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Can I grind coffee in a blender or food processor?

You can produce something. It will be a random mixture of dust and chunks, which brews sour and bitter at once.

You can, and the result will be poor for the same reason a blade grinder is poor: nothing is cutting to a size.

What happens

Blades smash beans until you stop. Some particles get hit many times and become dust; others get hit rarely and stay as chunks. The output is a random distribution rather than a grind.

Dust over-extracts almost instantly and turns bitter. Chunks barely extract and taste sour. Both arrive in the same cup, which is why blade-ground coffee tastes muddy and harsh.

If you have no alternative today

Use a forgiving brewer. Immersion — French press or AeroPress with a long steep — averages the mess out better than a pour-over will.

Pulse rather than run continuously, and shake the container between pulses.

Sift if you are desperate. A kitchen sieve will remove the worst of the dust.

Aim coarse. With a wide distribution you want the average on the coarse side, so the fines are less over-extracted.

The honest recommendation

A seventy-euro hand grinder will transform your coffee more than any other purchase, including the machine. If you are grinding in a blender and buying good beans, you are paying for quality you are then destroying.

Mortar and pestle, incidentally, is better than a blender for a moka pot — crushing produces fewer fines than smashing.

Last reviewed 8 August 2026