The Coffee Jar (The Best Airtight Coffee Container)

Regardless of how cheap or expensive your coffee is, there is one core truth: fresh coffee equals great tasting coffee. To keep your coffee fresh, you need to protect your coffee from four main enemies:

1. Oxygen
2. Heat
3. Sunlight
3. Humidity

We think simple 32-ounce mason jars and a few dishwasher-safe, airtight plastic lids do a great job keeping your beans protected once you've opened them.

First Things First: How Quickly Do Coffee Beans Go Stale?

When you order from Seven, our beans are roasted within one to two days of your order date (depending on the time of day that you ordered). By the time they get to your door, they might be two to five days from the roast on the bottom of the bag.

If you order whole bean coffee: When stored properly, your whole beans should remain fresh for three to four weeks after the roast date.

If you order ground coffee: Even when stored properly, we think that after a week or two it will lose a lot of its flavor and begin to taste stale or bitter.

Our Coffee Bags Are Designed To Keep Beans Incredibly Fresh

By far, our bags are the best place to keep your beans until you've opened them. We partner with Tekpak, an industry-leading bag manufacturer, to produce our custom packaging. Here are a few highlights:

Our bags were carefully chosen to balance coffee freshness with a more sustainable solution. You can read more about how they factor into our sustainability goals here.

We spent a lot of time and effort researching the best choices for compostable or biodegradable bags, and we had to make some trade offs. Unfortunately, we had to forego making them re-sealable, and we also realize that they're not very easy to open.

When You're Ready to Open Our Bags, Use Scissors

We've heard feedback that our bags can rip unevenly and cause beans to spill out. It's not ideal. If this has happened to you, we apologize.

Again, the bag material is the result of us looking for the best possible bag for the environment. We suggest using a pair of scissors to open your bag next time.

Protecting from Oxygen: The Humble Mason Jar

12 ounces of coffee fits perfectly into a 32 fluid ounce mason jar, and this is a great way to battle coffee's most persistent enemy: oxygen.

We've tried fancy canisters, and they made little difference to the freshness of our coffee after a three to four weeks.

One great bonus with mason jars is that glass is non-reactive, unlike other storage solutions made of metals or plastic. This means that it won't interfere with the flavor of the coffee. It also means that, generally speaking, the coffee oils are much easier to clean from glass than in other materials.

If you're worried about exposing your coffee to oxygen by repeatedly opening one large jar over time, consider getting sets of smaller 16 oz jars. This ensures that half of your coffee never gets exposed to oxygen until you're ready to brew that second half in your second jar.

Protecting from Sunlight: Store Your Coffee Jar In a Dark, Cool Place

A cabinet, pantry, or cupboard should be a perfect spot for your jars. So long as they are in the dark most of the day, you shouldn't have to worry about light degrading your coffee. If you want to take an extra light-blocking step, you can find amber-colored light-blocking mason jars.

Protecting from Heat and Humidity: Away from Direct Sunlight and No High Cabinets

Most of the time, the lower the cabinet or drawer is to the ground, the cooler it will be (heat rises!). It also helps to store your container in an area of your home that doesn't get a lot of direct sunlight, which can create a lot of heat throughout the day.

Overall, during the summer months it's hard to avoid exposing coffee to hotter temps and higher humidity.

Whatever you do, don't store your coffee in the fridge or freezer. Even though it's been promoted as a way to keep your coffee fresh, your freezer or fridge are unlikely to help. Rapid shifts in temperature can create changes in moisture and condensation within the bags or jars, which can make your coffee taste dull or stale faster than usual.

Extra Tip: Don't Throw Away Old or Stale Beans

You can make cold brew with stale coffee, so don't waste those beans even if you think they've passed their peak.

Questions? Comments? Reach Out!

If you have any other questions or concerns, please reach out to us, and we'll do our best to address them. You can also reach us on Instagram and Facebook.