Found a way to save old coffee grounds for iced coffee

I used to just toss my used grounds after brewing but then I read about cold brew concentrate. Now I take the grounds from my morning pour over and put them in a jar with cold water in the fridge overnight. Next day I strain it out and mix with milk for an afternoon iced coffee. It's not as strong as fresh cold brew but it's free and way better than wasting them. I've been doing this for about 3 weeks now and saved maybe $12 on coffee shop runs. Has anyone else tried repurposing their used grounds for something?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.henry14d ago

How long do you keep those grounds in the fridge before reusing them... I tried this once and after about 2 days the jar got this weird sour smell so I just dumped it out. Maybe I'm doing something wrong with how I store them or maybe it's the type of beans I'm using. Your setup sounds cleaner than what I did though, I just threw them in a mason jar with some water and hoped for the best. The $12 savings is impressive honestly, I probably spent more than that trying to figure it out before giving up.

mila39514d ago

Wait, are you putting fresh water in with the grounds every time? The sour smell sounds like fermentation happening, which means there's too much moisture sitting in there. You gotta keep them as dry as possible, just the used grounds with no extra water, and make sure the jar is sealed tight before it goes in the fridge. I swap mine out every 4 or 5 days max, and I always give them a quick sniff test before the second use to catch any funk early.