As most coffee lovers know, there is much more to enjoying Coffee than the caffeine rush it provides. The flavor of a well-made cup depends on several factors, including the method used for brewing.
Ground coffee is more exposed to the environment, which can cause it to stale faster. To maintain its quality, the Coffee should be freshly ground before brewing.
Freshness
Grounded Coffee is different from your average chain coffee shop. The owners are committed to responsible sourcing and work with roasters who pay their farmers fairly. The beans are always freshly ground and brewed with hot water to ensure the flavor is at its best.
Whole beans can hold onto their freshness for a while because they undergo a degassing process that releases carbon dioxide into the air, slowing down oxidation and keeping the beans tasting good. However, once a bean is ground, it has a much shorter shelf life.
Ground coffee starts losing its flavor at lightning speed, especially if exposed to oxygen for too long. This is because it has more surface area for oxygen to access. Having it freshly ground and immediately brewed is the best way to avoid this problem. The results are a delicious cup of Coffee with the aromas and flavors you expect to see in a great cup of joe.
Flavor
When you grind your coffee beans, you get a consistent texture. It allows the soluble compounds in your Coffee to be extracted properly for an intense flavor and aroma. With a low-quality grinder, your grounds may be fine and pull too quickly (causing over-extraction) or have large boulders that don’t fully pull (giving you a muddy or bitter cup).
Grounds also taste better when they are freshly ground. Coffee exposed to air loses its innate flavors and tastes stale. Grounds can also be more vulnerable to moisture, affecting the oils that contribute to flavor.
While the caffeine content of brewed Coffee will vary, the average ground coffee has more caffeine than instant Coffee. This is due to the higher level of soluble compounds found in whole beans, and instant Coffee is often processed and mixed with other ingredients such as milk. It can dilute the caffeine content of a cup of Coffee significantly.
Aroma
Coffee is known for its aromatic scent, and aroma describes the taste attributes not directly perceived by the tongue (such as sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami). There are over 800 different aromatic compounds in Coffee, and a significant amount of them are created during the roasting process, including hydrocarbons, alcohols and aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols, furans and pyrans, thiophenes and pyrroles and nitrogenous and sulfurous compounds.
Whole beans have a very minimal aroma, and most of their aromatics are created during the Maillard reaction when sugar and amino acids meet at high temperatures. When they’re ground, however, they release these volatile aromatics that our noses can perceive.
Once they’re exposed to air, their aromatic properties decline at a rapid rate. This is why storing freshly ground Coffee in an airtight container after use is important to maintain its taste and quality.
Health
Coffee isn’t just a morning pick-me-up but has several health benefits. Its rich antioxidants, caffeine, and other nutrients have positively affected mental and physical health.
However, the quality of your cup depends on how your beans are ground. If your ground coffee is stale, the taste and aroma will suffer. It is important to use your grinder only once and store the grinds in a resealable jar.
The surface area of the coffee beans increases after grinding, which allows hot water to extract more compounds and create a stronger brew. But this increase in surface area also means your Coffee will go stale faster. The staleness is caused by the loss of gases released during roasting. The gasses help to give your Coffee a strong and delicious flavor. If you want your Coffee to have a taste, buying whole beans and grinding them before brewing is recommended to avoid losing gases.
