A 12-oz. bag of ground coffee, unopened, at room temperature. Refrigeration is an option if it will help.

As much as I drink, about 4 days.

Howz about 25 years.

Unopened in a refrigerator probably 5 or 6 Months. I recall it also made a difference if it was in bean form or if it was ground. Beans lasted longer with less oxidation.

If your beans get old and make lousy coffee, you might just have to add some Kahlua or Irish Coffee Cream to it.

Or maybe not. If you're still working your boss may object.

If you're retired, who gives a crap, lol.

It really comes down to personal preference. Coffee starts deteriorating soon after it is picked, more quickly after roasting, and especially, after it is ground, but never "goes bad" (unless the grounds get wet and grow mold on them). How long before they makes dirty water and not good-tasting coffee is up to your taste buds. Older grounds generally manifest by perceived weakness in the brew, which can be partially ameliorated by using more grounds for a specific amount of water.

So it's impossible to give a fixed amount of time. Sniff them, if they smell like coffee, use them. If they smell like dirt, toss them.

How much do you use per day? How do you prepare it?

I keep my whole beans in a mason jar and freeze them. Take out just enough for the moment and return the jar to the freezer. I also use a vacuum cannister to hold extra beans if I buy a large amount and cannot put it all in the freezer.

Ground coffee does not last as long (fresh) as beans so you may find it going stale sooner.

I bought one of those canisters a few months ago. I even started a thread here for recommendations. When I was doing research then, I believe refrigerator/freezer are big no-nos for coffee.

If when you buy it the bag has evidence of still being vacuum seal and put it in a vacuum sealed container it will last 1 year from my experience. If you get a bag that is puffy then vacuum seal it then 6 months. It won't necessarily go bad, just not taste as good as it should/can. You lose the flavor of a Good Cup O' Joe !

Don't refrigerate or freeze coffee. That basic coffee 101. No-no #1.

I buy a 2lbs bag of coffee beans at Costco which is also a no-no. It's too much coffee once the 2lbs bag is opened if you cant consume it in a couple of weeks. I do it anyway but I know better.No-no #2.

At least I don't have the entire 2lbs ground at Costco, that would be no-no #3.

The US Navy (likely) has TONS of coffee in storage. When I was on ship back in the 70’s we had whole store rooms/compartments of 5 gallon sealed cans of coffee. Think there were two cans per cardboard case. We had LOTS of coffee on our ship. I expect we were not unique.

How long will coffee last in a sealed can? I just checked my can of Chock-full-of-Nuts. We’re using it but it is marked “Best if used by 6-13-22.” So with that date they won’t sell it after that. It doesn’t mean it isn’t good , they just pull it from the shelves. We probably bought it this year, so the manufacturer assumes a 2 year shelf life?

I was in the Marines. Our coffee came from the Navy and it was already expired when we got it but we loved it because it came from our Navy family.

12 ounces- About 3 days.

I buy whole bean in a big bag and use the Foodsaver to vacuum pack it into quantities I will use in a week, then freeze them, removing and thawing a day before I need each one. The bag material ensures no odors are picked up and two separate roasters have said it’s fine and that as long as I grind it and use it within a week after thawing there’s no impact on the flavor, which has been my experience after a couple years doing it this way.

I bought HEB brand Christmas coffee in Dec, 2019. The 'expiration' date is Sept, 2020. So, maybe one year.

Coffee may not have "gone bad" after 6 months or 12 months or whatever (as in it won't cause you to become ill), but it's no longer very "good", and will make a poor cup of coffee. Roasters recommend using coffee ASAP after roasting, and especially within at most a month or so (if still sealed), for optimum flavor/quality.

As stated earlier, coffee starts to lose its oils/potency and begins the process of going stale immediately after roasting. Grinding it causes this process to speed up significantly. Being exposed to air causes this process to speed up significantly.

