I don't know how many of you have noticed, but we've always put our spent coffee grounds in bags and put them out by the door for you to take. You might have wondered what in the world someone would do with used coffee grounds. Well, I'm here to tell you.

There are several things I've heard of people doing with them, and I'll tell you and let you decide for yourselves.

The Tulsa Zoo used to come get the grounds because they do educational classes for kids and they told me it's easy to make fake animal poop out of coffee grounds. Interesting.

We did a story a while back on AA Cafe about a scientist developing a fuel from spent coffee grounds that could run an automobile.

My girlfriend recently gave me an article about various things to do with the spent grounds, and here are a few of the suggestions:
- Dye stuff brown (Incidentally, I used a Guatemalan coffee to stain the 8-foot wood table in the DoubleShot.)
- Use the abrasive, acidic nature of spent grounds to clean pans and dishes
- Supposedly if you put them around your garden, it will keep cats out of your plants (buy my cat, The General Sterling Price, loves drinking the last few sips of my americanos and he doesn't seem the least bit averse to my own coffee odor)
- Dry them and put them in pantyhose or whatever and hang them around smelly places. Coffee absorbs odors really well. That's one reason you need to keep your unused coffee beans sealed up and away from odors.
- Supposedly it's good for your hair. They recommend rubbing the grounds into your hair between shampooing and conditioning. (Hair salons?)

And of course, the thing spent coffee grounds are most used for is fertilizer for the garden. I don't have a garden, but a lot of our customers do and they tell me about the success they have using the coffee grounds. Below is a letter from Daniel Myers on the subject. I thought you'd get a kick out of it.

Brian:
I wanted to let you know that Doubleshot Coffee Company’s Ambergris Espresso grounds are superior to Starbucks© grounds in my garden. I am more than happy to write this letter because I’ve never had the results in production or soil augmentation before I started using your Espresso. And, I can prove it!
Last year, I began rehabilitating an old flower bed that was mostly clay soil and overgrown with weeds. I’ve known for years that spent Espresso grounds make the best soil additive and mulch for clay soils but really only had one choice for spent Espresso; that is until last May when I noticed you were giving away spent Ambergris Espresso grounds. I was decidedly curious, so I tried a bag. I liked it so much, that I decided to test head-to-head both SBUX and Ambergris in a test plot. The plot was divided into two 12” by 30” beds; one for each Espresso. Each bed had the same Canna Tropicana flowers, same added top soils, same supplemental fertilizer, and the same amounts sun & water. Then I rated both Espressos’ beds on the following categories:
1. Break down Clay into humus
2. Growth
3. Prevention of weeds and insects
I really was surprised to see how easy Ambergris worked into the ground, much easier than SBUX, and made a rich ‘Tea’ when watered. The result was a faster breakdown of clay into organic matter and humus. By Mid-August, I had broken almost 2” of clay with rich humus in the Ambergris bed. The SBUX had only ½”. This was a big surprise. I was more surprised at the rate of growth.
On the average, the Ambergris bed produced 6 feet, 2 inches tall Cannas’; the SBUX produced only an average of 5 feet, 10 inches of growth. Now in all fairness, there was one area the SBUX did exceed.
SBUX killed every weed and insect in its test bed. Not even stubborn weeds could survive, only dwindling to tiny, easily pulled springs. In fact, if the Canna leaves touched the SBUX Espresso they would burn a hole completely through the Canna. Nor did any insect, including the giant grasshoppers which I endure each August, dared to eat from the Canna’s leaves in this bed. It might have worked too well. For when I uncovered the SBUX bed this spring to inspect the roots on the bulbs, I found the bulbs had completely disintegrated.
I’m not sure if gardening falls into your plan for World Coffee Domination, but it might be a Third Colum action. I know I was sold on Ambergris Espresso as eminently drinkable, but now as ambrosia for my garden too.
Thank you,
Daniel Myers…

There. Now don't you want to come down here and pick up some spent grounds? We put them out about every day. And now you know what to do with them.