[HN Gopher] Reusing Yesterday's Coffee Grounds for Another Cup o...
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       Reusing Yesterday's Coffee Grounds for Another Cup of Coffee
        
       Author : jorgesborges
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2022-11-27 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (wokelark.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (wokelark.com)
        
       | ruined wrote:
       | this reads like generated blogspam
        
         | Our_Benefactors wrote:
         | Especially with the scroll-hijacking-in-line-ads every
         | paragraph.
        
           | cauliflower2718 wrote:
           | Which ads? The links I see are either to her other blog posts
           | or to scientific studies. For example, the "cold brew
           | method", "French press", "better water for coffee making",
           | and "pressurized portafilter basket" links are all tutorial
           | or explainer blog posts.
        
         | jrmg wrote:
         | Oh, man, I'm glad I'm not the only one to think this. It felt
         | like a real article was in there, but the author had copied the
         | stilted, overly verbose style of generated-for-SEO articles. I
         | really hope we're not entering a world where quality content
         | has to be written in this robotic, repetitive way to 'work'
         | online.
        
           | snoot wrote:
           | It's not that it _has_ to be written that way. It's that
           | people who have grown up with it have learned that this is
           | the way.
        
         | clarkdale wrote:
         | I came to say the same thing. The 10th and 11th paragraphs
         | (each one sentence) say the same thing. And they have the same
         | effect as the title of the second section (immediately
         | following those paragraphs). Each are the same idea of the
         | article title.
        
       | hardwaregeek wrote:
       | Not coffee, but I've wondered this about stock. Recipe authors
       | claim that the vegetables/meat have no more flavor to give, but I
       | don't know if they've actually tested this.
        
         | wirrbel wrote:
         | Imho if they had more flavour to give my grandmother would have
         | increased the water-to-bone ratio in her personal recipe book.
         | 
         | That being said the veggies are often fairly tasty. The hat is
         | they won't nurture a next gallon of broth but without further
         | dilution they are great.
        
         | PartiallyTyped wrote:
         | Perhaps caramelising them before the second attempt could work.
         | I very much doubt that they do not have more flavour to give.
        
       | MrMan wrote:
       | anything with "woke" in the url is socialist, and bad, so didn't
       | click on this
        
         | progman32 wrote:
         | Then, perhaps you've missed the FAQ:
         | https://wokelark.com/about-the-woke-lark-and-vessy/
         | 
         | > I do not associate my blog with how the word "woke" is being
         | used nowadays.
        
         | b1ue64 wrote:
         | It's a fucking coffee blog
        
       | anigbrowl wrote:
       | _And is all of this worth it? I personally don't think so._
       | 
       | Betteridge's law of Headlines strikes again
        
       | loloquwowndueo wrote:
       | Haha at home we always make fun of cold brew as "monetizing cold
       | coffee leftovers from yesterday" I guess this backs that up a bit
       | :)
        
         | kortilla wrote:
         | ?
         | 
         | Cold brew is not just refrigerated coffee. That would be "iced
         | coffee".
         | 
         | Cold brew is made in the fridge with new grounds (no hot water
         | involved).
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tdeck wrote:
       | What happens if you use twice the amount of old coffee grounds to
       | make cold brew? Would that approximate the original product?
        
         | ryanwhitney wrote:
         | Yeah, that's what's missing here: experimentation on how to
         | make it work.
         | 
         | I've tried this by re-using grounds, but also adding fresh
         | grounds on top. (About half as much as i'd normally use.) It
         | still comes out a bit watery, but much closer to normal.
        
       | markiannucci wrote:
       | In 2015, I had a similar curiosity. Coffee stack exchange was
       | just getting started and the top answer is enlightening.
       | https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/1749/brewing-with...
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | What's definitely possible is reusing green tea for a second or
       | even third infusion.
        
       | netfortius wrote:
       | This "research" reminded me of the nechezol [1] we enjoyed under
       | the guidance of the renown coffee specialist Ceausescu
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nechezol
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | The TL;DR is:
       | 
       | > And is all of this worth it? I personally don't think so.
       | 
       | Author put some thought into it so it's an interesting read, but
       | still, the lede should not have been buried.
        
       | Scoundreller wrote:
       | > When reusing coffee grounds to make another coffee the next day
       | you risk ingesting unwanted fungi and bacteria.
       | 
       | > These are attracted by the wet grounds and it's possible that
       | the microorganisms start establishing their colonies in less than
       | 24 hours.
       | 
       | > Therefore drinking coffee that's made from yesterday's grounds
       | could be potentially dangerous while also having an unpleasant
       | taste.
       | 
       | Storing the spent grounds in the fridge would be a good
       | preservation method.
       | 
       | Personally, I think putting boiling water in the grounds as an
       | initial treatment should kill off any initial bacteria.
       | 
       | Fungal spores aren't killed by boiling, but they might germinate
       | after soaking and then get killed after the second hit. This was
       | an early method of killing fungal spores before pressure vessels:
       | tyndallisation.
       | 
       | Coffee grounds (without any sugar, etc.) isn't a very nutritive
       | media.
        
         | antognini wrote:
         | The second boil wouldn't really help much with the food safety.
         | The bacteria or fungi aren't themselves toxic, it's the waste
         | they produce that is. And unfortunately those toxins aren't
         | destroyed by boiling water.
         | 
         | But I agree that it should be fine if you put it in the fridge.
        
