A coffee’s aroma and taste come from the oils and volatile compounds inside freshly roasted beans. Once these are exposed to the elements, primarily oxygen, they begin evaporating, slowly escaping your beans. In other words your coffee starts losing its freshness and peak flavor.

With that in mind, think of a whole bean as a protective capsule that will slow down your coffee's deterioration. Once you open the bag and oxygen rushes in, only the exterior layer of the bean will be exposed. If you cut it in half you increase the affected area, accelerating its doom. Slice them again and it will be even faster. Imagine how quick your coffee will go stale if we pre-grind it all!

There are other factors that negatively impact coffee, such as moisture, light, and contamination. Whole bean coffee will better preserve its integrity against all of these variables.

Therefore, for the sake of your precious beans and their amazing flavor, we recommend you only grind the coffee you'll use, properly storing the rest. Ideally, brew your coffee within 30 mins of grinding since the escape rate of those delicious volatile compounds drastically increases once the coffee is ground. The clock is ticking and it's going stale quick.

Furthermore, by grinding your own beans you can adapt them to your specific home brewer. If you prefer a French press, you'll use a coarse grind. If you're brewing with an espresso machine, you'll want it extra fine. Just make sure you have a good quality grinder for the task and you'll be set to serve barista level coffee at home!

Related article: WHOLE BEANS VS. GROUND COFFEE: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

Short answer: A quality burr grinder will be the most important coffee investment you'll ever make.

Long Answer: There are two types of grinders: blade grinders and burr grinders. The former are less expensive but their performance and results aren't the quality your beans deserve. Let's dive into a little more detail.

Blade Grinders:

Blade grinders use a spinning blade that unmercifully slices and tears the beans, like a lawn mower cutting the grass.

Similarly to how you carefully chop potatoes in even sizes for them to boil and cook at the same rate, your coffee grounds should be the same size to extract uniformly. Sadly, this is impossible to achieve with a blade grinder as it doesn't have different settings for precise measurements. The coarseness solely depends on how long the beans are shredded by the blade, resulting in very irregular grounds. Consequently, the larger pieces extract slower than the smaller bits, creating an uneven brew. The cup will taste over or under extracted and the desired qualities will be lost.

Furthermore, since the blades are spinning very quickly, they may create a lot of heat which might char your beans and impact the taste.

Burr Grinders:

Instead of cutting the beans, burr grinders crush them between two serrated plates, or burrs. The size of the grind is set by how large the opening, or gap, is between both pieces. This makes it extremely precise because you can calibrate that opening to the exact fineness you need. The ground coffee will only be able to pass once it meets that exact measurement. Therefore, both your grind and extraction will be uniform, resulting in a wonderfully even brew.

There are two types of burrs: Flat and Conical. Flat burrs consists of two identical, rather flat pieces. Conical burrs have an Insert Burr and Outer Burr that mesh together. Both systems are great, delivering fantastic results so it is hard to say which one is better.

Therefore we highly suggest you purchase a quality burr grinder. It will be pricier than its blade counterpart, but will radically improve your coffee game.

Our recommendations for entry level burr grinders are:

Electric:

• Capresso 560.01 Infinity Conical Burr Grinder
• Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

Manual:

• Javapresse Manual Coffee Grinder
• Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill - "Skerton Pro"

Related article: WHOLE BEANS VS. GROUND COFFEE: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

Every first week of the month we'll roast and ship your coffee. Shipping generally takes 3-5 business days inside the continental US. If shipped to APO/AE addresses you might have to add an additional 3-5 days. Therefore, expect your coffee to arrive during the second week of the month.

Coffee:

Since coffee is freshly roasted and perishable, returns are not permitted. However, there are certain extreme circumstances that may merit one. For instance, if there was an error with your order, the coffee is way off roast date, or if the USPS takes an unusual prolonged time on delivering your product.

Non-perishable items:

Other items such as apparel, brewing equipment, and other non-perishable food may be returned within 30 days of purchase. For such non-perishable items, customers will be responsible for any and all shipping charges. Shipping costs are non-refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost of return shipping will be deducted from your refund.

