Products You May Like
When you look at those tiny roasted gems that will eventually transform into the life sustaining beverage we call coffee, you might not fully understand what you’re looking at. What we are really seeing is a single part of a whole. For example, you can’t truly begin to appreciate your cappuccino without understanding the ratios and the education that went in to its creation. And just like the cappuccino (or any other espresso drink), you can’t really enjoy your morning pick me up without realizing that it’s not just the bean that you need to acknowledge. It’s the whole plant – from the leaves and stems to the seed, husks, grounds, and the fruit itself.
Let’s look into different ways that the entire coffee plant is being utilized, starting with coffee grounds. Normally, we make our coffee and toss the grounds. But this byproduct actually has multiple uses. For example, if you’re having trouble with slugs, snails, or other creepy crawlies (like fruit flies, mosquitoes, fleas, and beetles), just sprinkle coffee grounds on the soil. Caffeine is a natural deterrent for these pests and contains compounds that are toxic to them. On the flip side, it also has the possibility to harm good insects. So keep in mind that you can have too much of a good thing, and don’t go dumping a 1 kg container of grounds on your tomato plants. They won’t be happy.
Some claim that the odor is also offensive to cats, so if your neighbor’s precious Mr. Kitty keeps treating your flowerbed like his personal litter box, this might be something to look into.
You can also use coffee grounds to neutralize odors, curb headaches, exfoliate your skin, or as a meat tenderizer. Who knew that coffee grounds could be so versatile?
Let’s move on to the leaves and stems of the coffee shrub. While mostly used for compost, coffee leaves have a long history of being used in tea and tisanes. In Ethiopia this beverage is called “Kuti”, and is usually consumed alongside traditional Ethiopian foods. The leaves are steamed, rolled and dried, and are sometimes roasted or even fermented. Because the leaves are rich in nutrients, they are also being tested in livestock feed as a potential economic and eco-friendly source of food.
Coffee husks, also known as chaff, have little to no profitable value – until now. In mass production, the husks are normally discarded and become biowaste that releases methane gas into the atmosphere. Not good. While some smaller operations will donate or give the husks away for composting or fertilizer, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) has been developing multiple alternate uses for all parts of the coffee plant, including using the husks as fuel. We’re all fueled up on coffee anyway, so this actually makes perfect sense. What about creating a home out of husks? Woodpecker, a Colombian based company, is using coffee chaff to make walls for prefabricated houses.
The coffee cherry has been hanging around the java universe for a few years now, and with good reason. It’s because this particular byproduct, the fruit (or what I like to call the coffee bean’s jacket) is dried and served as an infusion called cascara. It’s also being used to make coffee flour. This flour is made by dehydrating and processing the fruit down to a powder that has the consistency of ground espresso. Supposedly it’s high in iron, potassium, fiber, and protein. So not only can you drink your cup of coffee, you can eat it, too.
Coffee flour muffin, anyone?
Robyn earned her coffee stripes working as a barista up and down the California coast. After ten years, she moved from behind the bar to behind a desk as the inside sales rep for a local wholesale coffee roastery. She is currently a contributing writer at BuzzFeed and works in social media marketing and design. When it comes to espresso, nothing makes her happier than a decadent crema.