Coffee is incredibly easy to get wrong, adjust your grinder slightly ... you now have a 2 second shot that tastes worse than bin juice. It takes skill, knowledge and a deep understanding to make consistently good coffee time and time again but there's still something that I see in so many cafes that gives me the ick.
DON'T STORE YOUR COFFEE IN THE GRINDER!
Cafe coffee grinders have hoppers (most of them that aren't single dose coffee grinders), this hopper is meant to hold coffee beans but it isn't meant to store coffee in over night.
Why this is bad.
Grinders are positioned right next the coffee machine (essentially a giant kettle that generates heaps of moisture and heat). Both heat and moisture are terrible for coffee beans and are actually two of the 5 variables that accelerate the aging of coffee beans. Not only this but because coffee grinder hoppers aren't air-tight they let fresh air all throughout your beans, constantly exposing them to new air.
The good side, it's only for one night.
Now back to the reality, if you're storing coffee in your grinders hopper and it's relatively fresh coffee and it's only going to be there for the night, I probably won't treat this as something to angrily message the work group chat about.
But, if you're cafe is closed for 2-3 days... time to stretch your thumbs.
What about home coffee machines?
This is the worst idea, whoever made a hopper that can fit 200g of beans in an espresso machine that most people would use to make coffee once or twice a day has a special place in hell for them.
Out of everything I mentioned before, storing coffee beans in the hopper of your espresso machines built in grinder is possibly the worst thing you can do to your coffee.
It's hot, moist, exposed to new air all the time and most of these grinder hoppers are transparant so they are exposed to sunlight... Literally every variable that accelerates the ageing of your coffee!
The Solution:
Coffee Bean Storage Containers, specifically the Airscape range of canisters.
Of all the coffee bean storage methods and products out there, Airscape has proven itself to be the best, it's simple to use, shields your coffee beans from all variables that age coffee and people love how they look great on your kitchen bench.
These canisters are available in 3 sizes, 4", 7" and 8". Each size is suitable to hold different amounts of coffee beans and yes, they are available in different colours too.
While they look like just regular buckets, they actually have an inner-plunger system, simply put your coffee beans into the container, plunge the insert all the way down till it touches the coffee beans and place the air-tight lid on top.
By plunging your insert into the canister you're forcing all that extra air out of the section where your coffee beans are.
Not only are you removing the extra aid, you're shielding your beans away from moisture and light. As well as this because the Airscape Coffee canisters are made from solid steel they insulate your beans from hot days and keep your beans nice and cool inside!
What Size Airscape Will I Need?
For cafes, I recommend the 8" Airscape Canister, it comfortable holds 1-1.5kg (depending on the coffee).
For home use I really recommend either the 7" Airscape or the 8" Airscape, these hold 250g and 500g of coffee. That being said, if you're buying 1kg bag's at a time opt for the 8" Airscape canister.
Scale Down, Not Up!
Because of how the Airscape plunging system is designed there is no minimum amount of coffee you can store in these, for example the 8" canister can hold about 1kg of coffee, as time goes by and you start burning through your beans, when you only have 250g left you simple just plunge the insert further down to meet the coffee beans.
What this means is go for a bigger canister! If you typically have 1 250g bag of beans, I'd opt for the 7" canister which can hold 500g. The 4" Canister can hold 250g of coffee but it really is ideal for those really special coffees, anything less than 250g or other non-coffee related items you're wanting to store.
Find a Zero Waste Coffee Roaster
Last thing I really want to mention, receiving coffee in a plastic bag that will last thousands of years for beans that won't make it past a couple of months is just another way humans disrespect this earth.
Buy a canister, have a conversation with your local coffee roaster and don't contribute to unnecessary waste.
By the way, most small independent coffee roasts love this because they save on bag / label costs, are given the opportunity to talk about their coffee to you and have an opportunity to discuss how to best brew (and store) your coffee beans that you bought from them.
This also goes for cafes! Forgetting about the individual coffee consumer there are some coffee roasters still sending out their coffee beans to wholesale cafes in 1kg plastic bags. This is insanity at it's prime. Roasters should really be using a reusable bucket system or coming up with a better solution and if you're starting a cafe it should be something you look out for!
The second best option
If you don't have coffee accessible, driving an hour to and from your closest roaster is not a realistic option, look for coffee roasters selling coffee in eco friendly coffee bags.
EcoBarista is innovating this space and making some of the best eco-friendly coffee bags available to roasters.
On this note, we sell Tin Man coffee roasters beans which are made from kraft paper coffee bags and Basic Barista coffee beans made from compostable materials.
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