When you spend a pretty penny on coffee beans you love and the freshness decays before you can finish them off, it can be very frustrating. I understand the struggle, but I’ve learned to overcome it by following some very simple rules with how I store my coffee beans.

Putting these rules into place in your own home should be no headache at all.  They’re very simple, so there’s no reason not to follow them!

See also: Does Coffee Go Bad?

Keep Those Beans Cool, But Not Moisturized

While a cool counter may keep an apple looking nice and tasty, a hot spot right by the stove won’t. The same is true for coffee beans: Heat quickens decay. Keep your precious beans somewhere cool.

You may automatically think the freezer is a good place to keep the heat out and preserve the life of your beans, but another element is at play here: moisture. Too much moisture and the beans won’t grind uniformly; too little and the aromatic oils will evaporate right out of the bean. While we tend to think of the freezer as a dry place, ice formation can make the opposite true for coffee beans.

Play it safe: store your coffee in a cool (not frozen) spot of your home.

Avoid Sunlight

The same rays of the sun that feed our world’s plants and keep us from freezing also like to turn our coffee stale. UV rays are also responsible for the quick decay of organic compounds, such as coffee cells, so sunlight is not a good thing for coffee storage.

Thankfully, the solution here is easy: store your coffee beans in a windowless bag or tin.

Oxygen Is The Enemy

Oxygen, my favorite thing to breathe. While it keeps my lungs happy, it causes metal to rust, apples to brown, and coffee to become tasteless. Of every enemy of fresh coffee in the blog post, oxygen is the most malicious.

Curling a coffee bag and clamping it shut will work for about two weeks, but if you think you’ll need longer to finish of those beans, invest in an airtight container.

Your taste buds will thank you later.

Wrapping It Up

Never forget who your coffee’s enemies are: heat, sunlight, and oxygen. If you throw a half-crumpled bag of beans on a sunlit counter, you are sending them to their death. Treat them with love and compassion, and they will do the same to you.

Happy brewing!