Aldi Is Selling Coffee Plants — Here’s How To Care for Them
The next time you head to your local Aldi, you may want to check out the plant section right when you get there. Aldi is currently selling coffee plants, and yes — they actually grow coffee!
They’re called the …But First Coffee plants and they’re from the Plants for Living Plant Shoppe brand. Each coffee plant, which is scientifically known as a coffea arabica plant, comes in a cute little ceramic pot decorated with black or white hash marks that are about the size of a standard coffee mug.
And each plant is just $7.99.
Although these plants look fairly unassuming, you should know that they require a bit of skill to keep alive and thriving.
Coffee plants like full or indirect sunlight, but direct, harsh sunlight will burn the leaves. And they also prefer a more acidic soil (something peat-based works great), and this soil needs to have excellent drainage because coffee plants love water. Like a lot.
Unlike your standard succulents or more hearty houseplants, coffee plants’ soil should never dry out. It needs to stay moist, but not waterlogged, to ensure the plant is getting plenty of moisture all the time.
If your coffee plant gets all the care it needs, you can expect arabica “cherries” to start growing in a few years once it’s gained some height — each cherry contains two coffee beans. And coffee plants also begin flowering at around three years old. You can also plant coffee plants outside in milder climates to let them really take off.
But take note that coffee plants are toxic to both humans and animals. Although you can brew your own coffee from the beans collected from inside the coffee plant berries, you need to learn how to treat the beans before you grind up and brew. Otherwise, you might feel a bit sick after ingesting.
Pick up a coffee plant at Aldi to take your love for caffeine to the next level and put your green thumb to the test!