Dropped a whole bag of beans on the floor this morning

I was at home grinding my usual breakfast coffee and the bag slipped right out of my hands. 18 bucks worth of single origin beans scattered all over the tile. I scooped up what I could, figured a quick rinse would save them, but the brew tasted like dirt and floor cleaner. Has anyone else tried to salvage dropped beans and actually had it work out?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbaraw1610d ago

Honestly yeah, river_hall44 is totally right about the rinsing thing. I did the exact same thing last fall with a bag of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe that cost me like 22 bucks. Scooped them up off the linoleum, gave them a quick rinse under the faucet, and ended up with a cup that tasted like watery mud with a hint of bleach from my dish soap residue. Never again. Now I just pick out the obvious dirt chunks and brew them immediately, even if it means having a few floor crumbs floating around.

river_hall4410d ago

Aw man, that's a tough break. But I gotta say, rinsing coffee beans is probably what ruined the flavor more than the floor. Coffee beans are porous, so running water over them strips out a lot of the oils and flavor compounds you actually want in your cup. Next time, just pick up what you can, maybe give them a quick blow with a hairdryer or just brush off any visible dirt, and brew them right away. The dirt taste you got was mostly from the water washing away the good stuff, not from the floor itself.