Coffee

How to Store It

Treat your coffee right. Freezing or refrigerating your coffee dulls its naturally bright, sweet character. This treatment is particularly harmful to light- or medium-roasted coffee. For guaranteed bliss, store your 4 week supply of whole beans in an airtight container, kept at cool room temperature, and grind your coffee just before brewing.

How to Grind It

The best home grinders work using the same principles as our big commercial models. Burr grinders have two disks, one spinning, one stationary. As soon as the coffee is ground, the machine spits it into a waiting container. Blade grinders are less expensive than burr grinders, and work by essentially whacking the beans into submission. Blade grinders produce a less consistent grind than burr grinders, but you can't beat the convenience.

How to Brew It

The ideal way to measure ground coffee for a drip brewer is by weight: 2.25 oz for your average home coffeemaker. Not many people have an ounce scale laying around the house, though, so use this rule of thumb: 2 tablespoons per 6 oz of water. And about that water: unless your municipal water is really spectacular, make sure you use filtered or spring water. Remember--brewed coffee is about 98% H2O. Bad water = bad coffee.

Shelf Life

As long as our whole bean coffees remain sealed in their bags, they remain fresh for 8 weeks. You have about 2 weeks after you open the bag before you will notice a marked decrease in flavor and aroma. As for pre-ground coffee, you have about 4 weeks of freshness in the sealed bag, and a few days after you open the bag.