When you think of coffee grounds, the first thought that comes to mind is usually whether or not they can be used again.
You can reuse coffee grounds for a plethora of different things from making another cup of Joe to using them as a fertilizer for your garden and even making an exfoliating scrub.
This article will explore the many ways you can reuse your coffee grounds and save money at the same time
Reusing Coffee Grounds for Making Coffee
There are days when you don’t have a choice but to reuse grounds to enjoy that cup of joe you desperately need.
It’s alright to reuse coffee grounds twice, but the resulting brew will do little to energize you.
Tact is very important here.
How you reuse your grounds also makes a significant difference.
It’s best to allow them to cool off to prevent burning. Also, consider covering the grounds as they cool off to lock in the remaining aroma and flavor.
1. Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds for Cold Brew?
You can reuse coffee grounds to prepare a satiating cold brew, but the flavor will lack depth and richness.
However, a cold brew is usually a mixture of several flavors, with coffee taking the higher notes.
So, it’s easy to create a satisfying cold brew blend with reused grounds.
If you enjoy adding sugary syrups, milk, and creamers to your cold brew, you won’t notice the difference in flavor and taste.
However, if you enjoy the standalone taste of coffee and need an energetic punch, be sure to use fresh grounds.
2. Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds for Espresso?
You should not reuse coffee grounds for espresso because this brew is all about the aroma and flavor.
Reused coffee grounds cannot create the electrifying kick that comes with espresso made from fresh grounds.
It’s crucial to avoid tamping when you reuse the grounds to prepare an espresso.
Cooling off the grounds makes them bond together, creating a wet, sticky mixture that’s hard to use.
Even if you do use it, it will taste bland and ridiculously bitter.
Tamping the grounds will also ruin the taste, making it difficult for water to absorb the wet grounds.
3. Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds in Your French Press?
You can definitely reuse the grounds in your French press, but don’t wait too long.
It’s best to reuse the grounds within 15-30 minutes.
Waiting any longer will make the taste unbearably bitter. Trust us. You don’t want to experience this distressing concoction.
If you choose to use them after an hour or two, the flavor will suffer drastically.
The grounds will lose their boldness and aroma. It’s best to use fresh grounds for your second cup if you’re using a French press.
4. What Happens if You Use Old Coffee Grounds?
If you reuse old coffee grounds, the taste will be bitter, and you could face some health concerns.
Reusing coffee grounds after an hour or two is fine.
But reusing them after a day or two is another matter entirely. The two are strikingly different choices.
After an hour, the grounds will just have an overly moist appearance and a bitter taste.
But after 24 hours, they are likely to carry bacteria and fungi.
More alarmingly, as coffee grounds dry out, they become acidic and lose their flavor.
Consuming acidic grounds can give rise to digestive disruptions, heartburn, and acid reflux. If you commonly experience the symptoms of acid reflux, it’s best to avoid reusing coffee grounds.
5. How Much Caffeine Remains in Reused Coffee Grounds?
Reused coffee grounds contain around 3.59 to 8.09 milligrams of caffeine per gram.
In contrast, fresh coffee grounds have approximately 12 milligrams of caffeine per gram.
So, used coffee grounds still have a substantial amount of caffeine.
6. How Long Can You Keep Used Coffee Grounds?
You can keep used coffee grounds for 30-60 minutes if you intend to reuse them.
It’s best to avoid keeping used coffee grounds longer than 6 hours.
Unless you plan to use them for gardening, beauty hacks, or other purposes, there’s really no point in keeping them.
You don’t want to expose your home environment to these hazards or ruin your coffee machine with hard-to-eliminate stains.
7. Do Coffee Grounds Expire?
Coffee grounds do not expire.
Ground coffee can last up to years without expiring.
However, storage has a detrimental impact on its shelf-life.
How To Reuse Coffee Grounds for Your Skin?
You can reuse coffee grounds for skincare rituals, such as exfoliation, massages, removing dead skin, and more.
Coffee packs a rich concentration of caffeine, which makes it amazingly nourishing for the skin.
Here are some practical beauty hacks to try with reused coffee grounds:
1. Exfoliation Scrub
Reusing grounds may deprive your coffee of its bold flavor, but these grounds are excellent for exfoliating dead skin and dirt.
Mix the grounds with coconut or olive oil and apply the resulting paste to your skin.
This scrub will help you eliminate all residues of dirt and dead skin cells to enjoy a smooth, rejuvenated texture.
2. Eye Care
We all hate going to work with puffy eyes that tell pitiful tales of the night before.
If you have used coffee grounds lying around, put them to work!
Collect the grounds in a paper towel and place them over your eyes.
After 15 minutes, the puffiness will disappear, leaving behind a delightful freshness.
3. Body Oil
Reused coffee grounds are a powerful moisture-locking ingredient for hydrating body oil.
Mix them with coconut and olive oil and apply them all over your skin.
You can brush off the grounds once they’re dry, but the rich coffee aroma will keep you scintillated.
Other Ways To Reuse Coffee Grounds
You can reuse coffee grounds to fertilize your garden, eliminate odors, clean grease, prevent pests, and much more.
Let’s see how to reuse them in more detail:
1. Fertilizer for Your Kitchen Garden
Coffee grounds pack up a hefty nitrogen concentration, a compound that allows plants to grow long and healthy stems.
Nitrogen is also beneficial for root growth. Reused coffee grounds are an excellent, all-natural fertilizer to promote healthy root and stem growth.
Coffee grounds will also act as an insect, pest, and cat repellant to protect your sensitive flower beds and herbs. You can even keep them in the kitchen as a quick hand exfoliator to use after a long gardening or dish-washing session.
2. Boosting the Yield of Carrots and Radishes
Coffee grounds will enrich your carrots, radishes, and other produce with an impressive profile of essential nutrients.
