Ah, the Eternal Question
April 3, 2018 10:14 AM   Subscribe

At this start of the fiscal year of 2018, we now have the Internet to answer the age-old question: Is there any way you can use leftover coffee from yesterday morning? [SLYT]
posted by Smart Dalek (51 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
tl;dr- add salt, reheat in microwave using popcorn setting
posted by MrJM at 10:26 AM on April 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


Don't forget to add milk, play music of similar origin as the coffee's beans.
posted by explosion at 10:28 AM on April 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


tl;dr weep
posted by agregoli at 10:29 AM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


This may or may not be an April Fool's gag considering the reheated coffee has latte art on the top at the end.

edit: ah, the tags. Why do I only ever see them too latte?
posted by GuyZero at 10:29 AM on April 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


Have you people no acidophilic plants to water?
posted by straight at 10:32 AM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


Also I should add that as a non-coffee drinker, adding salt, milk and microwaving for 3 minutes seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

What to do with leftover tea from yesterday morning? Water the plants.
posted by GuyZero at 10:37 AM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


I think her coffee modules are happy.
posted by waving at 10:40 AM on April 3, 2018


What is "leftover coffee"?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:43 AM on April 3, 2018 [42 favorites]


I thought that might be about reusing coffee grounds. Every time I make coffee without reusing the same grounds, I feel thankful because that way I know that I am not in wartime conditions.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:45 AM on April 3, 2018 [20 favorites]


Got to 'flavenoids', immediately checked the date posted.

Clearly I am far too cynical to have any fun.
posted by Brockles at 10:52 AM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'm fine with people having a bit of fun but all April 1st content should be immediately purged from the internet at 11:59 PM on April 1.
posted by bondcliff at 10:53 AM on April 3, 2018 [19 favorites]


I don't even get the joke. Day old coffee is fine to drink? I'm not looking to drink hot fluid anyway, so old coffee is already at an acceptable drinking temperature and won't melt any ice or heat up the tea in Special cup.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:57 AM on April 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


When I have a little left over, I'll add some sugar, milk, and ice, and drink it that way!
posted by rikschell at 10:57 AM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


What? No.
posted by thelonius at 10:58 AM on April 3, 2018


I thought that might be about reusing coffee grounds.

There's a Paul Newman movie that starts with reused coffee grounds. I don't remember much about the movie, but I remember the coffee grounds.
posted by philip-random at 10:59 AM on April 3, 2018


I really don't understand this concept of leftover coffee.
posted by loquacious at 11:01 AM on April 3, 2018


Also, pick up and move your turntable *while it's turning* and playing your vinyl record. Make sure your record has a big chunk out it too! That was my favourite bit.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:01 AM on April 3, 2018


> Published on Apr 1, 2018

This is late. April Fools was Sunday.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 11:07 AM on April 3, 2018


My recipe: reheat, pour through a tablespoon of activated carbon granules in one of those glass tea-infuser things, take a sip, and pour the rest down the sink.
posted by jamjam at 11:09 AM on April 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


So, this is only relevant in the sense that it involves coffee. I've had coffee for many years, and always added milk because I can't handle it black.

Then I had freshly brewed coffee from Ethiopia.

EVERYONE YOU MUST TRY HARAR COFFEE FROM ETHIOPIA. You can drink it black! It's light, and bright, and there's no unpleasant aftertaste, and IT LEGIT SMELLS LIKE BLUEBERRIES.

It's the most amazing thing. It transformed my relationship with coffee.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:14 AM on April 3, 2018 [17 favorites]


> I don't remember much about the movie

It seems to be a live-action Archer?
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:16 AM on April 3, 2018


What is "leftover coffee"?

came in here to ask this too
posted by entropicamericana at 11:16 AM on April 3, 2018


You can freeze it in an ice cube tray and use it in your fresh iced coffee the following day.

