From time to time we give you some suggestions for the use of coffee grounds.

One of our favourites is the environmentally friendly use for coffee grounds: Make it into mulch to go on your plants to give them a nitrogen boost.

However, another new use has hit the headlines in the coffee industry and this use is alcohol-related.

What is going on?

Did you realise that coffee grounds can be used to make a liqueur?

This will be detailed soon in a journal called LWT   Food Science and Technology by some researchers from Portugal and Spain.

However, it is thought that a relatively traditional fermentation process is employed to create this coffee ground booze, with the standard ingredients of yeast and sugar.

What is the coffee liqueur like?

It is very strong, 80% proof no less.

However the alcohol made from coffee grounds no longer retains much of its caffeine.

The researchers who created this drink report that it smells and tastes of coffee and is reportedly ‘pleasant’.

Others have argued that the taste is too bitter and more aging is required.

How did it come about?

The coffee-alcohol creation was a response to a contest for the invention of new beverages.

Fancy trying a bit?