Yes, you can eat coffee grounds and we have the proof of one of its benefits. True story: one of our team members’ mom used to crave for coffee grounds when she was pregnant, especially during the first trimester. Her mom would wake up feeling nausea every single morning. No remedy could stop her morning sickness and vomiting.
Until she discovered by accident one day while craving for a cup of coffee and with no energy to make herself another cup of coffee she decided to swallow a scoop of coffee grounds from the coffee filter instead. Something magical happened that day! She suddenly felt better and the usual queasy feeling she had every morning seemed to be in control. She ate coffee grounds throughout the first trimester of her pregnancy.
This happened over 40 years ago when our team member was only seven. She thought her mom was out of her mind eating waste.
This may sound crazy to some even today.
But is coffee grounds a remedy for morning sickness? Are there benefits of consuming coffee grounds? According to Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry’s Evaluation of Spent Coffee Obtained from the Most Common Coffeemakers as a Source of Hydrophilic Bioactive Compounds stated that:
The main hydrophilic antioxidant compounds (3-, 4-, and 5- monocaffeoylquinic and 3, 3-, 3, 5-, and 4, 5-dicaffeoylquinic acids, caffeine, and browned compounds, including melanoidins) and the antioxidant capacity were evaluated in Arabica and Robusta spent coffee obtained from the preparation of coffee brews with the most common coffeemakers (filter, espresso, plunger and mocha)…
The above is super scientific but all we know is that coffee grounds may still have antioxidants. Does that means we will start eating coffee grounds?
We don’t think so. We prefer the taste of brewed coffee than the tasteless coffee grounds. Though while doing our research we found a blogger that actually used un-brewed coffee grounds to bake.
Note: Un-brewed means fresh ground coffee that has not gone through the processed of being brewed and washed off their aroma and taste.
Brittany from BlissfulBritt.com created the Coffee Ground No-Bake Energy Bite. Her recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of fresh ground UN-brewed coffee, almond butter, dry oatmeal, flaxseed, honey, chocolate chips, dried cranberries and vanilla.
They look really good and the biggest plus is, no baking is required. Go to her website and find out more on how to make your own No-bake Energy Bite with ‘antioxidant’ rich coffee grounds.
According to Eating Well magazine over 18,000 coffee studies were done in the past decades. More and more of these studies are showing the benefits of drinking coffee. If you drink two to four 8-ounce cups a day you might have reaped the following benefits quoted by the magazine:
- Brain gains
- Defeating diabetes
- Hearty benefits
- Liver lover (lower liver cancer)
Read more on Eating Well’s website.
Benefits aside, if you are thinking about eating tasteless coffee grounds why don’t you try the dark chocolate covered gourmet coffee beans from Costa Rica sold by Café Britt. These are made from 100% Costa Rican espresso coffee beans covered with pure dark chocolate. If you don’t like dark chocolate the company also makes white chocolate covered gourmet coffee beans from Costa Rica. Buy them directly from Cafe Britt at Amazon.com or Cafe Britt’s website.
To conclude, our team member’s mom proved over 40 years ago that you can eat coffee grounds. And of course the coffee grounds may have the remnants of the natural goodness of coffee beans. That does not mean we will start eating. We would rather drink a good cup of coffee with dark chocolate covered gourmet coffee beans from Costa Rica.
Do you eat coffee grounds? Leave your comment below.
Do you know if she has a special affinity to coffee based on her mom’s habit?
May sound weird, but I got on a bean-cooking kick for a while. One recipe I found on the web was called “campfire beans” or “cookie’s beans” or “cowboy beans” … the main ingredients were basically dried beans (soaked overnight to prepare), coffee grounds, and seasoning. I thought the coffee grounds would make them gritty, but they soften up nicely when slow-cooked with the beans. They add a spicy undertone to the whole affair. It’s one of those “there’s something different about your beans, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I like it” sort of things. Since then I save all of my coffee grounds. I put some in plants as fertilizer, because coffee contains nutrients that plants love, and I put some in my beans when I make them. I paid for coffee… why not use all of it?
We eat unground coffee beans all the time! Chocolate covered are the best! So what is the difference?????
