A lot of times it happens that your coffee beans go stale before you have consumed the entire pack. So, what to do with old coffee beans? Should you throw them out and waste all your money?
This is what a lot of us do, considering them useless and getting rid of them. This only adds to the tons of extra food waste dumped every year.
Don’t worry anymore! There are a lot of ways through which you can use the old coffee beans in a practical manner without throwing them away.
Uses for Old Coffee Beans
If you are a true coffee aficionado, you know for a fact that there are two possibilities for you each day – you don’t like the taste of your coffee cup and decide not to use that brand any more, or, you like your coffee and end up with coffee grounds after brewing.
Either way, you do not have to just throw them away in your trash that most of us do – instead, you can get a lot of uses from those old coffee beans or coffee grounds.
For your ease, we have categorized the uses for old whole beans and coffee grounds separately – here it is:
Utilizing Whole Beans in a Practical Manner
Let us have a look at how you can make use of your old whole beans instead of just throwing them away in the trash.
Experimenting with Brewing Equipment
If you want to perfect the pour over or want to experiment more with the brewing equipment and are not in the mood to waste your beans for the purpose, you can use the leftover beans.
You can learn new tips and tricks along the way and the whole process can be a fun one for you, although best predictor of successful brew is its taste.
Covering in Chocolate for Desserts
In numerous candy stores, espresso beans covered in chocolate are very popular among users. But they tend to be really pricey. You can utilize the leftover espresso beans and cover them in chocolate, save money and not let the old beans go to waste. They can be very useful for you, after all.
Bringing Out the Artist in You
If you have ever seen the coffee bean painting in Moscow, Russia, then you must know that this brilliant work of art was made out of 1 million coffee beans. It covers about 30 square meters.
However, you don’t necessarily have to cover a building’s side but you can create your own art on a canvas or maybe something smaller? Bring out the artist in you with the old coffee beans!
Candle Glass Décor
Among the many useful and creative uses for old coffee beans, another artistic purpose is for décor. Old coffee beans can make for some great looking décor in the house.
You can put coffee beans in candle glass that will look beautiful when placed on the table. They will give a relaxing vibe to any room they are put in.
Utilizing Ground Beans in a Practical Manner
Here are some ways to make good use of your ground beans:
Using as a Skin Exfoliant
Are you tired of wasting a lot of money on skin products? Well, know this: now you don’t have to waste any more money on those expensive skin scrubs. Coffee grounds act as exfoliants. Exfoliants not just remove dead skin cells off your face, they promote growth of new skin cells, making your skin look fresh and youthful.
You can use stale coffee grounds or dry out the used coffee grounds and then you can make a scrub with these grounds and coconut oil. You can also make fancier scrub by adding brown sugar and vanilla extract.
Using for Hair Growth
Coffee is not only a good energy booster and mental stimulant, it is also great for your hair. Those who face the problem of hair loss and lack of hair growth, can benefit from coffee in multiple ways.
Grind the coffee beans and brew them. Once they’ve cooled, apply on your hair. When the caffeine gets into the roots, it stimulates hair follicles. This improves the overall structure of your hair, leading to better hair growth, improved texture and making hair healthy.
Using Ground Beans as a Dye
Instead of damaging your clothes with chemical dyes, you can use the old coffee beans that you are about to throw out and make a natural dye out of them.
You can choose the color of your choice by making a strong brew or weak brew. Strong brew will give a deep brown color whereas weak brew will give a light brown color.
How to Dye Your Fabric – Once you have brewed your coffee, pour it in a pot and boil it. Then throw in the fabric that you want to dye and stir it, making sure it is completely soaked. Let it sit for about an hour, if you let it sit longer, then you will get a deeper color.
Then pull it out and rinse with cold water immediately. Add vinegar in cold water and put the fabric in it for about 10 minutes. This will set the dye. Now your fabric is ready to be used.
Solving Cellulite Problems
When we reach a certain age, most of use face the problem of cellulite. It is a fat that causes lumpiness of skin, especially on hips and thighs areas in women. The caffeine present in coffee grounds stimulates stretching. Rubbing them on your skin stimulates blood circulation.
Antioxidants are present in coffee grounds that increase production of collagen in the body. This reduces the cellulite and helps in plumping out the skin.
However, you must know that the grounds cannot remove the cellulite forever. But they do save you from those expensive surgical or non-surgical procedures and lessen the appearance a little.
You can mix the coffee grounds with coconut oil so that they are easier to rub on the problematic areas.
Cleaning Your Kitchen
The old coffee grounds act as cleaning scrub for your kitchen. This is due to their acidic and mildly abrasive properties. If there are difficult marks and spots in your kitchen, it will help a lot in cleaning them. If you add soap and water in the grounds, then it will make your counter tops glistening and good as new!
Preventing Pests from Invading Your Home and Outdoors
Ants – We all have some problem areas in the garden and kitchen which ants don’t leave alone no matter how hard we try. You can spread some old coffee grounds on the areas and then see the magic. No more invasion by ants! This will save your garden and your kitchen. This also work with cats.
Mosquitoes It is super annoying when you want to be outdoor and enjoy the weather healthy activities but those mosquitoes won’t let you! Did you know the coffee grounds are pest repellents? Put them in bowls and keep them outdoors so the insects won’t ruin your party!
Fleas You can also put them in the shampoo of your pets when you bathe them. This will help inhibit fleas from getting into your furry friends.
Cockroaches If the cockroaches have invaded your home, then set a trap for them with a jar and coffee grounds. Place the grounds at the bottom of the jar, set it at an angle that makes it easy for cockroaches to climb inside. Once they are in, they cannot get outside of the jar.
Adding to Compost
Gardeners rejoice! If you have old coffee beans or stale coffee grounds, they make for great compost. A lot of chemical compounds can be found in old coffee beans such as magnesium, copper, potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen (dependent on time).
This supercharges the soil both long term and short term. Throw the grounds in the compost bin and let them disrupt down with the rest of the compost. This will help refrain discarded stuff from landfills and will nourish your garden at the same time.
Making Mushrooms through Coffee Grounds
We all like mushrooms in our meals especially as the tasty toppings in pizza and many other foods but they are expensive to buy. Did you know the old coffee grounds can be used to grow mushrooms at your very home?
A simple arrangement with a five-gallon container filled with coffee grounds is the perfect procreation space for mushrooms. For the mushroom type you want to cultivate, buy the mushroom spores from the market.
This is an interesting project with kids, that will develop their interest in growing their own fruits and vegetables too. They will enjoy the process and will spend their time in a productive way away from those technology gadgets.
Tenderizing Meat
Who doesn’t love a juicy, tender stake and some delicious chicken? The old coffee beans can be used to tenderize the meat. As we know that brewed coffee has plenty of enzymes. When the meat has been marinated, they cause the meat to become a lot more tender.
Brew a strong coffee with the old beans, once it has cooled, then marinate the meat in it for about 24 hours. This will tenderize the meat and you will love the tender stake!
Well done, old coffee beans!
Our Final Thoughts on Old Coffee Beans Uses
By now, you well know what to do with the old coffee beans and use them in an intelligent manner instead of just discarding them or leaving them there in your kitchen unattended for a long time.
There are a multitude of benefits that you can derive from those old or stale coffee beans. Utilizing them in a practical way will save you hundreds of dollars easily. You will not just save money, but you will be contributing to the environment as well.
You can get tasty foods, better skin, beautiful hair, beautiful décor for your home, and keep so many pests at bay if you make practical use of the ideas that we suggested here.