Coffee Chaff: Nourish Your Plants With Coffee

April is Earth Month and we are showcasing ways to make your daily brew more sustainable. Sourcing coffee from around the world, we work with producers who value sustainability as much as quality. Throughout April, we are roasting our 2024 Earth Coffee: every bag plants a tree at our forest in Brazil. Working with sustainable producers Daterra, we are planting 40,000 trees in Brazil. Click here to find out how you can get involved.

What Is Coffee Chaff?

To make every brew a little more sustainable, we are also looking closer to home. Coffee chaff - or silver skin - is the dried outer layer found on green coffee. During the roast process, the chaff comes off naturally. Usually, chaff is simply considered a waste product: it can affect the flavour of your coffee and is even a fire hazard if not properly cleaned from the roasting equipment. But, we do not think it should be sent straight to the bin.

Coffee For Your Plants

Increasingly, chaff is being reused, finding its way into sweet syrups or innovative building materials. The most simple way to make use of coffee chaff in the garden - or on the balcony, or in a sunny corner of your room - and with the spring season upon us, now is the time to do it!

Rich in nitrogen, chaff is a great addition to soil or compost. Just mix chaff through your soil as a natural fertiliser. Fast-growing fruit like tomatoes are particular fans. The light, airy texture also makes it a great addition to mulch that can be added to the top layer of soil. Throughout Earth Month, if you visit one of our Berlin cafés, you can find bags of chaff ready to take home. Don’t forget to update us on social media to see how your plants are flourishing!