Can You Use Coffee Grounds Twice? – A Definitive Guide

You understand your love for coffee. It lights up your morning and keeps you fresh for a good time. But being a coffee lover does burn a slow hole in your wallet. Buying your coffee bean, grinding them, and brewing coffee with coffee or milk can add up in costs. That’s when you come up with an important question.

Can you use coffee grounds twice? You can technically use your coffee grounds twice. The result will not match your first cup of coffee in taste. You should not use your coffee grounds twice unless you don’t have fresh coffee grounds with you or if you’re trying to save some bucks. Either way, you will get a not-so-good cup of coffee.

What Happens When You Use Your Coffee Grounds Twice?

Yes, drinking coffee brings you a hit of caffeine that is great to push you forward. 

But some of us love coffee for the taste. We crave the flavor more than anything and we can’t compromise it at any cost. If you can relate to this, then you might not want to reuse your coffee grounds.

Making coffee might be a hobby for some, but for most of its serious lovers, it is more of a science. You spend so much time nailing the water to coffee ratio, the brewing method, the temperature, and even the smallest of details to get the best brew possible.

If coffee is that important to you, then you might not be able to taste the second brew coming from your reused coffee grounds. The taste isn’t just the same. It might turn bitter or stale depending on environmental factors.

One way to make it taste better is by adding milk or creamer of your choice. This will help you mask the stale taste and make your second brew worthwhile, helping you to save some bucks in the process.

How Much Caffeine is Left in Used Coffee Grounds?

So you don’t care about the taste of the coffee. You’re only concerned about how much caffeine you can get from your cup of joe.

Well, we hate to disappoint you, but you’re not going to get a lot of caffeine in your second brew.

When you brew your coffee for the first time, about 25 to 35% of the ground coffee give their extract while the other insoluble particle doesn’t contribute anything. 

The coffee concentrate you get from the brewing process comes with a refreshing flavor and can make you work through the entire night. This is mainly because of the caffeine content in it.

Unfortunately, when you reuse your ground coffee, you are not going to get any caffeine in them (or you might get negligible amounts of caffeine).

To summarize, if you are a caffeine junkie, don’t reuse your coffee grounds to make a cup of coffee.

How To Use Your Coffee Grounds Twice (or more) For Coffee?

The ideal case is to not use your used coffee grounds for the following reasons.

  • You will end up with over-extracted bitter coffee
  • You will get a weak coffee that doesn’t resemble anything from the first brew

If, for some reason, you still want to use your coffee grounds for the second time, here’s how to do it.

  • Cool your coffee grounds. This will help them from getting burnt.
  • Always cover your coffee grounds even when they are cooling. Covering your grounds will help you to lock in the flavor for as long as possible.
  • Avoid tamping the second time. This applies to espresso, and if that’s what you’re going for, then don’t even bother. The coffee grounds have already been extracted to the max. If you try reusing them, you will not get anything out of it.
  • Don’t reuse your coffee grounds more than twice. If you’re wondering if you could extract coffee one more time from your coffee grounds, please don’t. Two are many times when it comes to reusing coffee grounds. Doing it more than that will make your coffee just worse in every way.

How can you make a second brew taste better?

Well, there is always something you can do when it comes to coffee. 

If you always add milk or creamer to your coffee, then a second brew will not taste that bad to your taste buds. If you are a black coffee lover, then you can add milk or creamer or sweeten your coffee to get used to the second time brew.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds For Cold Brew?

Cold brew is a great method that gives us a refreshing beverage without any fancy equipment. For the best results, we steep the coffee grounds anywhere between 12 to 24 hours.

Coming to reusing coffee grounds for cold brew. Is it possible?

Yes, reusing coffee grounds for cold brew coffee can be done with a good outcome. The taste of the coffee will still not be as good as the first batch, but this is probably the best brewing method when it comes to reusing your coffee grounds.

You will like the second brew better if you add some milk or creamer to your cup. You can also add some sugar or a sugar alternative like honey or unsweetened cocoa powder to improve the coffee’s taste.

