Do frozen coffee beans need to be thawed? Are frozen coffee beans really useful? How long does it take to defrost frozen coffee beans? Will frozen coffee beans affect flavor? Can hand-brewed coffee beans be stored frozen?

Freezing is a very popular way to "preserve" coffee beans in recent years. Just seal the coffee beans and throw them into the freezer of the refrigerator, and the loss of flavor of the coffee will be slowed down and the taste period will be extended. Many friends use this method to hoard large quantities of coffee beans purchased at Front Street discount activities.

However, a friend recently reported that he also used freezing methods to store coffee beans. However, he found that the coffee produced by these beans after being frozen was not as fragrant as when stored normally, and the taste was not as full. So he suspected that freezing had no effect and could not prolong the taste period.

Although the topic of frozen coffee beans is rarely mentioned on Qianjie, it is undeniable that freezing can indeed have a certain "preservation" effect. Because low temperatures reduce the thermal movement of molecules, the exhaust rate of coffee beans will be slowed down (just slowed down). The specific degree of slowdown mainly depends on the temperature of the freezer. The lower the temperature, the slower the exhaust speed and the longer the coffee taste period. Then, the question arises, why is the aroma and taste of the previous friend's beans after being frozen not as rich as when they are stored regularly? In fact, there are two reasons: improper freezing and storage, and the wrong "way" of brewing.

What is the right frozen storage? Some friends will directly throw coffee beans into the refrigerator and freeze them after receiving them without taking any measures. But in fact, coffee beans, like many frozen foods, need to be sealed when frozen. The purpose of this is not only to prevent the coffee from getting wet and accelerating the dissipation of aroma, but also to prevent coffee beans from absorbing the odor in the refrigerator and being contaminated by odors. (If you have an exhaust valve, you need to stick the exhaust valve with a sticker)

But sealing isn't enough! Under the condition that we freeze coffee beans, it is best to split them. The specific method is to divide a packet of coffee beans into several sealed portions, each of which is exactly the amount of one serving. This is necessary to reduce the impact on other coffee beans each time we take a bean. What does it mean? That is, if we directly seal and freeze the entire bag of coffee beans, then every time we take out the coffee beans for brewing, the remaining coffee beans in the bag will be taken out and exposed to room temperature.

Although this time is very short, it is enough for the coffee beans to produce condensed water and then get damp, which affects the flavor and state of the coffee beans. Therefore, if you have conditions, it is best to sub-pack the coffee beans when sealed and frozen. Of course, more diligent friends can also put a sealed bag on the outside of the packaging bag, which can further slow down the loss of aroma. Or you can replace the plastic sealed bag with a sealed bottle, which will be more convenient than a bag and can be reused ~

Why do I need to adjust parameters when brewing frozen coffee beans? Because coffee beans are kept in a frozen environment for a long time, their various states and structures will be changed. For example, the temperature becomes lower and the brittleness becomes higher... These are all changes that will directly affect the brewing. And if we brew such a frozen coffee bean without making any adjustments, the final result is likely to be like this friend, getting a cup of coffee with a less fragrant aroma and less full flavor. How big is the specific gap? Qianjie has already prepared frozen coffee beans in the refrigerator for brewing and comparison. It is Qianjie Yejia Shefei Guodin in the bean list used by Qianjie in yesterday's article.

In yesterday's article, Qianjie used conventional parameters to brew fruit tintin under normal conditions, and the final extraction rate was 19.46%. The flavor was very rich: white floral fragrance, lemon, berry, oolong tea, and balanced taste., round taste and long aftertaste. When Qianjie used the same brewing parameters to brew frozen fruit tintin, the extraction rate obtained was 18.06%. The flavor performance tended to be consistent, but it was much weaker, and the taste was not as full. It tasted slightly thinner. As you can see, the difference is still quite big. Although it's not so bad as to drink, it's not that good. So, if we want to use frozen coffee beans to make a delicious cup of coffee, we can choose the following two methods: ①. Improve the extraction efficiency during brewing: The first method is relatively simple, improve the extraction efficiency during brewing. The reason why many friends can't brew frozen coffee beans is because they haven't thawed after taking them out of the refrigerator and brew them directly. Qianjie is not saying that this behavior is not good, but brewing frozen coffee beans without thawing actually has more advantages. For example, the particles of coffee powder will be ground more evenly because the coffee beans are crispy. At the same time, because the temperature of the coffee beans is low, too much aroma will not be lost during grinding, and there is no need to worry about moisture, etc.

But! If we want to brew frozen coffee beans that have not been thawed, we need to improve the extraction efficiency during brewing. Because coffee beans will absorb a large amount of the temperature of hot water during the brewing process due to their lower temperature without thawing, resulting in a decrease in extraction efficiency and the brewed coffee will not be as fragrant. Therefore, this can be solved by appropriately increasing the extraction efficiency of the parameters. There are many parameters that can be improved, such as increasing the water temperature during brewing, extending the steaming/extraction time, fine grinding, etc.~

①. Rinse it after thawing. If we don't want to make changes to the parameters, we can choose to defrost the coffee beans. This method will be simpler in comparison. Because when the coffee beans return to normal temperature, we no longer need to adjust the parameters. There should be no need to talk about the method of thawing on the street. Just take the coffee beans out of the refrigerator and leave them for more than half an hour. However, it should be noted that we should not unpack it when thawing, so that the coffee beans remain in the sealed environment of the bean bag.

Because once we unpack it, condensed water will immediately form on the surface of the coffee beans due to the huge temperature difference. This will cause the coffee beans to become damp and soften, affecting the extraction, flavor and other aspects of coffee. So everyone still needs to pay attention to this point ~ So, these are some of the things we need to pay attention to when freezing coffee beans and brewing frozen coffee beans. Although all that has been said, Qianjie does not recommend that friends who are just getting started, or those who are not familiar with cooking, use frozen methods to store coffee beans. Because freezing has a great impact on brewing, using freezing to "preserve" while not yet familiar with it may be counterproductive, resulting in the inability to wash out the delicious taste of coffee beans. So, let's see for ourselves ~

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