I wish I could remember which MeFite first turned me onto this - it was like having a Northwest Passage made of coffee revealed to me.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:25 AM on April 3, 2018 [10 favorites]


I've had coffee for many years

Aged like fine wine? Sealed or does it need to breath like stopped with cork?

(mods please keep this thread open for results in 2022)
posted by sammyo at 11:35 AM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Hey leotrotsky; you should try and get your hands on some Geisha (Panama has a bunch, Colombia has plenty of goodies, and is usually a bit cheaper, but they're cropping up in a bunch of latin american countries). It's mostly like drinking flowers, but sometimes it tastes like creamsicles or strawberry creme. It's a really strange cup, and not one that is typically very 'coffee.' I don't suggest drinking it everyday (because sweet jesus is it expensive) but it's worth the experience once or twice.

Also, if you liked that blueberry-vibe you got off that coffee, there's a lot of really good "natural process" coffees coming out of latin america these days that can give some of those fruitier east african coffees a run for their money (and happen to usually be a bit easier on the wallet). Historically these have been kinda dirty and overfermented tasting, but producers are doing some incredible things.

One of the cooler things I've tasted lately has been an anaerobic-fermented coffee. Tasted like coffee I'd never had before: loads of cinnamon, sweet sugar frosting, yeasty bread...almost like a malty-beer-like component to it? It was so weird, and really satisfying. Like, when it was brewing it smelled like someone opened up a cinnabon in the room.
posted by furnace.heart at 11:43 AM on April 3, 2018 [5 favorites]


There's a difference between "leftover coffee" that was immediately removed from the heat and allowed to get cold, and "leftover coffee" that's been left on the coffeemaker heating pad for more than an hour or so. One can be acceptable as a cold drink (but don't bother trying to reheat it); the other is stagnant industrial solvent that tastes of death and hatred.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:00 PM on April 3, 2018 [7 favorites]


I always have at least a cup's worth of yesterday's coffee left in the pot for the same reason that you always want to have at least enough gas left in your car's tank to get to the gas station. And I do turn the heating pad off ASAP after making it; that's the primary reason that I have a microwave, now that I've kicked my frozen burrito habit.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:40 PM on April 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


My first thought was red-eye gravy.
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:47 PM on April 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


I love her so much!

Also, I'm totally sending this to my dad, who until the day he dies will use the leftovers from yesterday's coffee to get himself going while he prepares today's.
posted by spindrifter at 12:50 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


You make coffee jello: make Knox unflavored gelatin with coffee for the cold water. Cut into cubes and serve with Cool Whip in a church basement. It's a dessert that is pretty much designed to disappoint children.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:13 PM on April 3, 2018 [18 favorites]


I love that I could hear her giggling in the background the entire time the microwave was going.
posted by pinothefrog at 1:13 PM on April 3, 2018


Holidays evolve. We're watching the evolution of April Fools before our very eyes. A few generations from now, most kids will know that it has always been a week-long internet holiday.
posted by aniola at 1:27 PM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


One of the cooler things I've tasted lately has been an anaerobic-fermented coffee. Tasted like coffee I'd never had before: loads of cinnamon, sweet sugar frosting, yeasty bread...

If you're talking about something other than Indian Malabar I'd love to know what.

I used to love the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company version of this back in the '90s, but I started reacting untowardly to it and had to give it up.
posted by jamjam at 1:36 PM on April 3, 2018


You make coffee jello: make Knox unflavored gelatin with coffee for the cold water. Cut into cubes and serve with Cool Whip

I can conceive of a version of this that is tasty and a version of this which is... eww.
posted by Splunge at 1:45 PM on April 3, 2018


DayOldCoffee()
{
    if (camping)
        Reheat over fire
    else
        Pour into sink
}

posted by CynicalKnight at 1:45 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


yeah 'straight' is right. growing up our compost consisted primarily of coffee grounds, egg shells and vegetable trimmings.

we had a separate compost pit/pile from gardens, and I recall pouring ash from stoves & fireplaces on top of snow covered gardens in the winter. followed by some of the more decayed compost in early spring.
posted by gkr at 2:29 PM on April 3, 2018


It's a dessert that is pretty much designed to disappoint children.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
posted by device55 at 2:52 PM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


What is "leftover coffee"?

