As a coffee lover, you know you’re going to end up with two things: coffee beans that have gone stale and coffee ground from brewing coffee. Most of us just throw them out, thinking they’re worthless or that they’re taking too much time to do anything about it. This just contributes to the tons of food waste that are thrown out every year. There are some wonderful ways you can use your old coffee beans and grounds to help your skin and hair, clean your home, garden, and much more.
Utilizing Whole Beans in a Practical Manner
Let’s have a look at how you can make use of your whole old beans instead of just throwing them away in the garbage.
1. Cold Brew
First things first, if your coffee beans are no longer suitable for hot coffee in the morning, then you want to try the next best thing. We’re recommending a cold brew. Cold-brew is an alternative to the regular coffee or iced coffee because cold brew tastes just as well with the leftover beans. Cold-brew seems to be less impacted by stale coffee beans, so go ahead and make a batch. It’s also great to use if you’re mixing batches of beans, so it’s less acidic. In addition, it is not sensitive to flavor profiles, so feel free to experiment and combine odds and ends from various batches.
This is a perfect solution for cafes and small businesses because cold brew is a trendy summer drink that is only increasing in popularity.
2. Arts and Crafts With Whole Coffee Beans
If you’re snowed in and bored, trying to keep kiddos busy for the day, or decorating your house on a budget, there are plenty of cheap projects to do with your leftover coffee beans.
- Coat them with a watered-down white paint for a rustic appearance or spray them with gold or silver to give them a shiny shimmer. Gather them in a clear glass vase to show them.
- Instead of painting the coffee beans themselves, you can roast them, make a pot, and then use the coffee as a watercolor paint or as a stain. Make an extra pot of coffee for darker paint.
- Upgrade the art of macaroni that you created in kindergarten by creating words or pictures of piles of coffee beans. Don’t hesitate to take a photo of your masterpiece when it’s finished.
- If you’ve got patience and a steady hand, you should stick coffee beans to an old CD or DVD to make a custom coaster.
3. Add Some Chocolate
While these old coffee beans may not be good enough to make coffee, they may still be edible. Buying chocolate-covered espresso beans from the supermarket may be expensive, but they’re so yummy! Homemade chocolate-coated espresso beans are easy to make. Simply melt the chocolate over low heat, whisk in the espresso beans, and then spoon onto the parchment paper. Wait for them to cool down and enjoy a delicious and decadent snack.
4. Add Coffee to Your Compost
Whether you’ve got old coffee beans or recycled coffee grounds, both of them make perfect compost. Only throw it in your compost bin and let it break down with the rest of your compost. Your garden would enjoy the rich soil they help to make, and you will help keep the waste out of the landfills.
5. Use it As a Dye
Grind the old coffee beans and brew them to produce a natural dye. You can control the color output by brewing stronger or weaker coffee. Stronger coffee will make a darker brown coffee, while weaker coffee will produce a light brown coffee. When you have brewed your coffee, pour it into a pot and get it to a boil. Throw in the fabric and stir it around to make sure it’s fully coated. Let the fabric sit for at least an hour; let it sit longer to give it a darker shade. Pull off the fabric and immediately put it into a cold water rinse until the water is clean. Set the fabric in a cool water bath with vinegar for ten minutes to set the dye, and use the fabric!
Utilizing Ground Beans in a Practical Manner
Here are several ways to make good use of your ground beans:
6. Use as a Skin Scrub
Stop spending a lot of money to exfoliate the skin. Exfoliants remove dead skin cells, promote fresh skin development, and help the skin look more youthful. For a skin scrub, either use stale dry coffee grounds, or dry the used coffee grounds before making a scrub. You can make a simple scrub with only coffee grounds and coconut oil or make a fancier scrub with just a few more ingredients.
Use half a cup of coffee, half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of coconut oil, and one teaspoon of vanilla extract for a more spa-like scrub. Rub the mixture onto the skin and let it sit for three to four minutes, then rinse it off. This works well for the skin and smells heavenly.
7. Keep Pests Away
It’s so irritating when you’re trying to enjoy being outside, and mosquitoes or other insects are going to ruin your experience. Coffee grounds are a natural insect repellent. Set up bowls of coffee grounds around your picnic area to help keep the pests away. If you have an outside space in your house that you always use, sprinkle the coffee grounds around it. It will keep the mosquitoes in the bay so that you and your family can relax.
8. Control Odors with Coffee
Coffee grounds are perfect for getting rid of smells in your refrigerator and freezer. Coffee grounds can overpower and remove odors such as onions, garlic, and other unwanted odors. You’ll need to dry out the coffee grounds if they’ve been used. Just throw it in the oven at 250 degrees until it’s dry. Often check them so they don’t burn. Then let them soak in those bad odors and leave behind their wonderful coffee aroma. They can be composted as a bonus after they’ve done their job!
9. Clean up your dishes
Will you have dried-on or burned gunk pots and pans on them? Coffee grounds can be used to help you get this off and make the pans as fresh as new. Simply place some damp coffee grounds on the pot or pan, then scrub it as usual. The natural grittiness of the coffee grounds will help to clean the gunk, leaving you with a clean pan.
10. Use on Your Hair
Coffee does more than just taste amazing and give you a pick-me-up whenever you need it. It can improve your hair, too! Caffeine can prevent hair loss and encourage hair growth. Grind and brew the old coffee beans. Once it’s cooled down, work it on your hair. The caffeine is going to get into your roots, stimulating your hair. It would also enhance the structure of your hair. All this leads to more hair growth and healthier hair. This would also enhance the texture and overall look of your hair.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, there are lots of wonderful uses for these old coffee beans or coffee grounds. These ideas are going to help you save money and improve the environment. You could also get some yummy food, better skin, improved hair, and beautiful gifts if you implement these ideas. How are you going to use your old coffee beans?