You will also like this if you’re a fan of iced coffee or any other cold beverage.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds In French Press or Aeropress?

Reusing your coffee grounds in a French press or Aeropress can be done. You have the soak the coffee grounds for a longer period but do keep in mind that the resulting coffee will still not be good as the first coffee you made.

The only good news with this method is that you get some caffeine when compared to any other method. Having said that, you must crave caffeine so much to tolerate the stale flavor of the coffee.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds the Next Day?

No, you shouldn’t use your used coffee grounds the next day. It will result in a flavorless, bitter coffee and your time is just not worth it. Reusing old coffee grounds must happen on the same day for a decent brew output.

Another reason you should not reuse your coffee grounds the next day is bacteria and fungi buildup. The wet coffee grounds will attract bacteria and fungi growth in your grounds. In a day, their colonies will be well developed, and drinking coffee made from those coffee grounds could even cause serious health problems.

Using your coffee grounds is not recommended unless you want to get the most out of your coffee grounds or if you don’t have fresh coffee grounds around you. It can also save you some money.

Even if you must, you should reuse your coffee grounds the very day for the best second brew extraction. When you keep your grounds for a long period or till the next day, there is a good chance that you might a very bad coffee.

More than bad, oxidation can make your coffee bitter and gross. Even if you add milk or creamer to your coffee, it might be in vain.

Can You Use Old Coffee Grounds For Anything?

Yes! Old coffee grounds are perfect for a lot of things other than your second brew. 

Let’s take a look at them.

Gardening

You can use your coffee in your garden to make it much better. 

Thanks to the acidic nature of coffee grounds, they can be used as a fertilizer for your garden plants. Be it tomato plants or apple trees, these used coffee grounds will come in handy.

Another nice advantage is that coffee grounds will attract useful worms that make your soil more fertile. If you have a garden, just sprinkle your coffee grounds and see the difference.

If you don’t have a garden, read on!

Repellant

Coffee comes with certain compounds that are highly toxic to some insects. So you can use these coffee grounds to repel insects that have been taking your home hostage.

This will work on mosquitoes, fruit flies, snails, and beetles. If your garden has an insect problem, used grounds can alleviate it without any issues.

Not only insects, but coffee grounds are also great for repelling fleas. If your dog has a flea problem, you can rub some grounds on its fur and see the change.

The grounds will not only get rid of the fleas, but they will also improve the fur quality. 

Be careful to not feed your dog coffee ground as it is toxic and the effects can be fatal depending on the amount consumed.

Odor Remover

We have discussed in so many posts that keeping your cup of coffee open inside your fridge is a bad idea as it can absorb the smell of all the surrounding food items. 

Can a find a way to use this property in our favor?

Yes, if your fridge stinks with a lot of stuff inside, you can keep used coffee grounds amidst them to absorb all the nasty odor. 

If you love the way how coffee smells, you can even use it as an air freshener. Just keep a small bag of coffee grounds and you will notice its smell over time.

Cosmetic Benefits

Coffee grounds bring a wide range of cosmetic benefits to the table.

You can use used grounds as a face scrub. It can help in removing the dead cell in your skin and can also tackle blackheads to an extent. Coffee is not a quick fix, but will surely work wonders over time.

Used grounds can help get rid of puffy eyes.  Trying placing grounds in a towel under your eyes for about 20 minutes. Do that repeatedly for a week to see your puffy eyes return to normal.

You can also add coffee grounds to your soap mix.  This is not for everyone, but if you make your own soaps or if you’re learning to make soaps with a DIY kit, you can add some used coffee grounds to impart some coffee flavor onto your soap. You get the benefits as well.

Can You Use Coffe Grounds Twice? – Wrap Up

We’ve explained the good, bad, and ugly of reusing your coffee grounds in this post.

You can reuse your coffee grounds, but the resulting coffee might not as good when compared to the first cup. If you want to save money, you can go ahead and do it.

If you value flavor and taste, then avoid reusing at all costs. We’ve also given several other uses for coffee grounds if you were trashing them instead.

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