FrontStreet Coffee Explains: 8 Unusual Uses for Coffee

8 Unusual Uses for Coffee

1. Reduce Cellulite

Expensive cellulite creams almost always contain one main ingredient: caffeine. Caffeine is said to speed up metabolism and reduce the buildup of cellulite. To tackle cellulite yourself, simply mix used, still-warm coffee grounds with coconut oil, massage them into the skin in circular motions for a few minutes, then rinse clean. (It is hard not to wonder whether it is really that simple.)

2. Remove Hand Odors

Garlic, seafood and other foods that taste wonderful when cooked often leave an unpleasant smell on your hands. Just as you might wash your hands with lemon water after eating crab, rubbing used coffee grounds over your hands and rinsing with hot water can remove these odors.

3. Hair Shine

Brew a pot of strong coffee, let it cool, then apply it to clean, blow-dried hair. Leave it on for at least 20 minutes before rinsing. Do this once a week and you will gradually see results, although the effect may not be long-lasting.

4. Repel Ants

This should be particularly useful in Singapore, where the "Lion City" has so many ants. Sprinkle dry coffee grounds wherever ants appear and they will retreat. Whether it works better than drawing chalk circles is another question.

5. Grow Flowers, Plants, and Mushrooms

Not every plant likes an acidic growing environment, but for the ones that do - blueberries, azaleas and oyster mushrooms, for instance - working coffee grounds into the soil around the roots can help them grow faster and healthier.

6. Cooking Secret Ingredient

A little coffee gives dishes a distinctive flavor, and the effect is especially noticeable in chili, ice cream and chocolate cake. Add a touch of coffee when cooking steak and the meat not only becomes more tender but also picks up a rich, smoky note.

7. Remove Furniture Scratches

If wooden furniture has scratches, wipe them with a cloth soaked in coffee and the marks will quickly become almost invisible.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Several of these tricks call for used grounds, and grounds are only as good as the coffee they came from - the fresher and more aromatic the bean, the more pleasant the leftovers. That makes the cup you brew first worth choosing carefully. FrontStreet Coffee's light-roast, floral-and-fruity lineup is a good place to start.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe is the classic entry point, with bright citrus, berry and floral notes and a green-tea-like sweetness. It is a gentle, easy-drinking coffee, and the fact that its fruit acidity reads more like ripe fruit than a sharp sourness makes it approachable even for newcomers to pour-over.

For something bolder, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Huakui is one of the standout specialty coffees of recent years, built on an intense tropical-fruit aroma - strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee - with obvious sweetness and almost no bitterness. Drinkers often describe it as the coffee that does not taste like coffee.

Kenya is the other direction entirely. FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Little Tomato comes from Kenya's Thika region at 1,550-1,750 meters, uses the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties, and is processed with Kenya's signature 72-hour double wash before a light roast. The dry aroma already shows dried cherry tomato and florals; the cup is bright and juicy, with cherry tomato and dark plum, a sweet mid-palate of pear and black plum, and a clean finish of brown sugar and light green tea.