Apparently tea is good too: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/c...

My wife goes through a couple pots of tea a day. I drink instant during the week, but on my days off we make regular brewed coffee. Haven't tried them on plantings yet, but we have a rhododendron, climbing rose and two azaleas that would probably appreciate the leftovers.

I bet tea leaves would be a great, relatively long-lasting soil amendment.

That's a great idea. I just chunk my tea bags. I make tea at least every other day. Joe drinks cokes, I never touch a carbonated beverage. Water & iced tea for me, and my coffee in the mornings. I take Topamax twice daily for migrain headaches, and anything carbonated tastes like poison to me, I cannot drink it. So I use 3 family size tea bags every other day, sometimes, if I'm drinking heavy, every day. I need to stop chunking those.

I don't usually think of tea drinkers as "heavy drinkers", but if you say so ...

I don't worry about the staple or the cardboard tag. I figure they all rot or rust away.

My guess is that tea bags or shredded tea bags would be too fine to be used as mulch all by themselves. I would expect them to pack down and either repel water, or absorb all that fell.

But they could be mixed with other mulches, or tossed into the compost heap where they would (I think) contribute N plus organic matter.

However, I bet "English Style" tea leaves would be great for mulch OR soil amendments as-is. After all, they are leaves!