How to Best Enjoy Whole Bean Coffee

For the freshest-tasting cup, coffee beans should be ground immediately prior to brewing. A burr grinder gives you the most consistent sized grind and it’s very important to use the correct size grind for the type of brewer you use.

When beans are ground too coarse, the brewer under-extracts the coffee causing a lackluster flavor. Too fine of a grind, and the coffee gets over-extracted resulting in a bitter taste. Experiment with a variety of grinds until you find the one that suits you best. This is where the multiple settings of a good burr grinder really come in handy.

Some Typical Grinds:

  • Aeropress® uses a Fine grind
  • Drip machines use a Medium-Fine grind
  • Pour Overs & Chemex® use a Medium-Coarse grind
  • French Press uses a Coarse grind

You should use 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee for every 6 ounces of water. Adjust recipe to fit your taste.

The Water

After the coffee, water is the most important ingredient to get a great brew. It should start off cold and be filtered. Once heated, the optimal brewing temperature is 195-205°F. One great tip to make sure you have the right water temperature for manual brewers like Pour-Over and French Press is to boil your water and then let it sit for about 2 minutes.

If you use an automatic coffee machine don’t let the coffee remain on the warming plate. Pour it into an insulated carafe immediately after brewing and you’ll be rewarded with fresher-tasting coffee cup after cup.

Bean Storage

Air and heat are the two biggest enemies of roasted coffee beans. Always store your coffee in an airtight container in a cool place. The Dancing Moon Coffee® bag with its one-way degassing valve is a great storage option. Just fold down the top and seal it tightly. You should NEVER store your coffee in the refrigerator. Coffee is one of nature’s best odor absorbers. So even with the best sealed containers, coffee can pick up various food scents in the refrigerator. It is ok to store your coffee in the freezer, but ONLY for long term storage of a month or more. Constantly taking coffee in and out of a frozen space will add moisture to it via condensation.