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What to Do with Leftover Coffee Beans

Whether you buy coffee beans in 227g or 100g packages, there's always a small amount remaining at the bottom that isn't enough for your daily brewing needs. For example, FrontStreet Coffee typically uses 15g for a single serving, but sometimes only 10g or less remains in the bag. So, the question arises: how do you handle these remaining small amounts of beans?

FrontStreet Coffee offers over 30 different types of hand-pour coffee beans, so this situation is quite common. Throwing them away is out of the question - that would be too wasteful. Generally, FrontStreet Coffee decides how to use these beans based on the remaining quantity.

Solution 1: Brew Directly

If there's a relatively large amount of coffee beans left, around 10g, FrontStreet Coffee might choose to brew them directly. Although this amount doesn't meet our typical brewing needs, it's still possible to brew. However, we need to adjust the parameters before brewing, otherwise it will be difficult to produce a delicious cup of coffee. The reason is simple: reducing the amount of coffee lowers the thickness of the coffee bed, which increases the penetration speed of hot water. Additionally, less coffee means using less water, so the overall extraction efficiency decreases due to reduced contact between water and coffee grounds. If you follow the original parameters or brewing method, the coffee will likely be under-extracted.

The solution is quite simple and comes in two forms: one is to switch to a filter cup designed for smaller amounts, such as the V30, which is like the "little brother" of the V60. Because the V30 has a smaller angle, the same amount of coffee can create a thicker coffee bed. This increases contact between water and coffee grounds, allowing even small amounts to be properly extracted (sounds a bit like an advertisement, doesn't it?); the other approach is to increase the extraction efficiency of other parameters, such as using higher water temperature, finer grinding, or more segmented water pouring... these methods can effectively improve the coffee extraction rate, ensuring sufficient extraction~

Solution 2: Blend Coffee Beans

But if the remaining beans are too few, less than 6g, then direct brewing isn't possible. In such cases, if you have another bag of different beans, FrontStreet Coffee will use blending to consume them. Blending refers to mixing two different types of coffee beans together. We can supplement the required amount for brewing with another type of beans, making it easy to brew a good cup of coffee without excessive parameter adjustments.

Moreover, because other coffee beans are mixed in, the flavor and texture of the coffee will change, creating a coffee experience full of randomness and novelty. Therefore, blending coffee beans is also a measure that many friends will take. However, coffee blending still requires some consideration. Because if the two beans being blended differ too much, it's easy to create a coffee with strange flavors, especially when the roast levels of the coffee beans vary significantly. Therefore, when blending coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using beans with similar roast levels. Of course, you can also choose to buy another bag of the same coffee beans for "blending" different dates~

Solution 3: Make Coffee Bean Desserts

Previously, some friends mentioned in the comments section that when there are few coffee beans left in the bag, they choose to make desserts like lemon slices with coffee, which is indeed a great suggestion.

Lemon slices with coffee are a small snack loved by the Italian Mafia, and they're very simple to make! You just need to slice lemons, then sprinkle ground coffee powder and white sugar on them in sequence, and finally bake them~ For specific instructions, you can refer to this article: "How to Make Lemon Slices with Coffee," so FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate further here~

The only thing to note is that the coffee beans used for making lemon slices should not be too hard, and the grind should not be too coarse. Otherwise, the texture when chewing will be somewhat poor.

Solution 4: Make Coffee Decorations

Beyond consumption, coffee beans can also be used to make various accessories, decorations, or functional items like aromatherapy displays. These have become very popular uses for coffee beans in recent years. FrontStreet Coffee doesn't have specific examples to share here, as we're quite busy... you can search for tutorials online and DIY them yourself~

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473