Is freshly ground always best?

The freshness myth

Fresh grinding is good advice. Ten out of ten coffee professionals will tell you the same thing, and for good reason: ground coffee loses its aroma fast once it meets open air.

A few years ago, the podcast Filter Stories, hosted by James Harper, ran an episode that put this to the test. In a blind tasting with professionals at a Berlin roastery, coffee ground months earlier held up against coffee ground fresh, close enough that the tasters struggled to tell them apart, and some preferred the older cup. The reason, it turned out, wasn't time. It was oxygen. Ground coffee stales fast once it's exposed to air, but remove that exposure and it can hold its character for far longer than most people expect.

How we protect our coffee

Based on this, we built our single-portion format, then tested it ourselves. Each portion is ground and vacuum sealed within minutes, locking out oxygen so what you open is close to what left the grinder.

Beyond freshness, our pre-ground format also means you get to brew from the grinder of choice for world champion baristas and top-tier cafés, without needing one sitting on your own counter.

Brewing and storage

Open the pack, pour it into your V60, AeroPress, or French press, and brew. No grinder, no guesswork, no loss of flavour while it waits on your counter.

Since each portion is already vacuum sealed, you can also freeze them and take one out at a time. Cold slows down the same oxidation that causes staling, so freezing extends freshness well beyond what's possible once a pack is opened at room temperature. Just let the portion come back to room temperature before opening it, so any condensation forms on the packaging rather than on the coffee.

For more on the science behind this, see: Freshness and Grinding, Part 1: Protecting your coffee's flavours

Reach out with questions or coffee stories.

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