“Hey there, Having real good luck raising my first batch of worms, have already seen young-uns in the bin and they are eating everything like crazy… Newspaper, egg shells, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, and coffee grounds. The question is… Should you use flavored coffee grounds? I have not so far but almost did this morning, Hazelnut, would not have to take them to Starbucks, ha ha!” ~ Werner Anderson
Hi Werner,
Hazelnut flavored coffee… mmmm one of my favorites.
Many flavors are made from real organic products, while some are made from artificial flavorings such as Esters, forms of carboxylic acid and alcohols. I don’t know which ones they are with the coffee grounds you are using.
But I don’t need to know!
Good news is that whether or not is originally organic or synthetic, it will still be biodegradable, which means worms can degrade them.
But the question is: IS IT SAFE?
Well if you were able to drink the coffee with no harm, then it is very unlikely that it will cause any harm at all to your worms!
I guess as a rule of thumb, to know if something is safe for the worms or not is to see if we can consume it with no problem. If it doesn’t kill us, it doesn’t kill the worms!
You may now ask: But what about citrus foods and meat. These are safe for us to eat, but we have been told not to throw them in the worm bin.
Worms can actually degrade these no problem. Citrus fruit is only a problem because it may increase acidity, and some substances of fruit skin surfaces may slow the degradation of the waste. However if pH is monitored, this is not a problem.
Meat can also be readily composted by worms, but is best avoided because it goes bad really quickly which will attract vermin and flies. However worms can compost this like any other food!
So flavored coffee ground will breakdown like any other coffee grounds, no problem!
