Do Coffee Lovers Hoarde Like Tea Lovers?

No experience with collectors, but this is a very interesting question. Now perhaps the younger generation are more prone to drink a variety of coffee flavors, but my friends and I choose our brand (and taste)of coffee early in life and I doubt ever change it! I’ve drank Cafe Francois from The International Coffee series for over 25yrs. (it’s actually a coffee “drink”) But before that, as my parents did, drank good ole’ Maxwell House IF indeed I drank coffee at all; and still stick to the plain coffees when offered a choice.

If you find people who are REALLY into coffee, no, because coffee does not last nearly as long as tea. Previously mentioned in coffee related posts, I’ve got a friend who works at a roastery and he does little coffee 101 programs there. I took my boyfriend last year and coffee should be used within 2-3 weeks of a bag being opened…and that’s talking about whole bean coffee. Already ground is probably already stale by the time you even buy it. My boyfriend just keeps one type of coffee around and he doesn’t even get through it in time before having to toss it and get more.

Of course most people probably can’t tell or don’t care if coffee is stale because it’s so strong a flavor, but the people I know REALLY into coffee definitely do not keep tons around.

I second what momo had to say. I do love my tea, but my hubbie and I are also REALLY into coffee. We have a coffee machine, Grinders, espresso machine, milk frother, a keurig (in which we use our OWN freshly ground coffee) and 24 different flavours of syrups for making fancy drinks (I know, overkill, right?) However, in our coffee cupboard we keep a maximum of 2 types of whole beans at a time, for just the reason momo identified: they go stale so fast, even when properly sealed!! On the other hand our tea collection is usally quite vast as it keeps much better, and some even improve with time (like post-fermented teas such as pu-erh and others). We despise Tim Horton’s and Maxwell House and Folgers and all that other pre-ground YUCK as it DOES taste stale to us. We keep a consistent supply of our favourite beans and change up the second set of beans to experiment with different companies, roasts, etc.

Hope this helps! :)

I agree with Shakirah and momo. My dad’s very much a coffee man, and up until recently I was right there with him. We share our 12-cup pot and would brew 2, sometimes 3 every weekday and up to 12 pots over the weekend! Because we’d go through at least a pound or two of beans a week, it really only made sense to pick one or two coffees we loved in bulk and grind each batch prior to brewing. Mostly we just do that for the flavor, though. Coffee doesn’t last long enough around here to go stale.

When we do get a small batch sample to try (maybe twice a year), we get out the French press and use it up ASAP. Stale coffee tastes like old cigarettes and sad.

Wow, I obviously did not know much about coffee. I didn’t know it gets stale so quickly. This means that 95% of the coffee I drink is probably stale, and I do rarely drink it anyway. How can I when there is so much tea to drink??

I think coffees like Folgers that are pre-ground/a standard flavor are probably analogous to Lipton brand bagged tea. It might be worth trying a fresh French pressed coffee just once to see the difference! :)

I actually had some French pressed coffee from Della Terra today. It was REALLY good and I didn’t need to add any milk to it (which I always do with coffee).

But… it was pre ground and had probably been at least a month or two old. So I’m assuming it was stale based on the info here.

I’m not a coffee expert, although I do love a good cup of black coffee. Rayn and I buy ground coffee from a local company for our french press, and we keep it in the fridge. I’ve been told that keeps it fresher longer but I could be totally wrong! Coffee experts, any opinion on ground coffee in the fridge?

Rachel: it was probably all right. Not the same as a freshly roasted & ground cup, but not undrinkable!

Claire: I’m not sure. I think I read somewhere not to put it in the freezer, and to avoid the fridge (maybe it absorbs fridge flavors?) but if you keep it tightly sealed I don’t see why you couldn’t. I’m a big fan of using SCIENCE! for these things. Taste it before and after refrigerating/grinding and see what happens. :)

Sometimes I’ve wished that I could stand the taste of coffee. I used to like specialty coffees like from local coffee houses, ones that have syrups and whipped cream and maybe other stuff. It took me a long while to figure out that when I was done with the topping, (using a little to improve the taste.) I would end up losing interest in it. Even if I put tons more sugar in it. About the only coffee that I really enjoyed was International Vanilla Coffee, and that probably only because it had very little actual coffee in it. But as time went on, I found myself unable to drink any coffee, it tasted horrible regardless of what was in it, and it would cramp my stomach up. But I do not miss it! And I am so glad to have avoided becoming addicted to the stuff.