# beans lost flavour after 2 weeks.



## andrewjeffs (Jan 8, 2017)

I am sure this has been covered before, so forgive me as a noobie at this site.

I bought a delonghi magnifica bean grinding coffee machine for xmas.

After a bit of trial and error we managed to get the settings just right,and were enjoying coffee house quality drinks.

However,all of a sudden the coffee taste has gone all washed out,after 2 weeks.

I have been using Lavazza beans kept in the fridge after opening.

]I adjusted the coffee strength to maximum which helped for a few days..but now the flavour has gone again

I am assuming the beans have gone off..

I am wondering the best way of storing my beans to get the maximum life out of them,and if I can do anything to improve the flavour on old beans.

thanks..


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Welcome to Coffee Forums UK

Keep the beans in a cool dark place in an airtight bag after opening.

Avoid the fridge.

Beans will start to go stale as soon as they are roasted and are usually at their optimum between 5 and 15 days after roasting.

Beans will go flat / dull / lifeless sometime after this period and often you can notice it from one day to the next.

Often changing the grind or brewing temperature (or a combination of the 2) can help.


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## andrewjeffs (Jan 8, 2017)

I have the brew temp at max,as the magnifica has a known problem with getting the coffee hot enough.

should I try to make the grind coarser or finer?

I will not keep them in the fridge anymore..just goes to show you shouldn't do what it says on the bag!

I see the use by date is a year from now!..does this mean the beans start degrading after the bag is opened then??


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

in a word, yes......if you buy beans from a 'local' type roaster, you will receive beans that have (hopefully) been roasted to order. This means you can 'age' them yourself and are in charge. The Lavazza, Illy type beans can be fine but best drunk within 3 or 4 days as you are right. Once the beans have rested, degassed and are ready, they will be fine in a sealed tin but once you open it and expose the beans to the air the clock is ticking


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## andrewjeffs (Jan 8, 2017)

wow..looks like buying a 1kg bag was a mistake then!..thanks for advice.


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Hi Andrew and welcome

If buying beans freshly roasted such as from advertisers on here (Rave, Coffee Compass, HasBean etc or those mentioned by members) there can be some savings made by buying in Kilo's. However, if you are not going to use this up in the timeframes mentioned above you need to employ some other methods to keep the beans at their best a bit longer including some of the following:

a) taking out what you need for a few days and bagging up the remainder into the valved / re sealable bags, squeezing all the air out in the process, in an ideal world into the sizes you have just taken out fro a few days worth. Spare bags can be bought in small quantities from Rave (5 for £2) and others and can be reused.

b) use of vac tubs such as these sold by Coffee compass might need more than 1 though, see how much you can get in

c) freezing. Read through the threads on this forum to find the best method (never needed to personally so not best person to advise)

d) buy enough for your consumption over a week to 2 weeks max in smaller quantities; buying big sometimes is a false economy if you end up binning a large proportion of what you bought. Will also allow you to try different beans from different roasters to find out what you like. Sometimes a subscription that offers different beans can work over a period of time can offer value in that by subscribing, the cost of postage is offset slightly over buying just one bag.

Any of the above or even all of them (and probably some other methods such as vac bagging etc) have been used by members on here at one point or another on their coffee journey, find the one that works for you.

Have got to say though simply keeping the beans out of the fridge in a cool dark place in a resealed bag (ideally 250g bag no bigger based on your assumed consumption) with air squeezed out and you stand a much better chance of keeping the beans nice & tasty










Hope of help and if you let us know roughly where you are we may be able to suggest a roaster to try out

John


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