Coffee is expensive. Even if you brew it at home the costs add up over time. This is especially true if you dump your leftover coffee down the drain. Think about it – you’re basically pouring money down the drain by the cup! Thankfully, there are a plethora of ways you can repurpose your leftover coffee. This article will help you get your money’s worth and not waste a drop of your favorite beverage! Again, there are literally hundreds of ways to repurpose your leftover coffee, so let’s explore some of our favorites. Ready? Let’s go!
Can You Save Leftover Coffee?
Absolutely! However, you can’t expect it to taste as good as it did when you first brewed it. Regardless, saving your leftover coffee is a great way to get the most bang for your buck, so long as you don’t care about losing some flavor.
How Long Does Leftover Coffee Last?
Once you brew your coffee, it is best to drink it right away since the flavor depreciates with time. If you leave your coffee at room temperature, you should use it within 12 hours so as to avoid any potential contamination. Your coffee can last up to four days if you store it in a sealed container and stash it away in the fridge. If you pursue this route, we highly recommend you use mason jars, sealed Tupper Ware, or a mug with a tight lid.
While refrigerated coffee can last up to four days, the flavor will become weaker the longer you let it sit. If you decide to repurpose your leftover coffee for eating or drinking purposes, it is best to use it as quickly as possible. If you use it for other purposes, then the flavor level doesn’t matter and you can let your leftover coffee sit in the fridge for four days.
13 Ways to Repurpose Your Leftover Coffee
1.) Bake a Chocolate Cake
One of the best flavor combinations known to mankind is coffee paired with chocolate. This is why you should seriously consider adding your leftover coffee to your next chocolate cake. The coffee will enhance the chocolate flavor, making it a chocolate lover’s dream. Fear not, adding coffee will not make the cake taste like your morning java. There are countless recipes that fuse leftover coffee into chocolate cake, but here is our go-to recipe.
2.) Water Your Plants
You shouldn’t water your plants with coffee every day. However, applying a diluted mix of water and leftover coffee is a great way to naturally fertilize your plants. Coffee is naturally acidic in nature, which makes it a great enhancer for the soil in your garden and potted plants. If you want to take things to the next level, you can compost with used coffee grounds and leftover coffee. Doing so will help nurture the soil and help your plants grow. However, you do not want to use too much coffee because this will make the soil too acidic.
3.) Enhance the Flavor of Your Meat
Odds are that you’ve never considered that seasoning your meat with coffee would produce the most magical flavor sensation ever. Well, newsflash, seasoning your meat with coffee is more magical than the combined forces of Disney World and Disney Land. Seasoning your meat with coffee enhances the flavor and makes it more tender.
4.) Make a Hair Mask
Many of the reasons why coffee perks you up in the morning also apply to the beauty of your hair. The caffeine and antioxidants found in coffee make your hair shinier and give it more bounce. Coffee also helps strip away the various hair products that build up on your scalp. Furthermore, a coffee-based hair mask also promotes hair growth and improves texture.
There are numerous hair masks on the market that feature coffee as a main ingredient. Most of them include other ingredients such as coconut oil, honey, or egg yolk. You’ll want to find the coffee-based hair mask that meets your hair needs, apply it, and then wash it out.
5.) Repurpose Your Leftover Coffee and Make Coffee Ice Cubes
When you sip on your iced coffee, the ice cubes slowly melt and water down the bold flavor we all love. You can easily avoid this tragedy altogether. Simply freeze your leftover coffee and use the coffee ice cubes to chill your next iced coffee. Doing so not only ensures that your iced coffee stays cold, but also enhances the coffee flavor.
Making coffee ice cubes is wicked simple. You’ll want to let your leftover coffee reach room temperature. The next step is to pour it into an ice cube tray. The final step is to place the coffee-filled ice cube tray(s) in the freezer. Once the coffee cubes are frozen, you simply pop them out of the ice cube tray and add them to your iced coffee.
6.) Use Your Leftover Coffee as a Wood Stain
If you purchase unfinished wood, you’ll want to stain it for a classic finish that is far more attractive. Unfortunately, most wood stains are pretty expensive. Instead of burning through your earned cash, you can use your leftover coffee to stain your wood.
You’ll want to sand the wood before using a paintbrush or cloth to apply the coffee to the wood. You can apply multiple coats of coffee if you desire a darker color. If you want a lighter stain, simply apply a few coats of diluted coffee.
