Shaw's Coffee, Ltd.

Is freezing the best way to preserve fresh roasted coffee?

In our view, the short answer is a resounding YES.

Fresh roasted coffee stored in the freezer retains the light weight oils and other volatile compounds created in the roasting process that otherwise evaporate very rapidly at room temperature. Evaporation of these light weight compounds is what creates the delicious aroma of fresh roasted coffee, BUT these same products are also what makes fresh roasted coffee taste so good. Additionally, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂O) are created during the roasting process, and the dissolved CO₂ is what gives fresh roasted coffee its effervescence. Once the light weight compounds and CO₂ are gone, generally after 7-10 days at room temperature, coffee begins to taste stale and flat.

Freezing coffee has two benefits. First, evaporation of the light weight aromatic compounds is eliminated at freezing temperatures. Second, CO₂ is more soluble in water at lower temperature (just like in beer or soda), and the effervescence of coffee is similarly better preserved.

Now some will say that freezing is “bad,” and the arguments generally go something like, freeze/thawing breaks the structure of the bean or results in coffee being “oxidized” or “denatured,” or that coffee “dries out” in the freezer due to frost free cycles, producing coffee “freezer burn.” However, these ideas are not based on any established facts or experiments and are thus just “opinions.” Indeed, roasting itself breaks down the structure of the bean and oxidizes the proteins and oils, and changes coffee into the aromatic and delicious, but also perishable, product that we all enjoy. Additionally, such opinions are very self-serving for coffee roasters and distributors who typically maintain coffee for long periods on grocery store shelves at room temperature.

At Shaw's Coffee, LTD, we ensure that the coffee delivered to you is fresh roasted prior to shipment and we recommend that you put it in the freezer as soon as you receive it, which is generally after no more than 3 days in the continental US. Our coffee bags are lined with polypropylene, a type of inert plastic, so there will be little chance for any freezer burn over the life of the coffee. We generally recommend storing coffee in the freezer for up to 8 weeks. And if you don’t believe us with regard to the benefits of freezing your coffee, we suggest you do the following “experiment” yourself:

You will need to start with truly fresh roasted coffee (you can get that from us!). If the coffee has been stored in a display bin for several days at room temperature, forget it. It will already be “stale” before you start and freezing it won’t make any difference!
Divide the coffee into two portions. Place one in a plastic-lined container in the freezer (one of our bags would be fine, or any other closed plastic container) and place the other portion in a similar container at room temperature on your counter or shelf.
After 10 days, compare the aroma of two samples of coffee before brewing, and taste the brewed samples with regard to richness, flavor and effervescence.
If you want to make your test “scientific” you will need to be sure that the two coffee samples for tasting are prepared using identical brewing techniques with the same amounts of coffee and fresh pure water. Ideally, you should have someone who doesn't know how each of the two coffees was stored prepare the coffee samples, and the tasters should also be “blinded” to the origin of the samples until they have rendered an opinion. We have tried this experiment ourselves, and there was no contest. Indeed, the coffee from the freezer was evident during brewing because of the preserved effervescence - which resulted in obvious bubbling, and the difference in the intensity of the flavors was striking.

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