If you are anything like me, you have leftover coffee every day. I didn’t always have coffee left, but now that Austin has been drinking it at work, it seems to be a bit of a problem. Many people have chosen to purchase a Keurig for this very reason. Call me crazy, but I don’t think I can get over the expense of brewing one cup at a time. Even though I have about 1 cup or so left at the end of each day, it is not worth it to me to go to a single brew pot. Not to mention, there are some days when I have company with me that also drinks coffee. Since I am having a hard time brewing the right amount each day, I’ve been determined to figure out some things I can use the leftover coffee for. This is the list I have so far.
1. Make Iced Coffee
I poured some leftover coffee in an ice cube tray and saved the rest in the refrigerator. Later on, when Austin got home, I asked him to make us some amazing iced coffee. The recipe he used turned out very much like a light frappucino. It was very enjoyable and we had a mini-date with each other. You can read his post about that HERE.
2. Use it As a Dark Hair Booster
My hair is naturally dark brown, but I like to put highlights in my hair. In the past few months, I decided to color my hair all over with dark brown and try to take it back to a more natural color. The sun has stripped away the hair dye quite a bit and let a lot of the color I tried to cover up show through. I read where you can use coffee to give dark hair a boost, so I tried it out. I will admit, I only attempted this one time, and I am not sure if it made a difference. Maybe you have to do it every day in the shower to see a change. Either way, it is worth a shot for anyone with dark hair and a leftover pot of coffee.
3. Turn it Into Ice Cream
Have you ever heard of coffee ice cream? Well, I certainly have, and using left over coffee in a homemade ice cream recipe is a great idea. We own a small electric ice cream maker. When I have done this in the past, I take a vanilla ice cream recipe and substitute 1 cup of coffee for one of the cups of half and half or cream. This makes the mixture a bit more icy, but well worth the taste. I also like to add in chocolate syrup when I do this for added flavor.
4. Water Plants
Some plants really love the acid in coffee such as: blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons. You can use your leftover brew to water these types of plants about once every two weeks. Be sure you only do these plants that respond well to high acid, otherwise, you’ll damage the plants. You can certainly pour leftover tea on most of your plants, but coffee needs to be monitored.
What are some ways you enjoy using leftover coffee? I would love to hear about it in the comments section.
