Jun 02 2010
Ground Coffee
The majority of coffee sold in coffee shops and retail grocers for home use is ground coffee. However, consumers have very little control over how fresh the coffee is because they have no idea when it was ground. Ground coffee has been the only way to purchase coffee for decades. Only in the past decade has there been the option of purchasing coffee beans and grinding them at home.
Ground coffee offers coffee drinkers the convenience of being ready to go straight into the coffee filter basket for brewing. For many years it was sold in cans that were supposed to protect the flavor and keep it fresh. Then, distributors began packing it in airtight packages that resembled bricks, once opened the coffee had to be stored in an airtight container to help keep its freshness. Today, it is sold in air locked bags that are resealable or in airtight plastic containers that are designed for storage and freshness.
Regardless of the type of container is shipped and stored in, it is still impossible for consumers to know how long the coffee has been ground. Fresh ground coffee should ideally be used within a few days of grinding it. This is simply not possible to do with ground coffee purchased in the grocery store. Considering that after the grinding process the coffee has to be sent to a packaging company and then to a distributor who will then deliver it to the grocery store. There are often weeks in between these stages where the coffee is sitting in warehouses waiting. These time periods add to the disintegration of the coffee’s flavor.
Consumers didn’t realize the difference that buying fresh coffee grounds and grinding them at home could make to the taste of their coffee. They readily accepted ground coffee bricks as top quality and didn’t question it. Then, as coffee distributors began to offer coffee beans and grinders the consumer realized the difference and began to demand higher quality.
Ground coffee is still the number one seller in coffee but the trend toward freshly ground coffee beans has forced coffee distributors to make improvements in their packaging. They have to find more innovative ways to keep their coffee fresher longer and get it to the retailer faster to insure this freshness.
In the end the consumer who wants the freshest possible coffee will purchase coffee beans and either grinds them at the retailer or purchases a coffee grinder and grinds them as they are needed. The latter being the only way to insure the freshest coffee possible.
-Sharon Chapman