If someone asked us a year ago if it is possible to reuse coffee grounds, we would be pretty confused. How do you feel about this question? In our case, the obvious answer would have been, no! We love coffee and drink several cups per day. But, it would never cross our minds to do anything with used grounds, but to throw them away.
At least, it was like that until we visited our close friend Adrian, who lives in Italy. One morning we woke up before him, and naturally, first thing was to go to the kitchen to make coffee. While putting the grounds in the Moka pot, we noticed a little ceramic bowl half full of, as you can guess, old coffee grounds! “Why do you keep this?” we asked him when he appeared in the kitchen. “What?! Oh, the grounds, right? I use them as fertilizer for flowers!”
“Ferti…? Wait, what?” Same as you, now, we were totally surprised. Nevertheless, we decided to research more about reusing coffee grounds, and we have to say we were thrilled by our discoveries. As it turns out, there are plenty of ways we can use used grounds, and now we share some of them.
Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds to Brew Coffee?
So, you are wondering how many times can you use coffee grounds to brew coffee. You are not the only one. Many people are under the impression that they can make coffee at least twice on with same grounds! But is it true? There are no rules to tell you how many times you can brew coffee on the same grounds! If you are asking, can you brew coffee twice? However, in reality, if you do it, the beverage in front of you will not be coffee but rather hot water with a weak memory of coffee taste? We like coffee because of the taste. However, we also like it because of caffeine that helps us wake up in the morning. So what about caffeine content? Well, most of it went on the first cup; thus, if you are wondering can I reuse coffee grounds, be prepared to find caffeine only in traces.
Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds for Cold Brew?
The best thing about cold brew is that the taste is stronger, right? So can you reuse coffee grounds for cold brew? With cold brew, you will let coffee steep longer to achieve that desired stronger taste. Hence, give that you ensure adequate water to the coffee ratio, you can reuse the grounds in this case. You will get again amazingly tasting coffee. However, if you use coffee beans for cold brew more than twice; your beverage will start to lose the flavor and the strength.
How to Reuse Coffee Grounds
The fact that you won’t be too thrilled by drinking coffee made with reused grounds doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to throw them away.
So let’s see how can coffee grounds be reused:
Outside Uses
- As we mentioned at the beginning, using coffee grounds twice is an excellent way to make fertilizer. That is because the already used grounds have many nutrients that are critical for the good health of plants. Among others, there is calcium, potassium, nitrogen, etc.
- Reused coffee beans can absorb heavy metals, that harm the soil.
- They make a great compost that also has low gas emissions, hence beneficial to the environment.
- Used coffee also attracts symbiotic worms that are beneficial for the soil. Some people collect grounds from several cups before using them. However, you can also use coffee grounds per cup.
- While used coffee beans attract good worms, they also work as insect repellents. It contains harmful and even toxic compounds to different insects such as mosquitoes, snails, beetles, etc. Hence, the best way to eliminate annoying creatures that destroy your plants is to put used coffee grounds.
- The reuse coffee grounds do a great job at eliminating a bad-smelling sulfur gas.
Inside Uses
You may not know this, but you can use old coffee grounds as a way to eliminate bad smells. That is because coffee contains nitrogen which is known to eliminate foul odors.
Personal Uses
- Why would you waste money on various products to exfoliate your skin when you can use old coffee grounds to make your skin glow? You can mix old coffee grounds with a bit of water or coconut oil or honey, and you will get a splendid cleansing paste. Coffee has antioxidant properties as well, so you will have a perfectly natural sun lotion.
- You are frustrated by those dark puffy circles under your eyes, but nothing you tried to get rid of them worked? Have you thought about reusing coffee grounds to treat such an issue? Because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, coffee is pretty efficient in removing them.
Conclusion
That is all for today, folks! We hope that we provided sufficient to answer your question regarding if can you reuse coffee grounds! As you could see, even though it’s maybe not the best idea to brew them again, there are plenty of other ways to reusing coffee grounds. Many coffee lovers are surprised but happy with this news. We hope you are too! Have you tried to use old coffee before? How did you use it?