We make coffee you eat!
It is made from Midwest honey, roasted coffee, pure cane sugar and a touch of milk to soften the bitterness.
You basically have a pot of coffee in your pocket or purse that is always ready when you need it. Because you are eating it… you get the full effects of the coffee bean… like when you eat an orange vs drinking the juice.
The combination is a build up of energy from simple sugars in the pure cane to the complex sugars in the honey leading into the caffeine. Plus it lasts longer because you ingested the whole bean.
We call it GO! and it is for energy and weight loss.
Check us out if you like: GoEatCoffee.com
Interesting product! Thanks for sharing.
I have been adding a scoop of un-brewed coffee grounds to my peanut butter, banana, raw cacao grounds, spinach smoothies and love the flavor! I haven’t experienced any negative effects.
Hi Joyce, thanks for sharing. We may try that! 🙂
Sometimes while I’m in a hurry for work, lately, I just put unbrewed grounds in my smoothie drink with peanut butter powder, uncooked oats, Ghirardelli cocoa powder and a banana. If I don’t have almond milk, I just use water. Another in a hurry tip for a brewed cup: heat water in a coffee cup, put grounds in, stir and let sit for four minutes;strain into another cup instead of dirtying a French press. Enjoy?
Thanks for sharing. The smoothie must be delicious! 🙂
I came to your site to see if indeed coffee grounds can be eaten.
That’s because I finished making a batch of coffee ice cream where the recipe calls for adding unbrewed Vietnamese coffee grounds to eggs & cooking it with milk & sugar. When I got done, I realised that the coffee grounds could not be strained out…. so rather than wasting the whole batch of yummy ice cream, I just kept the whole mixture & freeze it.
Result is awesome coffee ice cream, with all the small crunchy bits.
Here’s where I found the recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/06/how-to-make-coffee-ice-cream-recipe.html
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Can you eat brewed coffee beans?
We wouldn’t! 🙂
I put a shot of espresso and the grounds from making it into non-fat greek yogurt to make coffee yogurt, and I love it.
Coffee grounds make nasty protein shakes taste better. I typically drink a protein shake for breakfast. I recently switched flavors to try our something new. It was disgusting. So I poured a tablespoon or so of my favorite coffee into my shaker. It tasted a million times better.
Thanks for sharing Tim! 🙂
I use a coffee press and try to get every last bit out every ground that goes into it ; I use the extract mostly for coffee shakes. I’ve noticed that is a lot of grounds accidentally get into a shake, the stimulative effect from them seems far greater than what one would expect from the coffee they would yield. So, I’m wondering if that’s because there is still a lot of caffeine left in brewed coffee grounds, or is there something else in them that also has a stimulative effect.
I like to eat dry ground coffee. I have since I was a little kid. I like the taste and the chewing of it. I try not to do it a lot because iit stains your teeth. But I really crave it some times, just wondered if there was a medical reason why.
I sometimes Dip a chocolate protein bar into fresh coffee grounds. It adds a pleasant flavor. I don’t try to overwhelm the protein bar with coffee grounds, just enough to cover the end.
This gives me an idea for baby carrots, a quick coat of syrup. Coat with unbrewed grounds, and then dip in a chocolate dip and chill in the fridge.
I have started making steel cut oatmeal with ground flax, unused coffee grounds, a little milk and some peanut butter. Very satisfying and filling with a kick. Very seldom am I in need of a cup of coffee the rest of the day.
I recently worked for a grocery store and started smelling the rich aroma of Peete’s French roast coffee. I then decided to taste some but it was much to thick, so I switched to Allegro French roast so I could grind the coffee beans at one of the local grocery stores and began consuming them. I am not a coffee drinker so it is more unusual, in fact I don’t drink coffee at all and am sure it is a substitute for some mineral I lack in my body. Nevertheless I don’t want it to become a habit!
Was brewing some French. Vanilla coffee and the smell was so attractive I tried a taste. Loved it. Once brewed I decided to use the grounds with coffee ice cream. Loved it. Will now be buying more coffee.
I am addicted to coffee grounds.