Costco's Beloved Coffee Brand Missed The Mark With This One

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Buying in bulk at Costco saves you some cash and the time you'd have spent shopping later. But when it comes to coffee, like the ground Kirkland Signature Colombian Supremo, those massive cans are a liability. Once you open them, you're on a clock. Ground coffee typically retains its peak flavor for about a week or two after opening. As soon as you open the bag or can, you're dealing with oxidation, or the browning and aging process, similar to a piece of fruit you left on the counter. This process degrades the beans' oil, diminishing the robust flavor and potentially making the coffee taste rancid. The good news is that it's easy to store your coffee properly. The bad news is that some of those storage methods can deplete the time and money you saved buying in bulk. 

There are plenty of guides out there that suggest vacuum-sealing ground coffee to keep it fresh, and that would do the trick. However, you're probably wasting your savings by buying vacuum-seal bags in bulk. Even with proper storage, freezing coffee grounds or beans can cause moisture from condensation, which shrinks oil compounds, dulling the flavor. If you must, distribute your grounds into an airtight, BPA-free container like the Veken stainless steel airtight canister — which has a date tracker and a scoop — and store it in a cool, dry, and dark place. However, there's a better way that costs less than vacuum-sealing and storing grounds only for them to lose flavor over the span of a few weeks: Get whole beans.

We grind coffee to expose more surface area so more delicious flavor can be extracted by the brewing process. But that's also why you should store beans whole. Whole beans have less surface area than ground coffee, so it takes longer to oxidize. Protecting them from oxidation keeps them fresher. On average, whole-bean coffee is at its peak freshness for about a month if stored correctly in that cool, dark, dry area — twice as long as ground. 

As with grounds, you can freeze beans. But please don't just toss the bag in the freezer. Both the bag and the beans are porous and can absorb flavors from other stuff in your freezer. Instead, store the beans in an airtight container protected from moisture.

Of course, if you go the whole-bean route, you need to pick up a reliable coffee grinder. You can find an inexpensive, decently rated one, like the Amazon Basics electric coffee grinder, for under $20. In the grand scheme of things, freshly grinding your coffee every day (or even once per week) takes less time than separating and vacuum-sealing ground coffee. Plus, you don't have to choke down some nasty-tasting and old ground coffee or throw it away if it goes bad.