What to do when you have two bags of coffee coming - Page 3

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
jpender
Posts: 3863
Joined: 11 years ago

#21: Post by jpender »

RyanJE wrote:Try it yourself. Get a fresh coffee freeze some and leave some out, drink it for 5 days. A month (or two even) later take the frozen coffee out and see it it still has the same character.
Well that's part of what I did recently with those two coffees. I split two bags, putting half of each in the freezer. It took me about a month to finish those two half bags and at that time I could detect no deterioration. At no point during that month was the room temperature coffee better than the one month old freezer coffee.

RyanJE
Posts: 1519
Joined: 9 years ago

#22: Post by RyanJE replying to jpender »

Still missing the point. You are comparing month old RT coffee. I was not nor was I suggesting that..

Either way, hope the OP has figured out his solution.
I drink two shots before I drink two shots, then I drink two more....

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Nick Name
Posts: 680
Joined: 9 years ago

#23: Post by Nick Name »

jpender wrote: A few months back I was cleaning out my freezer and found half a bag buried in the back that had been misplaced for a year. The coffee was fabulous, bursting with fruit. I wished I'd misplaced more of it.
I've forgotten beans for about 6 months in the freezer a couple of times. There was nothing wrong with them. Really tasty cups. Espresso/cappuccino only of course.

I really can't comment about the brewed coffee because I'm not a huge fan to begin with.

jpender
Posts: 3863
Joined: 11 years ago

#24: Post by jpender »

RyanJE wrote:Still missing the point. You are comparing month old RT coffee.
Not missing the point. I just didn't communicate to you effectively.

What I meant was that at no point in time, including when the coffee was fresh, did the RT coffee taste better to me than the 1 month old freezer coffee.

It's interesting the perceived difference between espresso and all other brewing methods with respect to freezing.
For what it's worth, I was alternating between press pot and cupping.

RyanJE
Posts: 1519
Joined: 9 years ago

#25: Post by RyanJE replying to jpender »

Oh got ya. If you read the entire freezing study even Jim S apparently noticed the difference in frozen coffee while cupping..

I personally have no clue tho...
I drink two shots before I drink two shots, then I drink two more....

jpender
Posts: 3863
Joined: 11 years ago

#26: Post by jpender »

RyanJE wrote:If you read the entire freezing study even Jim S apparently noticed the difference in frozen coffee while cupping..
I have read Ken's study, more than once. And Jim's comments weren't exactly unequivocal.

Jim did say that he "could tell previously frozen from never frozen coffee more often than if by chance" (by cupping). But that's not quite the same as claiming statistical significance. He also said "the differences were subtle" and that he "felt he was no better in discriminating between frozen and never frozen than he would be in detecting subtle differences between different roast batches of the same coffee". I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Jim could taste differences that I would miss.

Those were comments Jim made that weren't results of Ken's study itself. The study results (with espresso) were less ambiguous. Ken summarized it as follows: "(N)one of the tasters could consistently differentiate among the shots made with previously frozen or never frozen coffee".


It's not an easy thing to study or understand. As Nick Name said, coffee is complex. And it's also possible that if you brewed the coffees that I stored, or tasted what I brewed, you would have had different opinions about them. Ultimately, it's what you taste, what you think, that matters most.

berfles (original poster)
Posts: 53
Joined: 7 years ago

#27: Post by berfles (original poster) »

RyanJE wrote:Still missing the point. You are comparing month old RT coffee. I was not nor was I suggesting that..

Either way, hope the OP has figured out his solution.
Haha, I guess my only other question is what length of time constitutes freezing. Obviously if I don't get to open the bag for a month, but what if it's only two weeks and I leave it unopened so it's still vacuum packed in the original bag? My SquareOne coffee has 12oz of beans, so if I use 14g for each cup I'll get about 24 cups out of it. I've already made probably 6-7 cups of it and average 2 per day, so we're talking a couple weeks here.

Or if I can't wait and do open it, can I just seal the bag back since it's a ziplock type and push all the air out, then freeze it for now?

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RyanJE
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#28: Post by RyanJE replying to berfles »

You'll be fine freezing it if you don't open it. I think the bigger what if is, what happens over months of storage rather than weeks.
I drink two shots before I drink two shots, then I drink two more....

berfles (original poster)
Posts: 53
Joined: 7 years ago

#29: Post by berfles (original poster) »

What about condensation when I take the beans out of the freezer? I didn't see that mentioned here. Part of me wants to at least make a cup while they're "fresh" in case something happens so I can compare...

Nick Name
Posts: 680
Joined: 9 years ago

#30: Post by Nick Name »

berfles wrote:What about condensation when I take the beans out of the freezer?
I usually take a bag out the night before I'll start using it, but an hour or two is quite enough to get rid of condensation. There isn't much water in roasted beans, so you only have to wait until the inside of the bag meets the room temperature.

If you want to single dose and take a shot's worth of beans from the freezer, then you might want to pre-dose and use some small zip-bags or tubes that can hold your single dose. Then you don't even have to wait for them to reach room temperature. Some studies have shown that frozen beans extract better than room temp beans. I haven't tested that personally.