Coffee flour is turning waste into food. This über food is being used in dishes like pasta, desserts, beverages and more.

The flour is made from the fruit – the coffee cherry – surrounding the coffee bean. After the bean is extracted from the cherry, the pulp is left. Now, instead of being discarded into waterways or left to rot, coffee flour is being produced.

The flour can be baked into breads, muffins and cookies, and holds much of its original antioxidant content – unlike actual coffee, as the process of roasting is said to eliminate antioxidant properties. I read that the flour doesn’t taste like coffee, which wasn’t the purpose of creating it anyway. It would be neat to have coffee-flavored flour, but this flour is said to have floral, citrus and roasted fruit-like notes.

The Coffee Flour company is in production in three continents, and uses beans from Hawaii, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Vietnam. It claims that there is more iron, fiber, protein and potassium, as well as antioxidants, than in certain fruits, vegetables or other flours. The ingredient comes in two grinds, fine and powder.

Coffee Flour baked goods are being sold at Sprouts Farmers Markets in the U.S. in products like Everything Blondie Cheesecake Bars, Black-Bottom Muffins and Chocolate Chunk Cookies. The ingredient itself is available online in the U.S. at Marx Pantry and at Algerian Coffee Stores in the U.K. if anyone is looking to become an innovator in the kitchen. 

I’d like to try coffee flour – namely because of the antioxidant and vitamin/mineral content as well as the waste saving. It seems to have endless potential and as any culinary wannabe attests, if it’s new I must at least try it out. One note: As it's darker than other flours, baked goods appear darker than you may expect. 

Would you try this, either at a restaurant or in your home cooking/baking?