These grounds pack up rich calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations.
These nutrients will increase the overall yield, health, and growth of your vegetable garden.
3. Eliminating Foul Odors
The rich aroma of coffee naturally eliminates foul odors and aromas.
You can keep reused coffee grounds in a fabric bag and place them in different nooks and crannies around the house.
This is an excellent trick to diffuse the foul odor from cat litter.
4. Cleaning Overly Greasy and Stained Cookware
Coffee has a highly acidic profile.
It’s the perfect all-natural compound to eliminate those hard-to-clean greasy stains. You can rebrew the grounds or scoop them up and add them to your soap mixture.
5. Hair Conditioning Products and Masks
Coffee is immensely beneficial for hair. Coffee stimulates the growth of hair follicles and reduces hair loss by making your strands stronger and thicker.
Coffee hair masks and conditioning products are natural, and they work wonders at improving hair texture.
Over time, coffee will strengthen your hair from deep within, exfoliating your scalp and improving blood circulation.
6. Preventing Pest Infestations Around the House
Coffee grounds can help prevent pest infestation in your garden and your house.
That’s right. These used grounds serve as a potent pest, insect, and cat repellents.
Placing them on windowsills and near flower beds will make sure all insects and pests stay away.
FAQ
Here are some other questions that people frequently ask when it comes to reusing ground coffee:
1. Can You Use the Same Coffee Grounds Twice?
You can use the same coffee grounds twice, but your second cup of coffee will have a lower concentration of caffeine.
Reusing coffee grounds also make the coffee less flavorful.
Nonetheless, it’s common for people to make multiple cups of coffee by reusing grounds on busy mornings at home or work.
If brew ratios and flavor profiles are important considerations, reusing coffee grounds is not the best idea.
The water-coffee ratio of the brew is a crucial factor, alongside other ingredients added to your blend.
People who lather their coffee with sugar and creamer might not notice the bitter taste and burnt undertones.
However, if you’re reusing your grounds to prepare black coffee, the taste will appall you.
Preparing a cup of joe with dried-out grounds will deprive you of the coffee aroma that gives you that pick-me-up freshness.
2. How Many Times Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds?
You can reuse coffee grounds twice at most, but I’d not recommend doing so.
Many coffee enthusiasts barely notice the difference between using coffee grounds the first time and the second.
However, most caffeine lovers agree that it’s hard to reuse grounds for a fresh cup more than twice.
Reusing grounds more than twice will result in a waste of all the other ingredients you’re adding.
3. Can You Reuse a Few Days Old Coffee Grounds?
No, it’s not recommended to reuse coffee grounds after a few days.
Reusing the coffee grounds after 24 hours is a health hazard that you definitely want to avoid. That’s because coffee grounds dry out very quickly.
Coffee grounds get soggy and moist when you add more water.
So, when you leave used coffee grounds out, it creates a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and fungi to thrive.
Hence, reusing coffee grounds after a few days is one of the easiest ways to ingest bacteria.
4. How Often Should You Change Your Coffee Grounds?
You should change your coffee grounds after the first round of freshly-prepared coffee.
Once you’ve squeezed out all the flavor and aroma, there’s really nothing left there to consume.
Even if you want to use the grounds twice, consider mixing in a fresh lump of grounds to invigorate the flavor.
You can change your grounds after reusing them twice, but not more than that.
Allowing grounds to lie around for days will give rise to mold, mildew, bacteria, and fungi. Mold is by far the scariest hazard that will damage your health and your coffee machine.
5. What Happens if You Use Old Coffee Grounds?
After an hour or two of cooling down, using old coffee grounds will result in a mild difference in the taste and flavor of the coffee.
As more time passes, the grounds continue to dry out, losing their caffeine potency, flavor, and aroma.
Besides, changing coffee grounds every day will help you prevent those awful coffee stains that require rigorous scrubbing.
6. Can you Reuse Coffee Grounds for Other Purposes Besides Making Coffee?
A2. Yes, you can reuse coffee grounds for other purposes, such as composting, gardening, or even as an exfoliant for your skin.
Coffee grounds can be a great source of nitrogen and other nutrients for plants, and the caffeine and antioxidants can be beneficial for your skin.
7. Can you Freeze Coffee Grounds for Later Use?
Yes, you can freeze coffee grounds for later use.
Freezing coffee grounds can help preserve their flavor and aroma for longer.
.However, it is recommended to use them within a month of freezing, as the quality may deteriorate over time.
8. Are There Any Health Risks Associated with Reusing Coffee Grounds?
It’s not recommended to make coffee with used coffee grounds. Not only will the taste be off, but if they’ve been sitting for too long things such as bacteria might start growing.
Reusing coffee grounds can increase the levels of cafestol and kahweol, which are compounds that can raise cholesterol levels.
However, the amount of these compounds in reused coffee grounds is generally low, and the risks are minimal.
Conclusion
So, the bulletproof conclusion is that you can definitely reuse coffee grounds.
Not only will this save you money in the long run, but it also has a number of benefits for your plants and garden.
Used coffee grounds can act as a natural fertilizer, pest repellent, and even weed killer.
So next time you’re brewing a pot of coffee, be sure to save those grounds so that you can put them to good use later on.
Btw, have you ever reused coffee grounds before?
Let us know in the comments below!
Did somebody say coffee? Two shots of espresso for me, thanks. Oh, nevermind – I’m Simon, nice to e-meet you, dear CoffeeLifior! I like to write, drink coffee and I believe in Jesus. Highly-caffeinated drinks are my thing, but you can occasionally see me sip on decaf (my wife never finishes her coffee). Speaking of which, I’m off to grab another cup of caffeinated goodness now, laters!
