Coffee, Tea & Equipment

Coffee

I even love the word we use to name the fuel of my morning ritual. Yes, I’ll admit I do have an addition to coffee. However, I’d prefer to call it a love affair, as addiction sounds so, well, dirty and helpless.I love coffee. I dream about coffee. I need coffee. I drink coffee.

Each evening before bed I prepare my Dutch hand-built Technivorm coffee maker for the next morning’s batch. I rinse the basket, line it with a new filter, then dose out the ground coffee and add purified water to the reservoir.  Wash the carafe and set it under the drip spout just waiting to accept the precious, flavorful, and aromatic brew about 8 hours from that moment.

As with most storage items, proper handling, and proper storage depends on exactly what is being stored.  For example, whole coffee beans store better than ground coffee. Green coffee beans store better than roasted whole beans and ground coffee too.

I like to store both ground coffee and roasted whole bean coffee. Storing green (not roasted) beans is on my to-do list. I have stored them in the past and roasted them a few times per week yielding amazing results.

For ground coffee, I use vacuum bags and store them in 1 lb packs. It’s critical that these see no light at all, and temps under 75 are critical. If those parameters are not met that coffee will oxidize quickly, even when vacuum packed.

Tea

My wife and daughters all enjoy tea daily. I occasionally drink it. We like English breakfast and many floral blends such as chamomile, peppermint, lemon-ginger, sleepytime etc. Since it’s already dried, we do not vacuum pack tea but probably should.

I keep about 10 lbs of ground coffee. I simply rotate thru it and use it up then replenish it. This is roughly 6 months of supply for my family. The coffee stays pretty fresh but I am considering storing slightly less.

I store about 75 lbs of whole bean roasted coffee packed in mylar with oxygen absorbers vacuum packed. These packs are 5 lbs each and I fit about 4-5 (I think) in a 5 gallon lidded plastic pail.

This is a considerable investment of over $1,000 dollars but critical to maintain a steady supply. For me, coffee is like water; without it, I die soon!

When you store whole beans you need a way to properly grind it. Keep in mind, proper grinding is the MOST crucial part of coffee making. Even great beans make crap coffee if not properly ground. I suggest having a reliable electric grinder plus a manual method to grind coffee. There are great hand-crank grinders available on Amazon for under $30 that work great. 

For brewing, I recommend a good quality electric brewer plus a french press and also a percolator type brewer. I have a camping model plus a small Italian Moka pot too.

To sum up, here is what I keep on hand:

1. Ground roasted coffee

2. Whole bean coffee

3. Freeze-dried coffee (instant)

4. Espresso coffee, ground in bricks

5. Single-serve freeze-dried coffee

6. Whole green beans (not roasted)

7. Hand crank grinder (grid-down or when traveling)

Equipment

I have many kinds of brewing, grinding, and packaging equipment. For starters, I keep 2 electric brewers, my Technivorm, and a Starbucks barista we bought at a yard sale for $4 which works very well.

I have three French presses, one glass, one thermos style, and one insulated for camping. I have a Moka pot and also a percolator for camping. We have a Nespresso Pixie and Nespresso frother.

For grinders, I have a cheap electric grinder, an expensive Technovirm burr grinder, a hand crank grinder, and an electric large grinder.

With all this said, storing coffee, tea & equipment for the short, medium, and long-term is important to prep.