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Is there any reason you can't reuse coffee grounds?

Zombie Acorn

Zombie Acorn

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I drink quite a bit of coffee and usually reuse the same grounds twice, it tastes about the same to me but everyone else who drinks coffee tends to think its a sickening idea. 😀 I also have one of the machines with a filtered cup instead of having to use paper filters so its not like a mushy paper filter is sitting in there.
 
Zombie Acorn said:
I drink quite a bit of coffee and usually reuse the same grounds twice, it tastes about the same to me but everyone else who drinks coffee tends to think its a sickening idea. 😀 I also have one of the machines with a filtered cup instead of having to use paper filters so its not like a mushy paper filter is sitting in there.
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depends on how long you let them sit. It is one thing to quickly rebrew a pot.

But you wait a day and well stuff has started growing. Let wet coffee grounds sit about 3 days and you will see lot of stuff growing in them. Coffee provides very fertile place for stuff to grow.
 
Um gross? You should need to thoroughly dry it if you want to reuse it. Why do you want to reuse them anyways? Coffee been shortage? 🙂
 
Would it still have much caffeine content for the second brewing? My understanding is that caffeine is highly water soluble and there wouldn't be much left.
 
Yeah I don't think it remotely would taste the same to brew twice––besides it being kind of weird. If you enjoy brewing the grounds twice why not three times, six times? How many times have you tried until the flavor profile has degraded too much for your palate?

+1 for another thread though.
 
jmann said:
Um gross? You should need to thoroughly dry it if you want to reuse it. Why do you want to reuse them anyways? Coffee been shortage? 🙂
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It beats running to walmart at 1 am 😀

Generally I do it only if its one after another pot. The second one usually doesn't taste "as good" but its decent. I don't put anything in my coffee anyways.
 
Zombie Acorn said:
It beats running to walmart at 1 am 😀

Generally I do it only if its one after another pot. The second one usually doesn't taste "as good" but its decent. I don't put anything in my coffee anyways.
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Do you give the grounds a break? Or is it back to back coffeeing?
 
jmann said:
I hope you're not drinking the whole pot all by yourself. 😱
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Reminds me of a colleague at work -- I often ask him why he bothers with a mere pot; wouldn't a 55 gallon drum filled with freshly brewed coffee be much more convenient for his (coffee) drinking habits? 😀
 
There's no reason not to as long as you reuse it within a few hours.

If it tastes fine to you, then go for it. To me, it's disgusting. It tastes burnt...
 
this reminds me of once in a youth hostel in amsterdam where we caught the guy at the place's bar "recycling" the used coffee grounds by mixing them with
fresh ones for another brew (and it was not complimentary).
pretty lame.

i think if you reuse it immediately is fine, it's just going to be weaker and with a quite different flavor 'profile', because different essences get extracted at different rates.
i have an espresso machine that uses pods and if you use the same twice it is night and day. not even remotely comparable.

try it with tea: take a tea bag and put it for one minute in one cup and then for one minute in another.
often (especially if it is a herbal mix) it is not just a matter of strength, they taste completely different (and might have a different color, too)
 
Blech! I'm not really fussy about my coffee, but I'd be able to taste the difference. I know this because I use a drip system that makes 2 cups at a time. Long story short, I think the last 1/2 cup that comes out is terribly weak. I have to wait for the full 2 cups to drip before indulging.

If you want coffee that puts hair on your chest......
In the 1940's there was an RCMP vessel (the St Roch) which patrolled the Canadian Arctic. To make coffee they scooped a bunch of grounds into an enamelled coffee pot, added water, and put on the stove to boil. No filters, or drip baskets ... grounds into the water - boil - simmer. When the pot started to feel light, you added more grounds and water and put back onto the stove. When the pot was full of grounds, then you emptied the pot and started a fresh pot.

I got this story directly from one of the Mounties who was there....
 
I thought this was going to be a discussion of how to reuse coffee grounds as an alternative energy source. Given the number many people drink coffee, we should have an abundance of it. 😀
 
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If you are hardcore about coffee (like me) and drink shots of espresso then you definitely cannot use the same grounds twice.

The second shot that you draw will not have the same consistency and will also lack any crema (the dark red froth at the top).
 
Other than yuck, no. Go for it.

...it smacks of reheating cold coffee in a microwave. Double yuck. But there's no law - legal, physical, moral or otherwise - that says you can't.
 
laugh out loud

These posts totally made my night. 😀 Hahahaha, so funny. I'm going to try reusing my coffee grounds from the pot I just made...we'll see how it turns out. I don't know whether there will be any caffeine left?

Thanks for the entertainment.
 
jmann said:
I hope you're not drinking the whole pot all by yourself. 😱
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I am the only one who drinks coffee in my household and I don't drink it by the pot so I brew strong coffee, then immediately brew a second pot about half full with the same grounds. Drink a cup or two and keep the rest stored in a half gallon plastic jug in the fridge. When I want more the next day and later in the week, I pour a cup and pop it in the microwave. I assume this is not what a real coffee connoisseur does, but I don't waste it and it tastes good to me. 🙂
 
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