Ground Coffee vs. Whole Beans

There are two types of coffee that you can buy: whole coffee beans and ground coffee. I looked into what makes ground coffee and whole coffee beans different from each other. Here is what I found out.

Whole coffee beans will offer more flavor per cup of coffee than ground coffee. Ground coffee goes stale in a matter of weeks so grinding your coffee before brewing allows for optimal flavor.

When anyone asks me what kind of coffee they should buy, I always tell them to buy a grinder and whole coffee beans. It is the best way to ensure you are getting a quality cup of coffee every morning.

It’s easy to pick up ground coffee at store thinking that we don’t have to do any working by grinding the beans. But whole beans offer a lot more than ground coffee. The flavor comes out to be much better. And when we consider prices for quality coffee beans, it comes out to be pretty similar to ground coffee.

Flavor

When it comes to flavor, whole beans are the winner. Without a doubt whole beans will offer more variety and depth in flavor. There are a few reasons why for this.

Ground coffee can go stale in a matter of weeks. I don’t think people realize how long their coffee has been sitting on the shelves at stores. Let’s be on the conservative side and say they’re sitting for a week. Now factor in the time it takes for the coffee to be sitting at the warehouse, sitting on the delivery truck, in transit to finally reach the store. That bag of grounded coffee is already done and the flavor you are getting from it is not optimal.

Whole coffee beans release flavor right after you grind them. To get the best flavor from coffee beans, grind them right before you brew the coffee. That’s because the beans will release the strongest flavors right after they have been ground. The ground coffee sitting at stores just can’t compete.

Even whole coffee beans can go stale. While I recommend that you should always buy whole beans, even these beans can go stale. Many coffee enthusiasts will say that you should buy coffee beans that have bean roasted in the last one or two weeks. Some coffee brands will give you a roast date on the bag while others choose not to. If there is no date on the bag, assume they were roasted a little more than two weeks ago.

Even then whole coffee beans are still better and the drop in quality is so great it doesn’t matter if the coffee was roasted a little longer ago.

If you don’t believe, trying drinking a store bought coffee from Starbucks or McDonalds with coffee at home. The difference isn’t only because they are major food chains, but also because they are grind their coffee in house, usually every day.

Strength

When it comes to caffeine and how strong coffee is, whole beans and ground coffee are about the same. They will usually offer the same amount of caffeine.

Now this can vary by coffee type. Dark roast coffee will obviously be stronger than medium or light roast coffee. Roasting method will also play a role in coffee strength. But all else being equal you are not going to get any noticeable difference in the strength of the coffee.

Price

When it comes to price between whole beans and ground coffee, it really depends. If you are looking for a premium coffee brand like Stumptown or SF Bay, they do charge more for their coffee as you can see from this chart.

Coffee	Price (per ounce)
Lavazza Espresso Italiano Whole Bean Coffee Blend whole bean	$.36
Lavazza Espresso Italiano ground coffee	$.82
Stumptown Coffee Roasters whole bean	$.86
Stumptown Coffee Roasters ground coffee	$1.33
SF Bay Coffee Fog Chaser whole bean	$.56
SF Bay Coffee Fog Chaser ground coffee	$.68
AmazonFresh Colombia whole bean	$.50
AmazonFresh Colombia ground coffee	$.48

But if you are going with a brand like Folgers or Maxwel, ground coffee will come out to be cheaper. Here is a comparison of these common grocery store brands.

Coffee	Price (per ounce)
Folgers	$.31
Maxwell	$.21

These brands are cheaper because there is more demand for these coffee. These brands have done a good job marketing the coffee and they are able to sell more bringing the price down. They can make a lot of the coffee making it cheaper to grind the coffee and sell it.

The problem with brands like Folgers and Maxwell House is that they technically aren’t the same as grinding your own coffee beans. The manufactures choose to use low quality coffee beans. They then add a “coffee flavor” to mimic what coffee tastes like. Yes they still have caffeine in them but they are not 100% coffee. Which is unfortunate because a lot of people buy them thinking they are.

There is one more consideration when it comes to price. Whole beans will last longer and you can keep them around for a while. You can’t say the same thing from ground coffee because they will lose their taste fast. As long as you are storing the whole beans correctly, they can last you some time.

Effort

Buying whole bean coffee will take a little bit more effort. You of course need to grind the coffee beans at home. Some stores will allow you to grind the coffee at store but I choose to do it at home for various reasons.

But here’s the thing: while whole beans require some extra effort, it’s really not that much. All you are doing is putting the coffee into the grinder and grinding it. (Unless you are using a manual coffee grinder, in which case you should ignore the effort stuff). It takes 30 seconds at most. I would rather spend those extra 30 seconds then lose out on the flavor.