Coffee waste reduction techniques

[MeTheGreat]

Perhaps I am the only person that is consistently irritated by the amount of coffee waste that happens during the course of pulling shots, but boy does it irritate me. As a person who has to travel 90 miles to the nearest roastery and has an income of $00.00 it sure would be nice to get some input from others who have been saving waste for longer than I.

Several areas of concern are worthy of mention here. Namely grinder buildup, grinder dribble (a term I am shamelessly stealing from Dan Kehn because I love it so very much in reference to the Rocky DL where the grinder blasts coffee out of the filter basket), and distribution overflow.

There is obviously a lot of bean that gets left in the grinder during the course of use, especially when using particularly oily beans. But is there some way to appease your grinder's appetite for the beans you had shipped 1000 miles? Also, and perhaps I am foolish and inexperienced, but I have developed the habit of flushing a bit of coffee through the grinder at the new grind setting to make sure that I am getting all the grounds at the new setting and fresh. Is this necessary, and if so, what do you do with all this excess of perfectly good bean?

The grinder dribble is less of an issue but nonetheless wastes coffee that could have otherwise ended up flavoring the next shot. Any suggestions on containment?

Most important to me is the mess created from distributing the grounds in the basket. Much of this is because I am still clumsy and awkward at it, but the overflow still ends up on the counter and not in the cup.

I have considered and experimented with simply collecting the excess cleaned up from these areas and storing them to pull shots that will be stored in the refrigerator to make blended coffee drinks but boy are those shots Bad (even though after milk, ice, flavoring, and a ton of sugar the shot quality goes down the tube anyway) and it just plain bothers me to pull bad shots knowingly and it still doesn't actually reduce the waste created.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has had success with reducing their wastes or has found something besides fertilizer to use it for.

[Ken Fox]

I can't speak for anyone else but I collect the grinds in ice cube trays, then when full subject them to liquid nitrogen and put them in a very cold freezer at approximately -40 celsius.

After a period of weeks, months, or years, I scatter them around the house foundation to repel termites.

Hope this helps.

ken

[HB]

Ken's ribbing aside, if minimizing coffee waste is your goal, then I recommend an accurate scale to measure your coffee for grinding until empty and dosing baskets outside the portafilter. You can further minimize spillage using a WDT modified yogurt cup:



That said, espresso preparation demands more coffee than other brewing methods and there's unavoidably a higher amount of waste. If it's less than a couple grams per espresso, you're doing great. Over the course of a month, the waste would amount to less than one extra espresso a week. It's worth wasting a little coffee if the end result is better. If the extra cost really irritates you, why not try French press during the week and reserve espresso for the weekend as a special treat?

[Ken Fox]

Ken's ribbing aside, if minimizing coffee waste is your goal, then I recommend an accurate scale to measure your coffee for grinding until empty and dosing baskets outside the portafilter. You can further minimize spillage using a WDT modified yogurt cup:

image

That said, espresso preparation demands more coffee than other brewing methods and there's unavoidably a higher amount of waste. If it's less than a couple grams per espresso, you're doing great. Over the course of a month, the waste would amount to less than one extra espresso a week. It's worth wasting a little coffee if the end result is better. If the extra cost really irritates you, why not try French press during the week and reserve espresso for the weekend as a special treat?

Let's see if I got this right; approximately 2g waste per double shot espresso is "ok." Accepting this as gospel because of course it came out of the keyboard of one Dan Kehn, if one prepares 5 double shots per day (probably at the high end for most home baristas) we have 10g of "waste." A year has 365 days in it and assuming one never leaves home on vacation and is there 365 days a year, one has 3650g of coffee waste per anum. 3650g is equivalent to 8lbs of coffee per year. A home roaster (and anyone who is thrifty would obviously be a home roaster) pays *maybe* $5.50 per roasted pound of coffee. This equals a potential savings of $44.17 assuming zero waste, which is obviously not possible. So let's assume one was incredibly careful and cut the "waste" in half, well, then, they've saved $22.09 through Herculean efforts during the year.

Don't spend it all in one place.

ken

[HB]

Don't spend it all in one place.

