Coffee and her enemies

Believe it or not there are some things that do not go well with coffee. In fact, when in her company they have an adverse effect and quite simply ruin it for all involved. How can this be possible, you ask with wondering eyes? Well, read on and find out just who should not ever ever come into contact with our friend caffeine.

Without meaning to place you in a state of panic, I will make it clear from the outset that what I am about to reveal will have absolutely no affect on your coffee drinking habits and that life will carry on as normal once you learn these facts! And while you continue to ponder about what could possibly dislike coffee so much that it can actually be called its enemy, focus your mind away from the fear of never seeing coffee in the same way again and towards this- coffee bean storage. Yep!

Some coffee lovers out there will insist that coffee drinking in its most pristine state all comes down to the way the beans are stored once the packet’s original seal has been broken. With whatever implement you use to initiate the cut with, once the seal has been ripped there is no going back in terms of absolute sealed in freshness. But there are measures that can be taken to ensure that your coffee beans are kept right away from her enemies.

The first fun crusher on our list is light – mainly the natural kind. Natural light is often defined as sunshine so it is really difficult to see this beautifully natural source in terms of an enemy. In terms of coffee beans only natural light should be kept away at all costs. When you think about your own skin and what sunshine (or too much of it) does to it, it is not difficult to understand why it would be bad for your coffee beans as well. Coffee beans should be neither dry nor moist- they should remain the way you bought them in a limbo state somewhere between dry and moist for as long as possible.

Heat is another big no no in terms of coffee beans and her friends. Heat which emanates from natural sunlight is easy to avoid once you understand why natural light is to be avoided. Yet heat has various sources that are often overlooked. I will give you one common example of what not to do with your coffee beans even once they are sealed safely in the bag you bought them in.

So you’ve just purchased your favourite beans having gone out of your way to find this coffee bean shop everyone has been talking about. They have the best single origin beans available and you just had to get some. You did and they are now sitting in your boot along with some other shopping you managed to fit in on the way. You adjust your eyes after stepping back into the sunlight and are quite sure you recognise the person across the road who is obviously trying to make you out as well. It is him! Someone you haven’t seen for ages. You quickly race across the road, give each other a hug and start talking about which café would be the best place to have a quick catch-up at. An hour or two pass by and you realise you are now running completely late for everything. So you say goodbye and make your way back to your car only to find that you had left one of the doors open and your car battery is now flat…You call up your long lost friend who comes to pick you up. They don’t have any jump leads s you decide to leave your car where it is as you don’t really need to drive in over the next few days. You arrive home safely having completely forgotten about the single origin beans. The next day you wake up to a heat wave and the last thing you feel like doing is going to sort out your car battery. A week later once the heat has settled a good friend helps you out and jump starts your car which has been parked in the middle of nowhere for many days now, in the blaring sun. You can clearly say goodbye to the magnificent beans you were dying to purchase and try out now – they have been completely overheated in the boot of your car, even though hidden from direct sunlight.

Moisture – another one to avoid at all costs. Coffee beans although eventually ground and then brewed with water do not like moisture and do not taste so good once affected by it pre-grinding. Moisture is also a cleverly disguised element that doesn’t necessarily need obvious signs of water to be present. All that is needed is something we take for granted all the time – fresh air! Frsh air is another enemy in waiting! Perhaps you have chosen to open your fresh bag of coffee beans on a day that feels quite hot and normal yet is terribly humid when you measure the air properly. Humidity, hiding in fresh air, is an awful friend to coffee beans. It completely destroys their wonderful taste and makes you fuel as if your beans have been lying in the sun for a hundred years or so once you use them without realising they have been affected by it. So, in order to avoid moisture coffee beans need to be stored in air-tight containers or bags once the original seal has been broken. And this does not include placing the air tight container in the freezer or fridge!

Freezers and fridges are such common homes for poor unassuming coffee beans all around the world. If you re-read this article and collect the list of all four of coffees enemies –natural light, heat, moisture, air – and then you think about each one carefully and how it comes about you will soon realise that the environment that a fridge or freezer creates is actually averse to the way coffee beans should be stored! The air is not only cold it is full of moisture!

So, there we have the complete list of coffee and her enemies. Be kind to your coffee beans please! Remember each and every morning they bend over backwards so that you can have a good start to your day. The least you can do is to store them properly and with respect!

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