       | dehrmann wrote:
       | Might be interesting to regrind french press grounds finer and
       | change extraction methods.
        
       | ramesh31 wrote:
       | I do it every day. First pot in the morning is fresh, and my
       | "2:00 pot" uses the same grounds. It's weaker, but that's the
       | point.
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | I love this, and even though it seems like the experiments were a
       | failure, if one hadn't been it might have saved a lot of people a
       | lot of money. As it is, it's saved at least a few people from
       | trying the experiment themselves. Also there's a list of
       | alternative uses for coffee grounds, and a link to another
       | blogpost that expands on those in detail.
       | 
       | This post took more effort than 99% of blogposts, calling it
       | blogspam is pretty offensive.
       | 
       | It reminds me of another favorite article online:
       | https://www.instructables.com/The-Science-of-Biscuits/
       | 
       | Sourced from:
       | https://travisdanielbow.weebly.com/blog/category/cooking-exp...
        
       | angry_moose wrote:
       | I use a Chemex drip coffee maker and get pretty good results by
       | halving the amount of grounds I use for subsequent cups. No idea
       | about the caffeine content but the taste is not noticeably
       | different.
       | 
       | With my grinder, a 12 second grind gives a good first cup. For
       | the second cup I keep the spent grounds in the filter and add
       | another 6 second grind. If I go for 3, another 6 second grind.
       | 
       | That works out to a 25% or 33% savings depending on number of
       | cups (18/24 seconds vs 24/36). I've never tried carrying them
       | over day to day.
        
         | vanilla_nut wrote:
         | FYI you can wash and reuse Chemex paper filters 2-5 times, in
         | my experience, before they start to taste weird or fall apart.
         | 
         | Considering how expensive and wasteful paper coffee filters can
         | get, it's a nice optimization.
        
           | feet wrote:
           | Personally I have a metal filter for my pour over. Less waste
        
       | crazygringo wrote:
       | So the answers are about what you'd expect -- it's weak, cold
       | brew is better but still weak, and who even knows if there's any
       | caffeine in there.
       | 
       | But I still can't help but wonder out of sheer curiosity, to take
       | this to the limit -- what about making cold brew but with 3x or
       | even 5x or 10x the ratio of grounds to water?
       | 
       | Surely there's a way to get "reused" coffee to a comparable
       | _concentration_ to  "first use". And then... would it be even
       | remotely drinkable, or too much bitterness-to-flavor?
       | Sufficiently caffeinated, or would comparable caffeine make it
       | unbearably bitter?
       | 
       | I'm so curious now -- I feel like this blog post got 80% of the
       | way, but is missing the final experiment!
        
       | bee_rider wrote:
       | This fits my priors at least -- reused beans generally aren't
       | great, but cold brew is pretty resilient to less-than-stellar
       | beans.
        
       | cf100clunk wrote:
       | If the coffee grounds were left at room temperature in the basket
       | or device since the previous brew, wouldn't they be home to
       | bacteria and maybe other unpleasantness? I'm guessing immediate
       | cold storage of the used grounds would be necessary. I'll stick
       | to fresh, on-demand grinding.
        
         | yellow_lead wrote:
         | This is addressed in the article. You are correct. She tries
         | drying the spent grounds instead though.
        
           | cf100clunk wrote:
           | Point taken. I tried not to tl;dr it but that article isn't
           | very direct and to-the-point.
        
       | cardamomo wrote:
       | I generally concur with sibling commenters' criticisms, but I
       | still enjoyed reading this article. To me it's a light-hearted
       | but nevertheless thorough exploration of coffee brewing. I love
       | that the author attempts to answer a question that almost nobody
       | was asking--simply out of sheer curiosity!
        
         | deepspace wrote:
         | > I still enjoyed reading this article
         | 
         | I am sorry, but I have to disagree. The stilted, repetitive,
         | one sentence per paragraph style is so obtrusive and so
         | reminiscent of blog spam that I could not focus on the content.
         | 
         | At the end of the day, all the author does is re-brew a cup of
         | coffee with used grounds. Who has not tried that at least once
         | (and went blegh and never tried it again)? To me, the article
         | is as content-free as it is hard to read.
        
           | NoahTheDuke wrote:
           | > I am sorry, but I have to disagree.
           | 
           | You disagree that they enjoyed the article?
        
       | lzooz wrote:
       | I'll have this printed for when I become a bum
        
         | aliqot wrote:
         | Charmin is cheaper
        
       | dgacmu wrote:
       | Oof. This article is horribly painful to read. Tl;dr: it's
       | exactly what you'd expect. Weak and not as tasty. Cold brewing it
       | might work best. Less than half the caffeine of the first
       | extraction. Don't let wet coffee grounds stay in the counter
       | overnight to gather mold and bacteria before reusing.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | cypress66 wrote:
       | If you've ever done a salami shot, it will be obvious that
       | reusing grounds like this will never work, at least assuming you
       | want your coffee to taste any good.
        
       | kotaKat wrote:
       | There are companies of yesteryear that sold products like this to
       | "reroast grounds".
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39g6utADRzs
       | 
       | They're awful.
        
       | momirlan wrote:
       | totally agree with grandma : nothing wrong with a second, decaf
       | brew. my grandma, in the old times, used the burned crust from
       | the home made bread for the morning coffee. peasants could not
       | afford real coffee. it was similar to chicory coffee, not too
       | bad.
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-27 23:01 UTC)