Why Are People Spraying Their Coffee Beans With Water?

Don't worry, we noticed this too! Every coffee focused Instagram reel or TikTok these days seems to have one key theme where somebody sprays their coffee beans with water. But why are people doing this? Does it help make your coffee taste better? And should you start doing it?

 Well, after some hefty research, we have the answers for you. To spray (your coffee beans), or not to spray... that is the question.

Let's Start by Debunking WHY People Spray Their Beans...

Spraying coffee beans reduces static. Grinding coffee with electric grinders causes a build up of static electricity, causing the coffee grounds to fly everywhere in the hopper of the grinder as their is an imbalance of charged particles between coffee grounds and grinder. So, to keep your coffee grounds from flying everywhere, adding a drop of water reduces this static and makes the environment more conductive so that those coffee grounds don't ruin your kitchen!

But it's important to know this only works with a very modest amount of water. And it only works if you only spray the beans for a single dose of coffee. Keeping a large amount of beans damp in your grinder will only depreciate the taste and encourage mould.

So Should You Be Spraying Your Beans?

We think it all depends on your home setup. If you tend to all keep all of your coffee beans in the hopper of the grinder, and refill this when you get a new bag (likely because the grinder handles the dosing for you) then we wouldn't recommend spraying - as these beans will only sit in the water and go off.

However, if you prefer to weigh out your beans each time, and then adding the beans into the clean grinder for grinding each time you make a coffee - then we think it's worth doing. This way, only the beans you'll be using right away get wet and this means the rest of your bean supply will not be suffering!

So TLDR; if you grind 1 serving at a time with an electric grinder, give your beans a spray with water. If not, stay away.