It's so tempting to open your bag of coffee as soon as you have it in your hands, so you can inhale that lovely (hopefully) aroma, but the issue with this is you're letting oxygen in. In addition to a vacuum seal, Coffeevacs also feature a unique (patented) degassing valve. A degassing valve helps to maintain the freshness of coffee beans while they are on the shelf at a store or in your pantry or kitchen. This valve permits the escape of gas, while simultaneously preventing oxygen from entering. As a result, the coffee beans are protected from the staleness that can result from exposure to oxygen, which can also negatively affect their flavor.

My solution for this is to have two 500g storage containers, a cheaper option such as Coffeevac, and a more premium option such as Airscape or Fellow Atmos. The vacuum system allows goods to de-gas through a one-way valve while not letting oxygen in; however, stronger odors may leak during de-gassing. It’s recommended to keep medicinal herbs in a storage bag inside the Coffeevac to contain their heavy smell. There may well be a gasket on the lid, which will keep air out from the top, but as far as oxygen is concerned, there's a massive gap between the burrs (massive when compared to oxygen) and an even bigger gap known as the grinds chute ;-).

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One of the only areas in which the Aspen canister didn't excel was in a test that assesses if its seal is airtight. After storing coffee in the canister for more than a week, we determined that the beans had lost a lot of their CO2, indicating that the canister isn't fully airtight. The coffee, both ground and whole beans, remained fresh enough to brew a tasty batch, however, so you shouldn't be deterred from purchasing the Aspen canister. It just doesn't have the same top performance as some of the pricier, specialized coffee canisters.

It's important that you don't let your coffee beans get a sun tan, or they'll end up being darker roasted than when you bought them. OK, I'm joking ;-), but both natural and artificial light can be bad for coffee beans simply due to a chemical process called photodegradation. This is a process in which the more light-sensitive polymer chains begin to degrade or something, I'm no scientist ;-), in caveman speak “light bad”.For the full scoop on speciality coffee including the amazing (sounds made up, it isn't!) story about the woman who pushed against all the odds to pretty much single-handedly start the speciality coffee movement, see: