Whole Coffee beans or Pre-Ground?
Whole coffee beans or pre-ground coffee? Which is fresher? Answering this question may seem obvious, but hold on. While it is true that carbohydrates responsible for locking in the aromas and flavors of coffee are partially destroyed when beans are ground, when properly packaged after grinding, the quality of ground coffee doesn’t have to be a consequence.
Like freshly roasted beans, ground coffee beans should be stored in air-tight containers. Air-tight containers need to be equipped with one-way degassing valves. One-way degassing valves allow carbon dioxide gas to escape from freshly roasted beans and prevent the containers from bursting. These valves are also extremely important when storing ground coffee.
Ground coffee is much more vulnerable to the destructive effects of oxygen than whole coffee beans. This is due to the drastically increased surface area created when grinding coffee. This can be even more extreme depending on how coarse or fine the grind is. One-way valves allow the bag to be purged of oxygen after resealing. This can be done by squeezing the remaining air out of the bag after it has been zipped shut.
Northside Coffee has you covered!
With this in mind, Northside coffee bags have been thoughtfully designed with the consumer in mind. Shortly after cooling down our freshly roasted beans, we transfer them into air-tight food-grade containers equipped with one-way degassing valves. We then allow the fresh coffee beans time to degas for 24-48 hours depending on the roast. After the coffee has been allowed time to degas it is ready to package. If coffee needs to be ground, we wait until an order has been placed to grind it. The whole beans are taken from their containers and ground directly into a resealable Northside Coffee bag equipped with a one-way degassing valve. We then remove all remaining oxygen by way of nitrogen purging and heat seal the top of our bags for safety.