Milligan wrote:You could get a cheap chest/deep freezer. I've found significant degradation in less than a year if not frozen even in HVAC controlled environment in a plastic bag.

Sounds like the consensus is to vacuum seal and freeze if can't be used up within 6 mo. I just checked my green inventory. Except 2017 Aged Sumatra mentioned, all are less than 1 year old. I have some past crops that were purchased last year, but they are all small end-of-bag remaining greens of less than a pound each. I am not going to worry about them. Greens bulk purchased this year are now all packaged in vacuum-sealed EcoTact bags in smaller portions. Any beans I care to save quality, I will make room in our freezer and transfer to it.

The thing is, we already have two full-size fridge-freezers, 1 full-size upright freezer, and 1 full-size chest freezer to keep our full year's worth of meat, fish, and veggies. No more room to add another freezer to the line-up. We will just have to consume some deep-frozen food to open up the room for my coffee greens. LOL

One thing I want to find out is if the "degradation" of greens is universal across all greens including Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa. Again, I have not checked this systematically, so I don't know for sure, but some greens, such as Sumatra and Yemen seem to "age" very well. I tend to prefer those "aged" flavor characteristics. This may not be the case for very bright, high-acidity greens from Central America or Africa which I don't buy.

Then for the non-Arabica beans, at least for Robusta, I read "older" is better than "fresh". I may also have to try aging experiments on my Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa stock.
The 2023 Coffee Trend Nobody Saw Coming

After several months in storage, arabica beans turn flat, or worse, acquire a straw or "baggy" taste from the jute sacks they're stored in. A funny thing happened when we sampled "aged" robusta, however. The taste had mellowed. The edges had rounded. The coffee was sweeter, its petrol-forward aromatics transformed into a pleasing oakiness.

Sal wrote:
The thing is, we already have two full-size fridge-freezers, 1 full-size upright freezer, and 1 full-size chest freezer to keep our full year's worth of meat, fish, and veggies. No more room to add another freezer to the line-up. We will just have to consume some deep-frozen food to open up the room for my coffee greens. LOL

We have 2 upright 21s and a 14 in service. All garage ready. There is also an old 21 that I keep in one of my shop buildings as an emergency backup in case one of the new ones goes down. I keep one of the newer 21s in my main shop and the other 2 are in a pantry I built to house them and lots of long term groceries. Between our garden produce, green and roasted coffee, bulk grains/flour/peanuts for peanut butter, meats, ect all 3 stay pretty much full.

Sal wrote: One thing I want to find out is if the "degradation" of greens is universal across all greens including Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa. Again, I have not checked this systematically, so I don't know for sure, but some greens, such as Sumatra and Yemen seem to "age" very well. I tend to prefer those "aged" flavor characteristics. This may not be the case for very bright, high-acidity greens from Central America or Africa which I don't buy.

Then for the non-Arabica beans, at least for Robusta, I read "older" is better than "fresh". I may also have to try aging experiments on my Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa stock.
The 2023 Coffee Trend Nobody Saw Coming

In my experience, I've noticed degradation more in specific flavor notes. Florals and fruits leave the fastest. I had a wonderful Ethiopian Mengesha from last year. Huge blueberry. I had about 3lbs left in a sealed bag left in HVAC controlled area out of sunlight. I recently roasted it and the blueberry is very muted and flat. That was less than a year ago. On the other side, I've had a Brazil in a jute bag that tastes like chocolates and caramel the same as when I bought it 8months ago. With larger quantities I like to bag them and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with a sealed lid.

JohnB. wrote:We have 2 upright 21s and a 14 in service. All garage ready. There is also an old 21 that I keep in one of my shop buildings as an emergency backup in case one of the new ones goes down. I keep one of the newer 21s in my main shop and the other 2 are in a pantry I built to house them and lots of long term groceries. Between our garden produce, green and roasted coffee, bulk grains/flour/peanuts for peanut butter, meats, ect all 3 stay pretty much full.

Yep, same here. We buy a whole beef carcass. Add a summer bounty of frozen veggies from our garden to that. The two full-size freezers in our garage are currently at full capacity.

Milligan wrote:In my experience, I've noticed degradation more in specific flavor notes. Florals and fruits leave the fastest. I had a wonderful Ethiopian Mengesha from last year. Huge blueberry. I had about 3lbs left in a sealed bag left in HVAC controlled area out of sunlight. I recently roasted it and the blueberry is very muted and flat. That was less than a year ago. On the other side, I've had a Brazil in a jute bag that tastes like chocolates and caramel the same as when I bought it 8months ago. With larger quantities I like to bag them and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with a sealed lid.

That was exactly what I suspected. As I said, I don't care for coffees with florals and fruits. Most of my coffee is for chocolates and caramel. I think Sumatra and Java I just bought in bulk should be fine without going into the freezer. I have ~6lb of Guatemala Finca Santa Felisa Geisha left from the bulk purchased a few months ago. I will put them in the freezer. Not sure what Yemen Mocha, Yemen Harraz, and Ethiopia Kecho are like. Got 10 lbs each a few weeks ago, but have not roasted them yet. If they have significant florals and fruits that I want to keep, then I will try finding room in the freezer. Thanks.

Vacuum sealing in canning jars probably isn't as good as freezing your green coffee, but it's better than leaving them in the plastic bags that they come in. Transferring them to Ecotact bags or Grain Pro bags is probably better than leaving them in the bags that they came in.

I think it also depends on what type of packaging the greens come in. As I pointed out, Burman and Sweet Maria's both intentionally poke holes in the plastic bags they package greens. See the photo below. They are not air-tight. Some greens come in paper, cloth, and jute bags. They are totally open to ambient air. Some come in valved bags, I suspect they are also not 100% air-tight. I have had a few greens that came in Ecotact or GrainPro bags or heavy mill "sealed" bags, but they can also be damaged during shipping so the seal can be broken.

So, the question is low temperature more important to preserve the freshness of the greens than the air-tightness? I don't want the greens to get freezer burn or get any freezer smell transferred to the greens, so if I am putting any greens in a freezer, then I want it to be 100% sealed.

Vacuum packed in 4mil bags in a chest freezer. I've been buying Crown Jewels one at a time and a box lasts around 6 months. I bought the freezer mostly for coffee and flour