Therefore, keeping it in whole bean form in a sealed container with minimal air helps slow, but doesn't stop, this process. Even whole bean coffee in its original sealed package won't be very good after several months.

(This also means that the old standby of having an opened bag of ground coffee in the cupboard with just the little "fold over" flap on top is right about the worst thing for coffee quality. And buying a tub of ground coffee is nearly as bad, since even with a tight lid there's an increasing amount of air in the can as you use the contents.)

Freezing can slow or stop this oil loss process, but to fully stop it requires lower temperatures than residential freezers are capable of. And refrigerating or freezing/thawing coffee also introduces other separate moisture issues. So freezing/refrigerating coffee isn't recommended.

Your best bet for best quality coffee (without resorting to roasting your own) is to:
-Buy coffee as soon after roasting as possible. (One of the benefits of buying directly from a smaller roaster, compared to buying a large national brand from a grocery store middle-man where it's been stored, shipped, and stored again for who knows how long.)
-Buy whole beans, and grind only what you need as you go.
-Use it ASAP after buying, and especially after opening it.
-Store it in as airtight of a container as possible after opening.

The practice of P210 and others of buying a bag and divying it up into smaller vacuum-sealed packages of just what you'll use for a day/few days is probably the ideal home method for ensuring the absolute freshest coffee, but that method may not be helpful/necessary if you drink a lot of coffee. Personally, I drink a fair amount of coffee, so a 12 ounce bag of whole beans lasts me less than a week. So I don't bother with vacuum sealing, but do store it in an airtight bag after opening.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

Part of it depends upon your palate. If you have a palate developed for the more subtle, and perhaps no-so-subtle differences in the taste of coffees: Freshly-roasted whole-bean coffee starts to noticeably lose flavor after about two weeks--if it's properly maintained in an air-tight container between uses.

Ground coffee? I've detected the difference between the same coffee ground that morning vs. ground the night before.

Grinding coffee exposes many times the surface area to air, so coffee goes stale at many, many times the rate of whole bean.

Ground coffee in its original, vacuum-sealed can? Dunno. Never buy it that way.

Un-roasted beans, properly-stored, have a shelf life of about six months, I'm told.

Re: Refrigerating/freezing. Refrigerating coffee is known to be bad for the coffee, but I have found freezing freshly-roasted coffee in air-tight bags to be somewhat effective.

I used to buy my coffee freshly-roasted. It would still be warm when I got it home. I'd divide it in half: A half-pound went into the "in-use" container and a half-pound went into the freezer. At about the two week mark, about the time the first half pound started losing flavor, would also be about the time I'd used it up. I'd pull the 2nd half-pound out of the freezer, let it reach room temperature in the sealed bag, and transfer it to the working container. It wouldn't have as much flavor as when it was freshly-roasted, but it'd have a lot more than the half-pound I'd just finished.

I really appreciate the info on not refrigerating or freezing coffee.

On another thread I talked about my love of cold-brew. I've been grinding the beans from a bag of coffee, and putting them in the refrigerator in a freezer bag (like Zip Lock).

Guess I'll stop that and store them in the cupboard. A bag only lasts about 4 days anyway.

Bob

It depends on your taste. If you're a coffee geek, you would know that a vacuum sealed bag is a sign the coffee is old and "bad."

Fresh coffee beans exude gas and the valves on Peet's coffee bags aren't there to keep the vacuum in but to vent gas out. I learned this on a tour of their factory.

Oxygen is the enemy of coffee freshness. Once you open it, the best way to prolong the freshness is to store it in one of those cannisters with an airtight inner lid that you push down against the beans as you use them up.

As someone said, do not refrigerate as that will dry the beans out. The oil in the beans is an integral part of the taste.

Peet's recommends using the coffee beans within 3 months of the roasting date.

quote:

store it in one of those cannisters with an airtight inner lid that you push down against the beans as you use them up.

Geek here - do tell. I've never heard of this and can't seem to find one?