Sprinkle it in the garden.

We drink ours up fast. You could try those instant packets, which aren't too bad. Starbucks makes Via, Folgers makes one too (very inexpensive).

I buy coffee in small amounts (those 13 ounce or one pound bags/ cans) and use it up. When I'm running low, I'll buy more. I consider my closest store to be my "pantry closet". I do check the sell-by or use-by dates when I buy food.

I buy larger containers in Costco and refrigerate. It doesn't last very long. Also, I keep "bean" coffee in the freezer, since my brewer also grinds coffee beans. I treat myself to freshly ground coffee once or twice a week. Lovely!

I keep mine in the fridge. However, I recently bought a Keurig. We're not big coffee drinkers so the Keurig is perfect for us. Every now and then I just feel like a cup of coffee and can now make just one cup. It's great. Better yet, DH who is technologically challenged, can make his own cup when he feels like one.

I struggle with storing coffee, too, because I only keep it on hand for my parents when they visit and dinner parties. I use the vacuum sealer and seal 10 servings worth in each packet. I store the packets in an air-tight container in the pantry. When I open one of the packets, it smells like coffee and my parents say it tastes good, so that seems to be working.

Google to the National Coffee Association. They say to buy small quantities that you will use up in a short time and to store coffee in an airtight container in a cool cupboard. They say light and moisture are 'the enemies'.

After opening a tin of ground coffee, I've always kept the tin in the fridge. I guess I don't need to refrigerate it.

After opening a bag of coffee beans, I've stored them in an old tin in the fridge too.

Glad the question was asked. Evidently I don't need to refrigerate coffee at all as long as I have a cool cupboard for storage, and I don't buy too much at a time.

I use 1/2 Cup of coffee for 4 Cups of coffee so I use coffee pretty quickly...but I always keep any extra coffee in the freezer.. I don't know if it helps but i assume it does.

We go through a lot of coffee, I only drink one glass of iced coffee a day but my husband makes a full pot every morning and drinks most of it before going to work. He takes bags of coffee to his office for the coffee maker in his office, he drinks it all day. He has done this since before I met him so most of his life.
We buy the great big bags of Community coffee, made in Louisiana, and store it in a big metal container that was my mother's. Community club coffee company gave those containers away with purchase years ago and they are fantastic at keeping the coffee fresh. It has a lock down lid with a rubber gasket so seals extremely well.
They still sell the containers on their website but those original ones are a heavier quality metal.
Every one I know in Louisiana has one of those containers, they get passed down from family members, like something of great value, it is.
I was so happy to get my mom's when we closed up her house and she went in the care facility. My sister had snatched it up and I said no way that is mine, she already had one. She handed it over lol.

I highly recommend that container or something similar. It's called the Fresh o later. You can find them on eBay and etsy but they get sold fast. The newer ones look like this, mine is like the picture.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fresh o lator

Open the can and it sits on the counter for daily use.

This isn't helping at all. A 1 LB. bag of coffee will last me a year, that's why I freeze it. But I guess it isn't fresh after all. I will just have to buy the sample bags and try to use it fast. or........keep doing what I'm doing and drink it weather its fresh or not.

Tastes differ, that's for sure. For those happy with canned coffee, or who purchase coffee in large quantities that are then "around the house" for any period of time, doing anything other than what you normally do probably wouldn't matter to you.

It does matter to me. Coffee is a food product, its volatile flavor and aroma components degrade over time. How much time? The local coffee roaster where I buy my stuff says 10 days is the maximum shelf life. With even more time, to add insult to injury, the oils can become rancid and then it really has an off flavor. Before then, it's just losing its normal flavor and aroma.

I buy a week's worth at a time. What I (or you) keep it in doesn't matter, unless you put it into a container that you fill with something like nitrogen to prevent oxidation. The biggest villain to be concerned with is time, not anything else. An airtight lid doesn't add any value because there's already air in the container. A refrigerator or freezer may slow down the oil turning but it's not going to do much to help freshness.

I use only whole beans (Mocha Java beans- a blend, that pairs coffee beans from Yemen and Java.), it just tastes fresher to me.
I store them in an air tight ceramic canister that I got from Gevalia coffee company and It holds about 2 weeks of beans.
The canister just sits on the counter.

This post was edited by monica_pa on Tue, Sep 30, 14 at 19:59

Sorry I can't help answer your question, coffee does not go stale here!
Lol

Oh my! If coffee beans are only fresh for ten days after they are roasted, any package we buy in a store is already 'stale'.

This is why I don't buy fine wine -- or, evidently, fresh-roasted coffee beans. I don't want to 'spoil my palate' for 'the ordinary'. "Good enough" is as high as I'm aiming. LOL

I'm not as fussy as Snidely, but, really!, freezer or not, year-old coffee is just BAD! You say didn't even like the coffee when it was fresh, so why would you like it a year later, old and rancid?

If you drink coffee that infrequently, get a Keurig type system. Just use the K-cups.

Buy a 2-lb. can of roasted and ground, break it up into about 3 and a half jam bottles, push down with a spoon to eliminate all of the air possible, store them in freezer till open, then fridge.

Usually use a one-mug maker ... and it has room for three or four spoonsful, so I use about a spoonful at first, then add increments of less until basket near full. I've been keeping the bottle near that one on a windowsill ... so I'll have to store it in a box, it seems.

Keurig, Tassimo and other single-pod issues, at about 30 cents or more per cup ... aren't my frugal cup of tea.

It appears that I'm not exactly a discriminating coffee connoisseur.

ole joyfuelled ... with help from coffee ... with cream ... what's that you say? that there's minimal "fuel" value in coffee? Who'd a thunk!

As Snidely said, "An airtight lid doesn't add any value because there's already air in the container." That's why we keep our coffee beans in a Planetary Design Airscape Airtight Food Storage Canister.

The air is forced out of the canister (by pushing down on a black "inner lid", and then an airtight lid goes on. They come in two sizes, 32 oz and 64 oz, and many different colors.

You can find these at Williams Sonoma; Crate & Barrel; Dean & Deluca; Bed, Bath, & Beyond; or (online) at LiquidPlanet.com.

Here is a link that might be useful: Airscape Canister at Liquid Planet

I bought some K-cups (generic from save a lot) it cost me much more then I would normally spend but I had to find out what fresh really tastes like. Well the verdict is in................I really didn't see any difference in the K cup then my "old" freezer coffee.

The K-cup have way too much coffee in them so I just used a Tablespoon in my brew & go machine. It was fine but not a noticeable freshness difference to me.

To experience truly fresh coffee, you would need to obtain coffee beans fresh from the roaster, grind them in a burr grinder, then immediately brew the coffee. There is a world of difference between fresh-roasted, freshly ground, freshly brewed coffee and coffee made from grounds that have been in a freezer for a year.

I agree with Lindsey, but we went one step further. We got tired of stale supermarket beans and ordering fresh-roasted was getting too expensive. So hubby decided to venture into home-roasting. He orders large quantities of green coffee beans (which come in vacuum sealed bags and can be stored for a long time) and roasts a pound every 10 days or so. Once they are roasted, he stores them in a set of vacuum sealed jars he bought for that purpose. Makes absolutely fantastic coffee, but pretty much spoils you for drinking coffee anywhere else. :o)