7.) Bake Some Deliciously Moist Brownies
Similar to how coffee enhances the flavor of your favorite chocolate cake recipe, adding your leftover coffee to your brownie recipe will bring out an even stronger chocolate flavor. Using coffee also replaces the need for water or milk. Furthermore, the stronger the coffee, the more it improves the chocolaty flavor. The biggest challenge is to make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn because this will cause the batter to turn grainy with the coffee.
8.) Reheat Your Leftover Coffee
This is by far the least creative way to give your leftover coffee a second life. Reheated coffee will not have the same level of flavor as when it was initially brewed, but it will help stretch your dollar and deliver your daily caffeine rush when you get out of bed.
Make sure to store your leftover coffee in a sealed container and stash it in the fridge if you plan to reheat it. You also want to refrain from opening the sealed container until right before you’re ready to reheat and drink your leftover coffee. As for reheating methods, you can either toss it in your microwave or place it on your stovetop. We prefer the microwave option because it is the faster of the two methods.
9.) Use Your Leftover Coffee as a Degreaser
In addition to enriching the soil in your garden, the acidic nature of coffee makes it a great cleaning agent. It is strong enough that it can even clean up greasy surfaces.
You can use your leftover coffee to clean your BBQ grill, floors, dishes, or anywhere else with greasy buildups. The appealing scent of coffee also makes it a top-notch cleaning agent for your garbage disposal since it eliminates nasty odors. Remember that coffee stains, so don’t use it on porous surfaces.
10.) Repurpose Your Leftover Coffee and Brew Up a Tasty Marinade
This may be hard to wrap your head around, but coffee can taste amazing in savory foods. However, you have to do it the right way. You can whip up a delicious marinade with your leftover coffee. The beauty of a coffee-based marinade is that you can use it on anything from tofu to steak to chicken.
Creating a coffee-based marinade is simple. You can mix your leftover coffee with onions, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, or mustard. Once you mix it to your liking, you then apply the marinade to the meat before cooking it. The coffee will take the sweet flavors of the marinade to a new level and add a more intense flavor to the meat.
11.) Repair Scratched Wooden Furniture
Since coffee stains wood, you can also use it to repair scratched wooden furniture. The scratches in your wooden furniture are easy fixes, but they can cost a pretty penny. Opting for the leftover coffee method is a far more affordable option.
In order to use your leftover coffee to repair scratches in your wooden furniture, you need to dilute the coffee or add more coffee to match the color of the wood. Once you match the color of the wood, you then dab a soft cloth with the coffee and gently rub it over the scratched surface. Doing so allows the coffee to absorb into the scratch and make it match the color of the wood that isn’t damaged.
12. Dye Your Hair
Have you ever wanted to dye your hair dark brown, but didn’t want to commit to actual hair dye? If so, you can use coffee instead. Coffee will darken your hair and will wash out much faster than actual hair dye.
To dye your hair with your leftover coffee, you need to add 1 cup of leftover coffee to 2 cups of leave-in hair conditioner and then apply it to your hair. Once you apply it to your hair you need to let it sit in your hair for one hour. Once an hour passes, rinse it out and style your hair as normal.
13.) Add Flavor to Your Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Another way to repurpose your leftover coffee is to add it to your slow cooker pot roast recipe. Everyone dreams of a flavorful and tender pot roast. Adding coffee to your recipe helps tenderize the meat and amplifies the natural flavors, which results in a robust and delicious home-cooked meal.
What About Iced Coffee?
You can technically make iced coffee using your leftover coffee. However, most coffee aficionados would recommend using fresh coffee since leftover coffee will have a far more mellow flavor profile. In simple terms, the coffee won’t taste as good.
As we already discussed, you can use your leftover coffee to make ice cubes. This approach will not degrade the overall taste of your iced coffee. In fact, it should actually enhance it because your iced coffee will not become diluted when typical water-based ice cubes melt.
If you genuinely don’t place much value in the taste of your iced coffee, you can use your leftover coffee to make iced coffee. However, if you do care about the flavor of your iced coffee, you really should make a fresh pot.
Closing Thoughts
Based on the fact that we just covered thirteen of the more common ways to repurpose your leftover coffee, there are a lot of ways to give your leftover coffee a second life. You can use your leftover coffee for cooking, baking, haircare, and much more. You can literally use coffer just about everywhere around your house. However, you need to remember that coffee only lasts four days when refrigerated. Whatever you do, do not consume coffee that has been sitting in your fridge for more than four days. If you forget to stash your leftover coffee in the fridge and let it sit at room temperature, you really should try to use it within 12 hours.
