Buying Whole Bean vs. Ground Coffee

Did you know that most of the ground coffee you’ll find on grocery store shelves is already stale? Yes, stale. Just like the cereal you ate as a kid that lost its crunch from being exposed to the air. Coffee is no different. It’s perishable, just like your favorite cereal. The whole bean versus ground coffee debate isn’t new; however, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and many people continuing to work from home and brew their coffee at home, it seems like a perfect time for re-examination. 

For context, we should start with why coffee goes stale. Roasting coffee causes many reactions within the beans. A byproduct of the roasting reactions is the production of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases, although mostly–80-90%–CO2 gas. When the beans cool after roasting, their surface hardens and the gasses are trapped, temporarily. Overtime, the gases seep out of the beans and into the surrounding environment, typically the container holding the coffee. If you’ve ever noticed the small valve on your coffee bags and wondered why it’s there, now you know. The term used to describe this is process is “off gasing.” 

So, why then is it important to know why coffee goes stale when deciding if you should purchase whole bean or ground coffee? For starters, grinding coffee into small particles makes it easier for oxygen to do its dirty work of degrading the coffee’s flavor. Think about it. There is no more hard bean surface to preserve the coffee’s freshness by slowly releasing CO2. With ground coffee, the entire bean is blasted into a million quadrillion pieces causing the CO2 to almost instantly dissipate. This leaves you with a window of about 20 minutes to brew your coffee when it’s at peak freshness. 

So…let’s revisit the grocery store. Based on the data we now have on why coffee goes stale, for all of the ground coffee that’s sitting on the shelves, it hasn’t been at peak freshness since well before it arrived at the store and was placed on the shelf. Sure, you still get the caffeine kick, but a cup of coffee that disappointingly lacks the tasting notes promised on the label. This is the unfortunate reality of commercial ground coffee. Why would you buy something that’s stale when you could have something fresh for the same price? Think about something other than coffee. For example, would you buy milk past its expiration date? Probably not. Exactly. And you shouldn’t have to buy coffee that isn’t fresh either.

At Class IV, we only sell whole bean coffee because we want you to have the freshest, most flavorful cup of coffee no matter where you are: at home, at work, or on the trail. We believe that grinding coffee just before you’re ready to brew is a must. Don’t take our word for it, ask our customers. The number one tip they’ve shared for people looking to brew better coffee at home is to buy whole bean coffee instead of pre-ground. If you’ve never ground your own coffee, we encourage you to give it a try and let us know what you think. 

To tie a bow on our point of view about the debate over whole bean versus ground coffee, we want to emphasize that coffee isn’t just some hot–or cold–beverage. Drinking coffee is a sacrosanct part of human culture, part of our daily ritual. When you think about your habits, your behaviors, the things that you do every day, where you are invested in both time–and money–we believe you owe it to yourself to have the best experience. When it comes to coffee, we believe that best experience is buying whole bean and grinding to brew so that what it says on the label is what you taste in your cup.