Can You Grind Your Own Coffee at Home?
Have you ever picked up coffee at the grocery store and come home only to realize you actually bought whole beans rather than the ground stuff? *Face palm* You’re not alone. It’s a feeling almost as bad as thinking you’re biting into a chocolate chip cookie when it’s actually oatmeal raisin, but unlike the cookie scenario, there is something you can do to fix it. First thing’s first, If you have a coffee grinder or if you have the option of purchasing a coffee grinder, that’s the best way to ensure you’ll be making quality ground coffee. But, if you find yourself with a bag of beans, no grinder, and no way of getting one, you have a couple of options to take your coffee from bean to bean’ brew-able (sorry, it was too easy).
Option #1: Blender You can use a blender to grind coffee beans in small batches, (meaning you'll want to be careful not to try too blend too much at one time). Make sure you keep the lid on while you blend or you’ll lose a lot of beans in the process.
Option #2: Rolling Pin Although you’ll really have to put your back into it for this one, you can grind coffee beans using a rolling pin. Because of its design, the pin can crush and grind the coffee all at the same time, and if you do it correctly, the ground coffee will end up coming out pretty fine.
Option #3: Hammer Grab your toolkits! You can go to town on your coffee beans with a hammer, but because this method is pretty jerky, the ground coffee will likely end up pretty coarse, (which is totally fine for most brews — except for espresso).
Option #4: Knife Although definitely the most difficult of the four options, you can use a butcher knife (flat side down) to press and crack the coffee beans. Unless you’ve gone to culinary school, this technique will be pretty tricky, so we’d recommending opting for one of the other three choices before you resort to this. If you accidentally brought home a bag of whole coffee beans, you have a number of options that’ll allow you to make it brew-able. If you have a grinder, great — you’re totally set. But, if you don’t, we’ve got your back. You can absolutely make it happen — even without a grinder.