Once roasted, coffee beans quickly lose their flavour and should be used as quickly as possible for a fresh-tasting cuppa. If you’re running a catering business, though, it’s not always possible to estimate quantities correctly all the time and you could end up with some roasted beans left over. These can be stored in the short term in an airtight container, but after a few days shouldn’t be used for brewing, as they’ll taste stale and inferior. There’s no reason to throw them away, though – even stale coffee beans are still useful.
As long as the beans aren’t too old, you can still grind and brew them and use the resulting coffee for cooking with. Coffee is great for adding flavour to savoury dishes, desserts and baked goods alike.
As coffee beans are so porous, a small dish of ground coffee placed in the fridge will absorb any unwanted odours and replace them with the smell of fresh coffee. Replace the dish daily.
If your beans are too stale to use, grind them and use them as plant fertilizer. Ground coffee mixed with soil will gradually release nitrogen. Alternatively, brew the coffee grounds with plenty of water and use the resulting liquid as a plant food. Once you’ve poured off the liquid, you can use the wet grounds as a pest repellent in the garden. Spread thickly around plant stalks, it keeps off slugs and snails without the use of harsh chemicals.
Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company we’ve got a full range of coffee beans, suitable for all commercial and domestic purposes, and you can choose from ready-roasted or green coffee beans, and a variety of blends. All our coffee beans are available in catering-sized packages at great wholesale prices, and we’re always happy to help with any suggestions or advice. For more information, please visit the coffee beans page of our website.