and the brew
One of the few scientific studies that has explored the effect of freezing on coffee looked at its influence on grinding the beans. It was found that grinding frozen beans results in a more even grind size - presumably because they are more brittle. This is better for extraction of the coffee oils and therefore the flavour of your brew. If you do decide to freeze your beans there is no need to defrost them - you can grind them straight from the freezer and brew immediately. Its a good idea to pay attention to the flavour of coffee brewed with frozen beans as you may need to tweak your brewing variables from your room temperature bean settings. The grounds of frozen beans tend to be a little finer in size than those from room temperature beans which may cause increased bitterness in the brew, so you may need to coarsen up the grind setting on your grinder a notch. Also sour and astringent flavours would signal under-extraction of the coffee oils from the chilling effect of frozen coffee on your brewing water temperature - in which case you may need to increase the water temperature a degree or two. If you are interested to read more about freezing coffee I’ll put links in the show notes to the study, and to articles by ONA Coffee and the Manchester Coffee Archive on the subject if you want to delve even deeper.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
So are you saying that I should keep my coffee in the freezer?
Not necessarily. It really depends on how often you buy coffee and how often you make it. You really don’t need to store it in the freezer if you buy small quantities of freshly roasted coffee in an amount that is tailored to your usage so that you finish the coffee before it goes stale. But this may not be possible for you or may not be something that you want to do. Perhaps you only brew coffee once a week or you want to have a choice of a number of different coffees available to drink at any one time. Or perhaps you want or need to stockpile coffee - say if you buy coffee in bulk because you don’t have a great roastery in your neighbourhood and need to get it delivered. In these scenarios then freezing the coffee when it is fresh to preserve its flavour is definitely a good thing to do - but I strongly recommend that you break the coffee down into small batches and store them in airtight containers before they go into the freezer to minimise the effect of air and moisture on the beans. Honestly - you don’t have to go to the extent of freezing the coffee in individual portions like Ona Coffee, but you do you!
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about the somewhat controversial topic of storing your coffee in the freezer. Do you store your coffee in the freezer and do you think it affects the flavour of your coffee? Let me know on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. In the next episode we are looking into another controversy in coffee and that is white coffee - and I don’t mean coffee with milk! If you are intrigued be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss it, if you haven’t already. Don’t forget that my puzzle book ‘Wordsearch for the Coffee Curious’ is out now! The link is in the show notes. If you do buy a copy and you like it, it would be amazing if you would leave a review for it - it really does help promote the book to new people who might also love it. And on that note please also rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for taking your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
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