Issue #28: Brewing Zero Waste Coffee

How I brew coffee at home with no waste

Before I jump into this, I want to update you on a new feature within this newsletter. A few months ago, I created a separate subsection to subscribe to Sustainable Twin Cities.

This is a dedicated section that is focused on content specific to Twin Cities readers.

However, in order to receive those, you need to update your subscription preferences.

Choosing Eco Substack Publication (Click this link in your to navigate to the web)

1. From the web, click on your photo/ avatar in the upper right, then “Manager subscription”

   

2. Then check the box next to Sustainable Twin Cities to ensure you receive specific updates to those posts.

   

Ok, thank you for doing that! Now, let’s get to this post.

Brewing Zero Waste Coffee

As I mentioned before, this post will be heavily on the Twin Cities focus, but there are still takeaways and relevancy for you subscribers not in this area.

Brewing coffee is in most households, a massive generator of waste around the world. But, it doesn’t have to be!

The easiest place to start is to figure out what parts of your process generate waste. Is it the single-use paper filter? Maybe it is the grounds themselves. Or what about the coffee container you purchase coffee in?

Then, consider how you brew your coffee. Drip pot, French Press, K-Cup, Chemex - whatever it is, there are plentiful options to make a sustainable choice.

In our house, here is what we do.

The Coffee

First up and most importantly are the beans. We choose to brew Peace Coffee. One of the reasons we do is that Peace Coffee is a certified B Corp. Another is that we are able to purchase their coffee in bulk at a grocery store.

Peace has bulk options at a lot of stores around us. Linden Hills Co-op, Fresh Thyme, and Jerry’s all offer Peace Coffee locally in bulk.

We choose to get it at Jerry’s in Edina because it’s the only location that I’ve seen that also provides compostable bags for the coffee. Naturally, these are provided by Peace Coffee themselves.

We recycle the tin tie and compost the bag (I reuse them a few times first 🤫 at the store).

I grind the beans myself with a burr grinder, store the whole beans we haven’t used yet in a ball jar in the freezer, and refrigerate the grounds in an airtight jar.

The Brew Process

For years we used a French Press to make our morning coffee. Then we learned that the metal filter in a press could be leading to an increase in cholesterol.

So a few months ago we switched to a Chemex. If you want to brew with a Chemex, I recommend this article to learn about making a great cup.

As part of our switch to a Chemex, we wanted to use a reusable and washable coffee filter. We went to Zeroish to purchase a reusable filter. The box came with two filters and we alternate the filters when we brew, so one gets used every other day. At their estimated rate, we should be able to use each filter for about 500 brews. So, 1000 days or so.

We use an electric kettle to heat our water to 200 degrees, the ideal temperature for coffee.

I brew the coffee patiently each morning and watch the water drip through the Chemex to make a beautiful brew.

After the brew is done, the grounds are dumped out of the filter into our compost bin, which goes into our city organics bin. Then we rinse off the filter and hang it to dry.

Once a week or so, we take both filters, toss them in a small stovepot and boil them in tap water to remove built up oils from the filters.

That’s it!

We are thrilled to have a zero waste coffee process from start to finish.

If you have any ideas or questions about your coffee process, feel free to comment and let me know. They’re open for this post!

Cheers and happy brewing to you.