Coffee isn't cheap. It can be heartbreaking to throw away a pound of beans because they sat around too long and got stale. That's why I like finding little known ways to keep my old beans out of the trash can.
Sure, you can compost them. That's actually a good use for them, since they are dense organic material.
But I've run across some pretty unique and fun uses for my coffee beans that have gone past their prime, and I'm excited to share them with you!
Keep The Beans Whole
There are a lot of things you can do with whole coffee beans to keep from wasting them. Let's start with my personal favorite...
1
Make A Coffee Confection
You may have seen chocolate covered coffee beans in coffee shops. Just because the beans have lost some of their essence doesn't mean they can't still be delicious. And you'll be combining coffee and chocolate, so you can't lose.
All you have to do is melt some dark chocolate to coat your beans with.
Don't use milk chocolate. Its flavor is too delicate to be blended with roasted beans. Lay your beans out in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking pan and pour the chocolate over them. Once the chocolate dries, you can break the solid sheet of beans and chocolate up like peanut brittle.
That's the basic recipe.
You can mix some more flavor in with the chocolate while it melts. Add some mint oil. Try the finely grated zest of a lemon or orange. Make some chocolate-covered raspberries or blueberries to go with them.
There are so many possibilities with coffee and dark chocolate!
Not only do chocolate beans taste great, they are good for you. A few of these homemade candies has more antioxidants than most antioxidant supplements. They are also rich in minerals and trace nutrients.
If you have a lot of old beans to work with, you can make little gifts out of them.
Just get some little bags, fill them with chocolate beans and use a bit of ribbon to tie the bags shut. One pound of old beans can make about 15 of these neat little treat bags.
2
"Re-flavorize" Them
When coffee beans get old and stale, they lose some of their flavor, balance and nuance. That's ok. Add some different flavors and nuance to them and brew some coffee out of them anyway.
You can find real vanilla pods in the produce department of some grocery stores.
Put a pod into a small snack size Ziploc baggie and mash it a bit. Then fill the baggie up almost all the way with beans. Allow the baggie to sit, either in a cabinet or refrigerator, for a few weeks.
When you're ready for something different, grind your vanilla-flavored beans and brew up some mellow, tasty coffee.
Feel free to experiment.
Vanilla works well because it shares its flavor so easily. Using juniper berries instead will give you a nice gin-flavored coffee drink.
In a plastic food container, layer fresh mint leaves and old coffee beans. Sprinkle whole cloves into each layer of beans. Cover the container with a tight-fitting lid, and let it sit in your refrigerator for about a week to 10 days.
Either grind and brew the beans or make chocolate-covered beans out of them.
3
Simmer Them As Potpourri
You can try this one with regular old beans or flavored beans like the ones we talked about above.
Just toss some old beans in your potpourri burner and fill with water up to the top of the beans.
Use the low setting if you have an electric potpourri crock. This is a nice way to give your home that familiar, comforting coffee aroma even when you are not in the mood to drink a cup.
You can also add stale coffee beans to prepared potpourri. Coffee goes best with fall blends, especially those containing pine, cinnamon, ginger or other autumn spices.
4
Coffee-infused Liquor, Anyone?
Drop some old beans into liquor for an interesting adult beverage. This isn't an exact science. You can use just about any kind of liquor, I suppose. I tried this with vodka, and it didn't turn out so well. This works best with browner liquors.
Coffee blends nicely with the smoky and caramel undertones of bourbons like Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker. It also goes great with rum and scotch.
Start out with about 20 beans in a fifth of liquor. Let it sit for at least two weeks, then have a sniff and a sip. If it's good, decant the liquor, leaving the beans behind in the bottle. If it needs more coffee flavor, add some more beans and let it sit for another week or so before checking it again.
I've wondered how a coffee-infused cigar would taste. I haven't tried this because I don't own a humidor. If I did have one, I would crush some old, dried-out beans and partially rehydrate the pieces in water. Then I'd experiment with how much crushed bean to keep in the humidor for the best flavor transfer.
5
Add Them To Houseplant Soil Mix
Some people like to add coffee grounds to their potting mix. It keeps the soil loose and slowly biodegrades, releasing nutrients to nourish the plant. Whole beans may work even better than grounds.
Try this the next time you repot one of your plants. Add a big handful of beans to enough soil for a six-inch pot. Mix it up well, and use it like you would any other organic soil mix.
When you water the plant, the beans will soak up water just like the soil does. But coffee beans dry more slowly than soil. So as the soil begins to dry out, the beans will begin to dry by releasing their moisture right there around the plant's roots. The beans act like little water reservoirs. They also release a little nitrogen with their water, which plants love.
It might be a good idea to invest in a pH meter if you do this.
Coffee beans, especially Arabica, are acidic. Most houseplants want a pH of about 6.5, so keep that in mind. If you're worried about the beans making your potting mix too acidic, add a little dolomite lime to the soil to buffer it. And don't worry about the caffeine. It won't hurt your plant.
As time goes on, the endless expanding and contracting of the hydrating and dehydrating beans will keep the soil nice and loose. When the beans finally begin to break down, they become part of the soil itself.
6
Make Some Coffee Bean Crafts
New rule: You can't call yourself a coffee connoisseur unless you have some coffee bean crafts around your house.
And you get an automatic promotion to aficionado if you give a homemade bean craft project as a gift. 😉
Be creative, have some fun!
Even a clear glass vase full of old coffee beans can be an interesting piece of art. Start with that. Mix in some fake red berries for a Christmastime table centerpiece.
Bean art is a fun alternative to macaroni art for kids. They'll love making their little bean and construction paper projects, and you'll love hanging the art on your fridge.
This one is a good stress reliever...
Use old beans to bejewel odds and ends. If you don't know what bejeweling is, it's gluing little whatnots, like cut-glass jewels or sequins, onto things to turn a mundane object into an attention getter. Coffee beans are more interesting than jewels, anyway.
Use an electric glue gun to tack beans over as much of the surface that you're bejeweling as you can. Pencil holders, ashtrays, seashells and even lampshades are all interesting candidates for this.
Grind The Beans And Do Even More...
Usedgrounds are best repurposed in your garden or landscaping. What's better for soil than ground organic material? Slugs and snails hate coffee grounds, so sprinkle your spent grounds around the base of tender young plants to keep those pests away.
Old, dry grounds that have never been brewed have some practical uses around the house.
Use Grounds To Clean
Keep a wide plastic container of old grounds with your cleaning supplies. Push a wet sponge down into the grounds and use it to scrub semi-delicate surfaces, like non-stick pots and pans. Old coffee grounds have a mild acidity and gentle abrasiveness that pulls burned-on food right off of ceramic and other smooth, slick pan coatings.
Use Them For Cooking
Even if your grounds are too old and stale for brewing, they're probably good enough to use in a recipe. Look up treats like coffee ice cream, cakes and candies.
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