Do I really need to grind my own coffee?

QUESTION:

I don't want the bother of grinding my own beans -- I want to just buy ground beans and store them in the refrigerator.

ANSWER:

It depends on how fancy you want to be, and how good your sense of taste is.

If you can taste the difference, then it's great to buy fresh-roasted beans, grind then as soon as possible and make a brew immediately. That's how you get the full flavor of any coffee.

But if you just want a good cup of coffee, buying and using coffee that is already ground works just fine.

Storing your ground coffee in the fridge won't make a difference. What WILL make a difference is how airtight the container is. The #1 enemy of ground coffee is oxygen.

And when you do buy ground coffee, be a little fussy. See if you can find packages that tell you when the beans were ground. The more recently the beans were ground, and the more airtight the packaging, the better the flavor.

NOTE: If you want help with the basics of making a great cup of gourmet coffee, learn more about our Beginner's Guide to Making Coffee.