All returned items must be unopened, unused, undamaged, and in the same condition that you received it. Product must be in its original packaging. Items listed as final sale, as well as gift cards, are not eligible for refund, exchange, or credit.

If you wish to return an item, please ship item(s) in their original packaging to the following address accompanied with the return form that was included in the package. If the form is not included with the return package or is incomplete, we will have no way of refunding your account.

Return Address:

IXKANUL COFFEE

9314 Forest Hill Blvd, Suite 400, Wellington, FL 33411

Refunds must be issued to the original payment method and not returned on alternative cards or any other forms of payment. Please allow up to 5 business days to process payment.

If you use a manual brewing device such as a French press, Aeropress, V-60 or Chemex, usually a careful and thorough hand wash should suffice. Nevertheless, always read the instructions included with the device to familiarize yourself with the manufacturer's recommendations.

For your espresso machine, coffee machine, or grinders, the company Urnex has a great line of products that will clean and maintain your equipment. Not only are their products great for commercial grade equipment but for home brewing machines as well.

However, we are not affiliated with Urnex in any way and take no responsibility over your use of their products.

Yes, at the bottom of every email we send there is an 'unsubscribe' link. If you click it you will stop receiving emails from us.

If you need to cancel our services you can do so in your account's dashboard (click here). Under Manage Subscription you'll fin the option to Cancel at the bottom of the page.  

In that page you will also find the option Pause Subscription on the right side in case you want to renew our services in the future. 

In the log-in page click on Forgot your password? You'll be able to enter your account's email address and a reset option will be sent to your email's inbox.

If you don't receive an email after a second attempt, it's possible that your account is under a different email address. In that case, please contact us at support@ixkanulcoffee.com.

If you need to pause our services you can do so in your account's dashboard (click here). Under Manage Subscription you'll find the option Pause Subscription on the right side. You can pause at no cost and renew whenever you're ready.

You can review and edit your settings when logged into your account's dashboard.

The concept of our service is to introduce you to coffees and roast styles you may not be familiar with. In other words, challenge your comfort zone in order to explore the many nuances of the coffee world.

With that in mind, we ask you to trust us in curating your monthly box. We put a lot of thought in choosing the beans and roasting them accordingly, so we guarantee it will be the best quality possible.

Agreed, you may prefer one month over another. However, the fun is in the journey of learning where the beans came from, what flavor profile each month has, and why you enjoyed it differently from another selection.

Every first week of the month we'll roast and ship your coffee. Shipping generally takes 3-5 business days inside the continental US. If shipped to APO/AE addresses you might have to add an additional 3-5 days. Therefore, expect your coffee to arrive during the second week of the month.

To change your shipping address:

• In your account's Dashboard click on Manage Subscription. You will see a summary of your current subscription.
• Click on Address and shipping information.
• Click on edit to update your address.
• Click on Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
• Your address has been successfully changed!

Because coffee freshness is extremely important to us, we only ship within the United States. Since we cannot guarantee the delivery date when shipping internationally, it might take very long and we don't want you to receive stale beans.

Our goal is to provide the most exceptional service and experience in the industry, paying close attention to every detail in the process. Being a small business requires key logistical decisions on our part to ensure our team performs at the highest standards.

Dedicating the first week of the month specifically to our subscription customers allows our efforts to go exclusively into making sure the coffee is perfectly roasted and each box is put together flawlessly so it arrives at your doorstep without an issue.

First, we’ll try again in a couple of days to see if it was a temporary decline. If the payment fails again, then we’ll continue trying once every two weeks after that and pause your subscription if the card payment fails four more times.

Currently we are only offering once a month shipments. We will be working on more options as our business grows.

Currently we only support online communications.

Firstly, this allows us to keep our expenses down so we can focus on delivering amazing coffee at a reasonable price.

Secondly, through online support we are able to gather as much information possible so we can send you the most effective and detailed answer. Through e-mail we can send you personalized instructions with all sorts of articles, videos and pictures to solve your issue ASAP.

Please contact us at support@ixkanulcffee.com and we will make sure to track that package and see what happened. We will definitely work something out for you.