What is Coffee Chaff and What do we do with it?

Here at Two Chimps Coffee, we like to create as little landfill waste as possible.

Whether that be at a food show, a Christmas market or just in the roastery, we like to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible. One of the many ways we keep our landfill mission on track involves our coffee chaff.

What the heck is Coffee Chaff?

At this point, you might be wondering ‘what is coffee chaff?’ Well, coffee chaff is a waste product from the roasting process. As the green coffee is heated, its last remaining protective layer, its parchment, flakes off. This parchment is known as coffee chaff.

Coffee chaff is very light with a delicate, almost papery texture. It is blown from the roasting chamber, then into chaff collection compartment as it becomes present. Some coffees ‘shed’ more than others, but even so, the build-up of chaff within the compartment can amount to quite a lot.

Often, this chaff is seen as an annoyance, and the benefits of reusing the chaff are ignored. But here at Two Chimps Coffee, we don’t let a bit of chaff get in the way of helping our planet, oh no! In fact, it’s this repurposing that keeps it out of landfill, and therefore, helps to keep our planet healthy.

Where it all goes

After every ten or so roasts, we stop the roaster periodically to remove the build-up of chaff that accumulates in the compartment. We do this to reduce the chances of a chaff fire.

We will give the roaster a good clean internally, then put the chaff to one side. After the chaff has had the time to cool, we bag it up and deliver it to The Yard Softplay in Stamford with their weekly coffee order.

Here, it is put to good use by one of the owners as, apparently, it makes for superb bedding for their chickens.

As mentioned before, coffee chaff is super lightweight which comes as both a positive and a negative. On the plus side, it’s really soft and will be comfy for the chickens. It also makes clearing out chicken coops a lot easier as the chaff will clump with any chicken poo – nice. On the negative side, it often flies around the coop and can land in the chicken’s food and water as it is so light and takes to the breeze easily.

To counter this, owners often mix the coffee chaff with regular wood shavings. Problem solved.

About The Yard

The Yard in Stamford is an indoor soft play centre and café. It was created by two mums who were looking for somewhere that appealed to them and their children.

It’s a great place to go if you and a friend have children as they can safely play while you have a catch up over a Two Chimps Coffee. That’s right; The Yard serves our coffee!

Currently, you will find our coffee ‘The Kittens Onesie’, from Nicaragua, which is a silky smooth, sweet & chocolatey. Also, you will find our Costa Rican sparkling water decaffeinated coffee, ‘Starry Eyed’, which has hints of milk chocolate and is super creamy. Both of these are served through an espresso machine.

Donating our coffee chaff to The Yard is just one of the many ways we help our planet. Check out our recent blog all about ‘Our Carbon Footprint at Two Chimps Coffee’ to find out what else we do to keep our planet smiling.

Want coffee, without the chaff? Sure thing, we have six single origin coffees that can be freshly ground to suit any device.

Head over to our shop to get your hands on some today.

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