A mythical foodstuff like ambrosia, mana, and "leftover pizza".
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:37 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


"Recombobulate" is my new favorite word.

We had leftover espresso from the grown-ups post-Sunday dinner caffès as caffè lattes on Monday mornings when I was a kid. My mother used to say she preferred it the following day. (We were a one-moka family so it was make several cups at once or nothing.)
posted by camyram at 4:13 PM on April 3, 2018


Coffee jello went on the menu at Boston's Durgin Park when a manager who hated waste saw the staff throwing out cold coffee.
posted by brujita at 4:58 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


I would like to subscribe to your newsletter

Next up: Hot Cross Buns, which are just bread with spices, currants, and as little sugar as possible because it’s still Lent if you make them before Easter. The icing cross is the best part. Join today and get my recipe for horehound drops!
posted by blnkfrnk at 5:00 PM on April 3, 2018 [6 favorites]


At some point we got a coffee-maker that dripped into an thermos carafe. Eventually it wore out (the lid was a b*tch to clean anyways) but it taught me a lesson. Since then, when the dripper's finished, the coffee gets poured into a (pre-heated) thermos® bottle.

There it doesn't get burned, stays above lukewarm for 12 hours and (with a little microwaving) still tastes very good 24 hours later. (It never lasted any longer!)
posted by Twang at 5:06 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


There's a difference between "leftover coffee" that was immediately removed from the heat and allowed to get cold, and "leftover coffee" that's been left on the coffeemaker heating pad for more than an hour or so.

Brew pot, decant into thermal carafe, but coffee works in dishwasher. Issue resolved.
posted by mikelieman at 5:08 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


My father used to do this, in the '90's, in Milwaukee. He saw coffee purely as a mechanism to get caffeine.

He had an early morning job, and - bless his Soul - couldn't boil water.

So, after work, he'd go to the local pharmacy/diner, buy a large drip coffee, and put it in the fridge. The next morning, before work, he'd take it out, microwave it, and drink it before he left the house.

He did that for years. It worked for him. When his roommate dumpster dived a percolator, and started making coffee for the both of them in that, he just thought that was the bee's knees. He had never had *good* coffee before, and learned to appreciate the taste of it. He never went back to the pharmacy.

Finally, he graduated to a Mr. Coffee machine that he used at home, and whatever bean was on sale at Whole Foods. He loved the coffee at Whole Foods.
posted by spinifex23 at 5:37 PM on April 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


Brew pot, decant into thermal carafe, [p]ut coffee works in dishwasher. Issue resolved.

Oh, yeah, I'm totally with you. But I know way too many people who don't seem to get the concept. I think they just dump enough cream and sugar into it that they can't tell the difference anyway.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:43 PM on April 3, 2018


I am not beyond dumping some ice in my coffee-containing Yeti that has been sitting in my car overnight. But I would not reuse grounds.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:47 PM on April 3, 2018


"Two point oh nine minutes" -- ahem.

As for real uses of day-old coffee, there's always cleaning your car's battery terminals.
posted by klausman at 8:14 PM on April 3, 2018


Stewed cafeteria-style tea is bad in a way that can be tolerable. Burnt coffee is vile. One reason some of us go to Dunkin Donuts is that the coffee is always, always, fresh. I am cheap and lazy, and I pour the last of yesterday's coffee from the carafe while making today's. Unless there's a half-finished Sam Adams. Hydration, amirite?
posted by theora55 at 8:15 PM on April 3, 2018


Also, cute video, but 5 minutes is a lot of minutes.
posted by theora55 at 8:15 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


I drink it because I am a monster.
posted by Anonymous at 6:21 AM on April 4, 2018


I was disappointed that it wasn't a recipe for popcorn.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:39 PM on April 5, 2018


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