The usual Spanish term is posos de café, the phrase most speakers use for the damp or dry bits left after brewing.
You’ll hear Spanish terms around coffee, and that can get messy fast. One phrase points to the leftover bits after brewing. Another points to coffee that has been ground but not brewed. If you mix them up, a recipe, class note, or café chat can sound off.
The good news is that the main answer is straightforward. In most daily cases, posos de café is the natural way to say coffee grounds when you mean the residue left in the filter, French press, moka pot, or cup. Once you know where that phrase fits, the rest falls into place.
How To Say ‘Coffee Grounds’ In Spanish In Daily Use
If you mean the used bits left after making coffee, say posos de café. That’s the phrase you’ll want in conversation, in household directions, and in many written instructions. It sounds clear and specific.
The Phrase Most Speakers Reach For
Posos refers to sediment, residue, or dregs left behind in a liquid. Add de café, and the meaning becomes precise: the remains of brewed coffee. You can use it for wet grounds sitting in a filter or for dry grounds after they’ve been dumped out and left to dry.
You might say, Tira los posos de café for “Throw away the coffee grounds,” or Guarda los posos de café for “Save the coffee grounds.” The phrase sounds at home in a kitchen, a lesson, or a note.
The Word That People Mix Up
Café molido means ground coffee, not used coffee grounds. That phrase points to coffee already milled and ready to brew. If a package in a shop says café molido, it means the coffee is ground, not that it is leftover residue from a brewed cup.
That difference matters. If you tell someone to clean up the café molido, they may picture spilled fresh coffee from a bag. If you say posos de café, they’ll picture the stuff left in the filter after brewing.
When Posos De Café Fits Best
This phrase works well when the grounds are no longer part of the drink. They’ve done their job. That’s why it suits daily tasks such as emptying a filter basket, talking about compost, or reading a tip that uses used grounds around the house.
It also works when the grounds are sitting at the bottom of a cup or pot as sediment. In that sense, posos does more than name the material. It also hints that the drink has left something behind.
Dry Grounds Vs. Used Grounds
English can be loose here. “Coffee grounds” may mean fresh ground coffee in some contexts, while in many home tips it means the used leftovers after brewing. Spanish is less loose. Fresh ground coffee is café molido. Used grounds are posos de café. When you choose between those two, your meaning stays sharp.
Singular Or Plural?
You’ll usually see the plural form posos. A singular form exists in grammar, but in normal use the plural sounds better because the residue is made up of many tiny bits. Stick with los posos de café and you’ll sound natural.
Regional Wording You May Hear
Spanish shifts from place to place, so you may hear other terms. One is borra de café. In some places, that points to the residue or sludge left behind by coffee, often at the bottom of a cup or pot. It can sound a bit more tied to sediment than to a whole basket of filter grounds, but many people will still understand it.
You may also hear a phrase such as restos de café if someone wants to be descriptive. That works, though it sounds less settled as a set term. If you want the safest answer that travels well, stick with posos de café.
| English Meaning | Natural Spanish | Best Use |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee grounds left in the filter | Posos de café | Daily speech, home notes, cleaning |
| Ground coffee before brewing | Café molido | Shopping, recipes, brew directions |
| Coffee sediment in the cup | Posos de café / borra de café | Cup, pot, or Turkish-style residue |
| Leftover coffee bits, plain wording | Restos de café | When you forget the set phrase |
| Bagged ground coffee from the store | Café molido | Labels, product talk, pantry talk |
| Used grounds saved for compost | Posos de café | Home tips and reuse ideas |
| Dregs left after the last sip | Posos | When the coffee context is obvious |
| Residue from brewing, more colloquial | Borra de café | Regional speech in some places |
Common Mistakes That Shift The Meaning
The biggest slip is using café molido when you mean used grounds. That changes the picture right away. Fresh ground coffee is an ingredient ready for brewing. Posos de café are leftovers after brewing.
Another slip is translating word by word from English and hoping it lands. Spanish often prefers a set phrase over a literal build. That’s why learning the chunk posos de café works better than trying to invent a new version on the spot.
When Context Does The Heavy Lifting
Sometimes context can rescue a fuzzy phrase. If you’re standing next to a coffee maker and pointing at the filter, people will get your meaning. Still, clean wording helps when there’s no shared scene, such as in writing, texting, or language study. Clear terms save back-and-forth.
Fresh Grounds Are Not The Same Thing
Say you’re following a recipe for a cake that uses finely ground coffee as an ingredient. In that case, café molido is the right choice. If you’re talking about the wet clump left after brewing your morning cup, switch to posos de café. That one move fixes most mistakes. That helps in class, too.
Sentence Patterns You Can Copy Right Away
Memorizing one clean phrase helps, but full sentence patterns help more. Once you can drop the term into real sentences, it stops feeling like a word list item and starts feeling usable.
These models keep your Spanish natural without sounding stiff:
- ¿Dónde tiro los posos de café? — Where do I throw away the coffee grounds?
- Guarda los posos de café para el compost. — Save the coffee grounds for compost.
- Hay posos de café en la taza. — There are coffee grounds in the cup.
- Compré café molido, no granos. — I bought ground coffee, not beans.
| English Line | Spanish Line | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Throw away the coffee grounds. | Tira los posos de café. | Used grounds after brewing |
| I bought ground coffee. | Compré café molido. | Fresh coffee, ready to brew |
| There are grounds in my cup. | Hay posos en mi taza. | Coffee context is already clear |
| Save the grounds for later. | Guarda los posos para después. | Natural at home or in notes |
Should You Use Posos Or Borra?
If you want one term that will serve you well in most settings, go with posos de café. It is broad, plain, and easy to understand. Borra de café can also be right, but it may feel more regional or more tied to sediment in the drink itself.
That means borra is worth recognizing, even if it is not the first phrase you memorize. When you hear it, you’ll know it points to the leftover residue. When you speak, posos de café is the safer pick.
A Handy Fallback If Your Mind Goes Blank
If the set phrase slips your mind, you can still get your meaning across with restos de café. Native speakers will understand that you mean coffee remains. It is less idiomatic than posos de café, so treat it as a backup, not your first choice.
Pronunciation Cue
Posos sounds close to “POH-sohs,” with a clean s sound. Café carries stress on the last syllable: “ka-FEH.” If you say the phrase slowly once or twice, it settles in fast.
The Phrase That Usually Sounds Right
When you mean the leftover bits after brewing, the answer you’ll want most of the time is posos de café. Save café molido for fresh ground coffee that hasn’t been brewed yet. Learn that split, and you’ll avoid the most common mix-up.
That small distinction makes your Spanish cleaner in recipes, chores, class notes, and café talk. You won’t need a long rule sheet. You’ll just need the right phrase for the right moment, and now you’ve got it.