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Scenario: I am out of coffee, both whole beans and ground. However I've got a back of chocolate covered coffee beans. Possible solution: Toss the choco covered beans in my grinder and then put them in my drip-brewer... Is this a terrible idea? I don't imagine it would damage anything, since I would have a paper filter in there, but maybe there would be too much chocolate for the coffee to actually brew. Is there any reason to not attempt it the name of science if nothing else?

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  • I can see this working not too well because chocolate has milk fat in it and if that is coating your ground, the water won't be able to get to the actual grind very easily.
    – Jay
    Feb 27, 2013 at 20:26
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    @Jay, not all chocolate has milk fat in it.
    – lemontwist
    Feb 27, 2013 at 22:44

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It probably would not damage anything, but you would end up with rather a mess to clean up, probably, and not a very good product.

The chocolate would melt slowly, maybe clog the filter. It might overflow hot, sticky coffee chocolate liquid all over.

The candy is also probably old enough since it was roasted that it wouldn't brew excellent coffee, even if it wasn't chocolate coated.

Eat them as candy--you will at least get your caffeine fix that way! You will have energy to go out and get some coffee.

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    "hot, sticky coffee chocolate liquid" fx: drool
    – Vicky
    Feb 28, 2013 at 17:07
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    @Vicky Context is everything :-)
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Feb 28, 2013 at 17:37
  • +1 for 'You will have energy to go out and get some coffee.'
    – dwjohnston
    Apr 30, 2014 at 10:40
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Put the beans in a colander and run hot water over them. The chocolate will melt off and be washed away. Now shake excess water off, grind, and enjoy your coffee.

Or, per Kate Gregory's suggestion in the comments, use hot milk instead, and then add the milk to the coffee to compensate for reduced flavor of the coffee.

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    a variation that doesn't waste the chocolate: put the beans in some hot milk and stir until the chocolate is off them. Save the hot chocolatey milk, remove the beans, rinse them, and grind and continue. Use the milk to compensate for reduced flavour in the coffee.
    – Kate Gregory
    Mar 1, 2013 at 11:13
  • If you don't mind, I'm going to add that to the answer.
    – Carey Gregory
    Mar 1, 2013 at 21:42
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Grinding the beans should provide enough separation between bean and chocolate to allow the water to reach the bean. However, the water will also dissolve the sugars in the chocolate. I can envision the sugar coming out of solution and crystallizing between brewing chamber and coffee pot. Which means you do run the risk of clogging up the works.

Still, if you have a cheap coffee maker, I think you should try it. I'm curious.

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    Or try making Turkish coffee with the stuff if you are afraid for your coffee maker. Will probably have more of a mocha character, as lots of cocoa solids will make it through the sieve.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Feb 27, 2013 at 21:10
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Won't this make a mess of your grinder? I guess if it's a cheap blade grinder, and you're not worried about residual sugar/gunk they're easy enough to clean, but that is the worst part of this idea, to me. Surprised no one mentioned it yet.

I second SAJ's idea - eat 'em and go get more. (Or if you're gonna do it, the Gregorys' idea.)

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