Vacuum pack your beans
Worried about your morning cup of coffee tasting bitter? Vacuum pack your coffee beans with the Bean Vac to prevent oxidization and bitter flavors.
Fresh air can be pretty bad for your coffee beans. Good beans come vacuum-packed to keep them from oxidizing and becoming bitter. But once you've opened that bag, you've pretty much doomed whatever beans you don't use immediately. If only you had some device in your kitchen that could store your remaining coffee beans in a vacuum. If only...
Sharper Image will sell you one. Called the Bean Vac, this canister can hold more than a pound of coffee beans and has a vacuum pump that sucks air out once you've closed the lid. The whole thing runs on just four AA batteries, so there are no worries about fighting the blender for an outlet. The Bean Vac sells for $40; if you're switching over from a commercial coffee addiction, you'll make back your money in a few weeks. And with a vacuum seal, you'll still get a fresh-tasting cup of coffee without having to purchase new coffee beans almost as often as you were buying an espresso at the local coffee stand.
Not a big coffee drinker? The Bean Vac will also work for keeping the evils of oxygen and condensation away from chocolate, tea, spices, and cookies. Really, anything that will fit in the fairly spacious canister is fair game.