Many people are asking can you reuse coffee grounds to make a second or third cup of coffee.

This article gives the accurate, open, and honest answer – which is no, you cannot reuse your Coffee Grounds to make another cup of coffee and explains why.

We ran tests on various coffee brewing methods. Keep reading to find out what the results were like.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds In A Coffee Maker?

I’ve seen it claimed many times that you can reuse coffee grounds when brewing a pot of drip coffee.

While I am a coffee lover and coffee enthusiast, I am not a coffee snob and, being a Scotsman – you can count on me for being pretty thrifty.

Sadly, there is no benefit from being a spend thrift with your coffee and your drip coffee maker. I have heard of many people being able to get a second cup of coffee from their machine, and kudos to them – you are most welcome to try.

If you can get a second pot of coffee, I encourage you to pay attention to your first brew and how it tastes. It is highly probable that you are not getting the best coffee first time round.

Modern drip coffee machines have programmable features that allow you to make some adjustments. These adjustments, making one at a time using the adjust, test, adjust, test, adjust, test routine, may help you get a better cup of coffee first time round by extracting all the flavor compounds and oils into you cup.

If you can’t or are limited to what adjustments you can make with your machine, you have lost nothing!

But sadly you won’t get that better quality cup of coffee, still, you can continue to get a reasonable or equally good second cup.

This is one of the drawbacks of drip coffee, you are very limited in the adjustments to the brewing process that you can make.

Read: Can coffee grounds be reused?

How Many Times Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds For Cold Brew?

Despite cold brew coffee being a more forgiving brewing method, you simply cannot get a good second cold brewed coffee when you reuse coffee grounds.

Some sites and “coffee experts” claim that you can get up to three batches when you reuse the same coffee grounds.

This is ludicrous and is highly indicative of those claiming it is possible to be using a very poor brewing technique and not extracting the compounds that they need for an amazing cup of coffee first time round. 

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds For Espresso?

You can try, as they say, there is no harm in trying. But if you try to reuse your ground coffee a second time to get an extra shot out of your espresso machine, you will, without a doubt, end up with a channeling problem and, depending on the type of portafilter that you use, a horrible mess to contend with.

Reusing coffee grounds for an espresso is just not going to happen at all. The coffee puck is notably weaker, and when under the 9 bars or pressure (130 PSI), the result is not going to be pretty at all.

Due to needing fresh coffee beans that are oily and the oils having already been extracted, you will not only end up with a much lighter looking and tasting shot. Your shot will have a thin bubbly crema on top due to the lack of oils.

It is simply not advised and you will get a weak tasting shot that tastes off and lacks density and texture.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds In French Press?

No, to answer the question quickly and give a direct answer, you just can’t reproduce the same strong, bold, and distinctively aromatic taste when you are reusing coffee grounds in your French press.

I’ve seen specialist sites focused on French press coffee claim that you can use your grounds for a second cup, but they don’t recommend that you do so.

There is a reason for that – your second cup of coffee, especially when you brew your first cup of coffee and get all the goodness out of the grounds first time round.

The French press is an excellent brewing method where you have full control over all the variables. With that in mind, I set the goal of reproducing that distinctive flavor.

Adjusting temperature, coffee to water ratio and the brew time, I could closely resemble the color, but not the rich aroma or bold taste.

If you are able to get a good second cup that matches your first cup, pay more attention to your French press brewing to get more of the flavor into your first round of brewing. At Latte Love Brew, we really want you to get that amazing cup of coffee first time round. 

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds The Next Day For Anything?

Yes, you can reuse your coffee grounds the next day – just not for making an extra cup of coffee.

There are a number of alternative ways of reusing your coffee grounds and giving them a new use.

Your coffee grounds can be reused to:

• 1. To keep insects away.
• 2. As a flea treatment for your pets.
• 3. To fertilize your soil.
• 4. To turbo charge your compost.
• 5. To neutralize odors.
• 6. As a skin scrub.
• 7. To dye your clothes.
• 8. Repair scratched furniture.
• 9. Meat Tenderizer.
• 10. Baking goods.

There are many more ways of reusing your old coffee grounds. These are my top 10 uses.

Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds For Body Scrub?

Yes,

you can reuse your coffee grounds as a body scrub to aid exfoliation of both your face and body. It is very easy to make and will help you to remove dead skin cells and aid your skin health.

A super bonus it is easy to make. Simply add your old coffee grounds to coconut oil, better still organic extra virgin coconut oil and mix your grounds in well.

To use it simply apply to your skin, as you normally would with a store-purchased exfoliant.

Frequently Asked Questions About Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds

Is It OK To Use Coffee Grounds Twice?

No, using old coffee grounds, even if you are brewing a second cup minutes after brewing the first one will result in a low quality cup of coffee.

Spent coffee grounds are exactly that – spent.

There are very little to no coffee soluble solids left in the old grounds, and thus reusing coffee grounds is simply not going to result in a cup of coffee that has much flavor when compared to using fresh grounds.

If there is flavor left in them, you need to have a look at your brewing technique and why you are not extracting them first time round and leaving them in your grounds.

Note: It is good practice every now and again to make a second cup from your fresh grounds to test if your coffee maker or your brewing technique is extracting all the flavors first time round.

How Many Times Can You Reuse The Same Coffee Grounds?

You can only effectively use the same coffee grounds once. Reusing coffee grounds for whatever type of coffee, be it a cold brew, espresso, French press, pour over, or whatever, will only end up with a poor tasting coffee.

Reused coffee grounds do not, and certainly should not, make a good second coffee. They are just not fit for brewing coffee after you have already used them.

The second cup, if you brew while your leftover coffee grounds are still damp or wet, will have the peculiar and unpleasant very bitter taste of being over extracted.

If your reused coffee grounds have dried out, the resulting second cup of coffee will be sour, under extracted and very off tasting.

Can I Use Espresso Grounds Twice?

No, it does not matter how you are brewing coffee; you simply cannot get a second cup of coffee out of your old coffee grounds. This is something that goes more so for brewing an espresso.

When you reuse espresso grounds, you will end up with a horrible mess and difficulties with channeling. Your spent grounds will produce a light colored shot with a peculiar bubbly and thin.

It will taste pretty off too. An espresso shot needs fresh coffee grounds to get it right. Without fresh oily coffee beans you will struggle to get a rich, thick crema on top.

Can I Use Coffee Grounds Twice French Press?

No, French press brewing is a great brewing method that helps you to get a bold and a great tasting cup of coffee. If you try to use old coffee grounds for a second time to get that extra cup of coffee.

You will lose that bold flavor when you try to make a second cup of coffee.

I am a French press coffee lover and, despite trying this is an experiment with reused dry coffee grounds and still damp ones, and still could not get that distinctive bold taste and rich aroma from the grounds, despite making several adjustments to compensate for using grounds that had already been brewed with.

Final Thoughts – Can You Reuse Coffee Grounds?

The answer to the question, can you reuse coffee grounds is something that you should have no doubts about after reading this far.

If you are skimming down, the answer is that you cannot reuse coffee grounds to make a second cup of coffee. The reason why – well, if skimmed and missed it, you can scroll back up and find out why.

Do you have special uses for used coffee grounds?

Join our online coffee community on Facebook/Meta and share your excellent ideas with us all.