I Ground Coffee the Night Before for a Month

The received wisdom is that coffee should be ground immediately before brewing, and that grinding the night before is a small act of vandalism. I ground the night before for a month, mostly because mornings with a toddler do not accommodate a burr grinder at six in the morning.

What changed

Less than expected, and more than nothing. Days one through about ten, the difference was hard to pick out in a normal kitchen with a normal breakfast happening around it. The aromatics in the dry grounds were noticeably flatter — that is the part you lose first and lose obviously.

In the cup, the loss showed up as a slightly shorter finish. The coffee did not taste stale. It tasted like a decent version of itself with the top note filed off.

Where it did matter

With a light roast Ethiopian, pre-grinding cost real character — the florals that were the whole point of buying it were noticeably duller. With a medium roast blend, I could not reliably tell.

What I do now

Grind fresh on weekends when there is time to notice. Grind the night before on weekdays, and buy a blend rather than a single origin for those days. Spending single-origin money on coffee you are going to pre-grind is the actual waste.