Thanks for the calculations. But what actually motivated my miserly approach to coffee consumption wasn't the money savings, it was avoiding the delay of ordering more should I run out. Then I discovered that a coffee roaster was only three miles from my office. Prior to this revelation, there were a couple desperate moments when I bought coffee at a (*shudder*) supermarket. Homeroasting? Yes, I know... it's still on my to-do list.

[miKe mcKoffee]

(and anyone who is thrifty would obviously be a home roaster)

That seem to say anyone who home roasts does so for cost savings and that home roasting coffee costs less. Two assumptions I don't believe are necessarily true. Some people start home roasting strictly for reasons other than cost: control of degree of roast, control of freshness of roast, choice of huge huge variety were my reasons for starting home roasting 5+ years ago. And IMO home roasting does not necessarily cost less when factoring in all costs, including especially value of one's time.

As far as waste per shot goes 2gm per shot would be huge in my book, mine far less than a gram. Of course it takes more than "normal" grinder operation. First of course only grinding per shot and measuring for each shot (not by weight, by volume) When pulling a series measuring out for the series. Final shot flux brush and blower to force the chute hang grinds out. Grinding into small SS canister rather than directly into PF virtually eliminates flying grounds and helps eliminate clumping, no WDT pe se' required 'cuz basically been doing similar for almost 5 years.

[HB]

As far as waste per shot goes 2gm per shot would be huge in my book, mine far less than a gram.

I was referring to the overall waste, including purging the grinder of old coffee, end of session cleanup, and spillage. FWIW, I answered "in the low twenties" for the poll How many double espressos do you get per pound of roasted beans?

[Dogshot]

For many of us home roasters, who are limited to roasting in batches of approx. 150 grams, attempts to reduce waste are not economically based, but time and convenience based.

As Ken's mathematical wizardry shows, 2-3 grams wasted per shot on a 4-shot per day basis is the better part of an extra shot per day. For the economizing home roaster, who gets 7-8 doubles from 150 grams of green (assuming that roasted weighs less than green by about 12%-17%), that is the difference between going 1.5 days and going 2 days between roasts. If the home roaster is trying to dial in a blend, the amount saved can be the difference between achieving success from one roast batch and having to use two.

So, until I get my SC/CO up and running, I will continue to be among the bean counters.

Mark

[k7qz]

I can't speak for anyone else but I collect the grinds in ice cube trays, then when full subject them to liquid nitrogen and put them in a very cold freezer at approximately -40 celsius.

After a period of weeks, months, or years, I scatter them around the house foundation to repel termites.

Hope this helps.

ken

Oh man, I just wasted a good 5 minutes after reading Ken's post then stopping at that point to ponder "OK, Ken is one of the smartest guys I read here on good 'ol HB and for the life of me, I can't think of any logical/entymological reason why frozen coffee grounds would repel termites...? It finally hit me after I gave up and read Dan's follow up post "Ohhh I get it, Ken's making a joke!" Sorry to be a little slow here this morning guys!

If you really want to save that $22.09 Ken calculated for you- do the WDT yogurt cup deal. Your only other option would be to buy a DL grinder which is even more neat than your Rocky. Problem is, this will set you back $700 dollars for the Mini E, even more for the darn-near-perfect Versalab grinder... Yogurt cups are your answer.

I'm not giving you a hard time here and not making light of your economics, it's just that many HB'ers have small fortunes invested in their coffee gadgets so the thought of saving a few bucks on the inevitable stray grounds...

[mrgnomer]

I dislike waste too. I've just recently upgraded to a Vetrano and an M4 but the waste reduction habits I had with a Rocky and a Silvia still work.

Grinding for dose is one way to keep from over grinding. On the M4 I removed the guard over the chute and after grinding I roughly clean it out with a chopstick then sweep it out with a brush. When dosing I try to clear the doser of grinds. Under the chute I've got a litlle square Japanese sushi plate to catch stray grinds and after dosing I distribute over it to catch stray grinds. Usually, if the bean dose was good, there's very little excess left over after distributing. What is left over gets added to the next shot.

Brushing out the doser of stray grinds onto the small plate keeps the doser clean.

[Marshall]

(and anyone who is thrifty would obviously be a home roaster)

That seem to say anyone who home roasts does so for cost savings ....

50 extra SAT points to anyone who spots the flaw in logic.

[Ken Fox]

50 extra SAT points to anyone who spots the flaw in logic.

