More Wisdom from "The Chew"

From Getty by way of The Luxist

Good Afternoon All.  Once again, The Chew has provided some handy information I think is worth sharing.  The following three tips may seem random, but they all came from one episode of The Chew, which is sadly no longer up.

The first tip is only good for brunettes and other dark haired people, who make coffee at home in a traditional coffee maker.  Wow, that is specific, but you will see what I mean in a minute.  If you make coffee in the morning and you have some left over.  Let it cool and you can use it as a hair rinse.  It is supposed to make your hair shiny and lustrous.  I guess if you use it on other color haired you might get a little residual color. 

Next, you can make a compound using an egg shell and apple cider vinegar that can help with dry skin and muscle soreness.  Rinse out the egg shell and let it dry.  Then put it in a jar with enough apple cider vinegar to cover the shell about a third of the way and put it in the refrigerator for two days.  The resulting mixture can be applied directly to your skin and help with the above issues.

And, lastly, blasting the myth that coffee needs to be put into the freezer.  This was discussed on The Chew as a big no-no.  Interestingly, when I looked on the Internet for more information, there were many conflicting entries.  But, here is the gist of the point, coffee and coffee beans are sensitive to light, moisture and temperature extremes and the flavor of the coffee starts breaking down immediately after roasting.

The following was taken from  The Luxist Awards and it was written well enough that I didn't see any need to re-write it.

Although freezing whole beans can be okay in some cases (like if you have more beans than you can use up in a week or two) it only works if you seal them up and freeze them once -- not to be opened or removed from the freezer until you're ready to thaw the whole batch. 

Even then the quality will have taken a small hit. But opening the freezer and unsealing frozen beans every time you want a pot of coffee not only exposes the entire batch to unwanted temperature fluctuations but also damaging moisture from condensation and miscellaneous odors and flavors in the air that the coffee will absorb. The refrigerator is even worse because it's not cold enough to significantly slow deterioration but it still has all the negative effects of condensation and 'flavored' air. So the takeaway here is: Avoid the refrigerator at all costs and only freeze coffee beans you aren't planning to use anytime soon.

My friends at The Chew say it is never okay to put the coffee in the freezer, but the above reasoning sounds reasonable.  But this is not coming from a coffee drinker (me).

The way to store the beans, the original writer of this post had a very strong opinion against buying already ground coffee, is in an airtight container, ideally glass, in a cool, dark place.  He says that using tin or plastic can taint the flavor. He says the ground coffee should be stored the same way.