ū:who Tips & Trick

Can you make coffee whole beans without grinding? 6 tips to dealing with whole bean coffee.


Imagine the scenario – you see a coffee you love, purchase it and as you are unpacking it to make a nice morning brew – you realise it’s whole bean coffee… and you don’t have a grinder!! We have all been there. All made that mistake – and in the morning, it’s not something you want to be dealing with. So what do you do?

What is the best thing to do with whole bean coffee? Can you make coffee using whole beans? Here are 6 tips for dealing with whole bean coffee.

If you have been gifted whole beans as a present or bought them by mistake – here are the best and the most creative ways we have heard about “grinding” and dealing whole coffee beans.

Our number one recommendation is to get grinding them as it really is the best option, with manual and electric grinders becoming ever more readily available and much more affordable, there are less reasons for not being able to enjoy, in our opinion, the best way to have coffee, freshly ground coffee straight from the whole bean.

Handheld blender/nutribullet. Very similar to an electric coffee grinder and you get a similar result. However, depending on how well you clean the equipment, this may taint your smoothies with coffee taste, or even worse, taint your coffee with smoothie!

Use a pestle and mortar. This method will take a while and will give you a good workout, but it should get good results.

Hammer your beans. Pop the beans into a decent thick bag and between towels to protect work surfaces - and well… hammer them.

Rolling Pin. Prepare them in the same way as with hammering, but your blunt instrument of choice is different.

Can you make coffee using whole beans? The short answer is yes. Brewing coffee with whole beans does not, however, give the same aromatic and complex flavour from grinding your coffee beans that you would recognise and be familiar with. So whilst you can make a brewed coffee using unground coffee, we would recommend that you grind your whole beans to get the best out of them.

Long story short… We recommend getting a grinder. Best investment ever.

our coffee
Our coffee blends bear the names of musicians and artists that match the flavour profile of the beans.

When asked for his definition of paradise, Johnny Cash replied,

“This morning, with her, having coffee.”