Tuesday, May 22, 2012

EIGHT WAYS TO REUSE COFFEE GROUNDS


Morning caffeine is a guilty pleasure that whispers in a voice too alluring for me to resist.  That’s probably true for you, too.  But I read in a Treehugger blog that some Spartan souls give up the magical bean because of the costly distance it has to travel from where it is grown to where you keep your coffee maker.  Costly in fuel and costly in carbon and costly in cleared jungle and a whole lot of other things that some people find important enough to quit drinking it.  C’mon!  Not me.  And, I hope, not you. One thing is for sure; it's generally a long journey for coffee beans to travel from exotic climes to the kitchen counter.  The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company brings in coffee beans from Kona, Hawaii, Central America, Indonesia and Ethiopia.  So instead of quitting and putting a lot of people out of work, let’s honor those coffee beans and coffee growers and coffee processors and coffee haulers and more with some extra chores before condemning the used coffee beans to the trash. For those who add their spent dregs to the compost bin, yeah, you can still do so in many of these applications once their mission has been accomplished.
1.     Soften Skin
Exfoliate with a body scrub made of coffee grounds, coconut oil, and a little brown sugar. Gently massage it on in the shower, rinse, be soft.  The Kona Cowboy Coffee Company manufactures many coffee bath products, such as Regina, Queen of the West, Cowboy Coffee Soap, Sweet Coffee Scrub and Coffee Bath Soak.  Check them out on our website at KonaCowboyCoffee.com
2.     Please the Flowers
Use coffee grounds as mulch for acid-loving plants – like roses, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens, hydrangea, and camellias – they like coffee grounds for the natural acidity and nutrients they add to the soil.
3.     Sadden the Ants
Sprinkle your coffee grounds around areas of ant infestation to deter them.
4.     Deter Gastropods
Yes, gastropods.  You don’t have to look them up, just know that used grounds are said to repel snails and slugs.  Oh, they’re gastropods.  Just sprinkle the grounds in problem areas.
5.     Simplify Fireplace Cleaning
Before cleaning the fireplace, sprinkle with dampened used coffee grounds.  Ah ha!  The damp coffee grounds weigh down the ash and thus they eliminate clouds of smoke-flavored dust.
6.     Make a Sepia Dye
Soak used grounds in hot water and use as a dye bath for Easter eggs, fabric, and paper for a lovely, soft brown tinge.  My father once dyed a pair of white but stained tennis shoes in coffee and it worked!
7.     Keep Cats at Bay
I know, I love ‘em, too.  But sometimes they get where they shouldn’t be.  Keep kitties out of the garden with a mixture of orange peel and used coffee grounds distributed around plants.  If you live in an area like we do it’s not a problem because you don’t dare let them out lest they become lunch for a mountain lion.
8.     Encourage the Carrots
Here’s a way to boost a carrot harvest.  Simply mix the seeds with dried coffee grounds before sowing. The extra bulk makes the tiny carrot seeds easier to sow and the grounds, with that wonderful coffee aroma, can nourish the soil and help repel pests.

Do you want FREE coffee?  The very first cowpoke who saunters up to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at the Ruidoso (NM) Convention Center’s Lions Gun Show, May 26-27, and asks for it, will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pinon nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Join up, become a member, comment and have fun!  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/#!/jackshuster.  And on the web at www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com to order your gourmet coffee and coffee products.

You know you’re a coffee fiend when people can test their batteries in your ears.  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!



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