Coffee is a living product: after roasting it slowly starts to lose its aroma. It doesn’t “go off” quickly, but badly stored coffee becomes flat, bitter or stale. With a little care, the last cup in the pack will be as good as the first.

The four enemies of aroma

Air: oxygen oxidises the coffee oils and dulls the aromas.
Light: speeds up ageing, especially in transparent containers.
Heat: next to the oven, the hob or in a car in the sun, coffee loses aroma faster.
Humidity: coffee absorbs moisture and odours, and paper pods are the most sensitive.

Pods

ESE pods are usually individually wrapped in protective sachets, which are their main defence. So:

open the sachets only when you use them;
keep the box in a dry, dark cupboard, away from the hob and the dishwasher;
don’t leave them next to spices, detergents or strong-smelling food: filter paper absorbs odours.

Capsules

Capsules are the best-protected format, because the coffee is sealed in a rigid container. Just keep them somewhere cool and dry, away from heat sources and direct sunlight. Avoid leaving them on top of the machine, where it gets warm.

Coffee beans

Whole beans keep their aroma longer than ground coffee, as long as you protect them from air once the bag is open:

close the bag tightly after each use, pressing the air out, or transfer the beans to an airtight, opaque jar;
grind only what you need right away: ground coffee loses its aroma within hours;
only put one or two days’ worth of beans in the grinder hopper.

The fridge? Better not

It’s a common mistake: in the fridge coffee absorbs moisture and odours from other food, and condensation forms every time you take it out. The right place is a cool, dry, dark cupboard. The freezer only makes sense for large sealed stocks of beans, to be thawed unopened and never refrozen.

How long coffee lasts

The pack shows a best-before date: until then, if stored properly, the coffee keeps its qualities. Once a bag of beans is open, we recommend using it within 2–3 weeks for the best aroma.

The trick to always having fresh coffee: choose a pack size that matches how much you drink. At 3 coffees a day, 150 pods last about 7 weeks and a 1 kg bag of beans about 6 weeks. And when your supply is running low, we’ll send you a reminder to reorder.

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