Duh, let me guess. If you are cheap you probably home roast. But just because you home roast does not mean U are cheap?

ken


p.s. I have a friend who home roasts precisely because he is cheap, and if Tully's would sell him beans for $5/lb he'd buy them

[espressoperson]

...I removed the guard over the chute and after grinding I roughly clean it out with a chopstick then sweep it out with a brush. When dosing I try to clear the doser of grinds...

I use that method too. Here's a one handed tool mod for getting the job done. Drill a small hole in the end of the brush and insert a sawed-off chopstick.



BTW, if only coffee waste over the course of grinding could be measured and graphed. You could plot the patterns of successive fillings to see whether there was a repeatable pattern. Perhaps more is lost at the start of grinding causing a hump followed by a leveling off during the rest of the grinding. With graphs like that to display maybe Ken would take this topic more seriously.

[cannonfodder]

Before we start debating frugality, let's consider this.

The average Arabica tree takes around 3 years to reach maturity, any time during which the sapling could easily be damaged. Once it does reach maturity and start flowering and producing cherry, they are even more susceptible to damage. A hard thunderstorm can destroy three years of painstaking work.

Now those cherries have to be picked at just the right time, rain or shine. A laborer (men, women, young and old) pick only the ripe cherries from the tree. Sun up to sun down they toil in the tropical heat and humidity, usually on steep slopes in volcanic soil. What do they get for a day of hard work, pocket change for you and I. Around $15, a buck fifty for five gallons of cherry.

Now that cherry has to be processed. This takes another couple of months. At which any time, the entire harvest could be ruined. Someone does not rake the drying seed correctly, they are garbage. If they sit on the drying beds a day too long, garbage, if the mucilage is left on a day too long, fermentation and garbage. You get the point; any number of things can ruin an entire year of hard labor.

In the end, we are rewarded with a green bean ready for the artisan roaster to work his magic, or the home roaster. Of which I proudly stand and proclaim, my name is Dave, and I home roast!

Now keeping in mind the enormous amount of labor and work it took to deliver that one pound of coffee to your grinder, and the sheer miracle that it actually survived the process. Wasting is a shame, respect the bean. While some waste is necessary, I strive to keep it minimal. In one pound of coffee, I lose about two shots worth (not counting the shot or two it took to dial in the grind).

[mrgnomer]

Amen, amen, Dave

[HB]

Thanks Dave, your reminder of the human toil of those who help bring our daily coffee is good food for thought. Chris captured the same idea in pictures in his thread I once had a farm in Nicaragua. One of my favorites of the series is excerpted below:

[OkcEspresso]

Thanks Dave, your reminder of the human toil of those who help bring our daily coffee is good food for thought. Chris captured the same idea in pictures in his thread I once had a farm in Nicaragua. One of my favorites of the series is excerpted below:

And in all fairness, it takes that guy two days to make $15.

C.

[MeTheGreat]

That post on the development of the coffee is very eye opening and thanks for bringing that up. Great perspective.

Thanks for the input everyone. I suppose I will go ahead and let loose and purchase a cup of yogurt to help dosing (hope it doesn't break the bank ). Any more thoughts on whether pushing a bit of excess coffee through the grinder after changing grind settings is necessary? That knowledge alone would help tremendously.

[HB]

If you're running the grinder until the chamber is empty each time, there's no need to worry about running extra coffee to "reset" the grind setting. I used to do that at one time, but now add enough coffee to the hopper for a couple days, partially for convenience, partially to prevent "popcorning" of the beans, which presumably could affect the grind (or so I've read). In this case, I run the grinder for a couple seconds to clear the chamber of the old grinds after a setting change. You could be super miserly and not discard, but your first shot after a change will be a mixture of old and new, and the pour will drift ever so slightly on the second shot after the adjustment. Then again, if you're not super picky or you're serving a latte lover, it may not matter.

[Ken Fox]

Thanks Dave, your reminder of the human toil of those who help bring our daily coffee is good food for thought. Chris captured the same idea in pictures in his thread I once had a farm in Nicaragua. One of my favorites of the series is excerpted below:

Gosh, everyone, thanks so much for helping folks like these to STARVE!

If you wasted more coffee there would be more of a market for it, the price would go up a bit, and these unfortunate folks who bring coffee to our doorsteps would be better off.

ken