Sunday, March 12, 2006
A cautionary tale
Maybe it's the acidity, but coffee has this amazing resistance to growing mold. What other beverage can be left at room temperature for three days without any fuzzy blobs growing in it? But I can tell you that leftover coffee in the coffee pot is quite potable after that time.
And how about those coffee grounds left in the coffee maker? The problem here is that nobody wants to handle a piping hot coffee filter when the need to do so -- right after the coffee is made -- is still fresh in your mind. And if you don't use the coffee maker every day, it can take a day or two or three to remember to get rid of the old grounds.
Fortunately, no problem! Mold doesn't seem to form on coffee grounds either in those time frames.
Well, sadly, I'm now able to tell you that there's an outer limit. This morning, I started to make some hot coffee and discovered old coffee grounds from the last time had never been removed. And there was a sizeable colony of mold growing in it.
I'd like to be able to tell you exactly how long the "mold free window" is, but I can't. That would require a recollection of when I actually last made that pot of coffee. It's somewhere more than two weeks but less than ten.
P.S. Why do I feel like Moral Turpitude is the only reader who will understand me?
And how about those coffee grounds left in the coffee maker? The problem here is that nobody wants to handle a piping hot coffee filter when the need to do so -- right after the coffee is made -- is still fresh in your mind. And if you don't use the coffee maker every day, it can take a day or two or three to remember to get rid of the old grounds.
Fortunately, no problem! Mold doesn't seem to form on coffee grounds either in those time frames.
Well, sadly, I'm now able to tell you that there's an outer limit. This morning, I started to make some hot coffee and discovered old coffee grounds from the last time had never been removed. And there was a sizeable colony of mold growing in it.
I'd like to be able to tell you exactly how long the "mold free window" is, but I can't. That would require a recollection of when I actually last made that pot of coffee. It's somewhere more than two weeks but less than ten.
P.S. Why do I feel like Moral Turpitude is the only reader who will understand me?
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I can't answer your P.S. question, Oscar, but I did want to use this opportunity to thank you for not posting a picture of mold on a lovely Sunday morning.
first your messy room. then your socks. now your mold. a little more than we needed to know about you, oscar?
wpk
izzac - croation spelling of the biblical name spelled in english as isaac.
wpk
izzac - croation spelling of the biblical name spelled in english as isaac.
# posted by 
: 8:26 AM, March 12, 2006
: 8:26 AM, March 12, 2006
The window is between two weeks and three. We made a pot of coffee before evacuating for Katrina and didn't come back until three weeks later, and there was mold.
Several of the geeks I used to work with when I was designing computers would leave their coffee mugs around the office with coffee in them. Many of them turned into science experiments. And not all the colonies floating on the surface were mold, either.
I think it depends on the spore level in your area (the Mississippi delta area has a high mold spore count compared to more northern latitudes), and the amount of sugar (both refined and lactose) present in the coffee.
The only thing I remember about grounds is that it's really good for the compost pile.
--
becruj (be-kruge): the application of makeup on the face, especially rouge, to the degree that it starts to cake and flake.
I think it depends on the spore level in your area (the Mississippi delta area has a high mold spore count compared to more northern latitudes), and the amount of sugar (both refined and lactose) present in the coffee.
The only thing I remember about grounds is that it's really good for the compost pile.
--
becruj (be-kruge): the application of makeup on the face, especially rouge, to the degree that it starts to cake and flake.
# posted by : 11:33 AM, March 12, 2006
: 11:33 AM, March 12, 2006
This post reminds me of me. I'm afraid of the day the fiance comes home and finds the mess I've created...
I must add to this information that tea, alas, does not appear to have the same moldicidal properties as coffee. The dregs of tea left at the bottom of the teapot grow mold in an alarmingly short time -- two to three days.
Thus I've been drinking more coffee lately.
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Thus I've been drinking more coffee lately.
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