How to Make Coffee Without Coffee Equipment

If you've found yourself wondering how to make coffee without a grinder or a brewer available, my testing here can be a guide for the best methods to use in these situations. Whether you have a coffee emergency outside of your usual setting, or you're inside but without access to coffee-making equipment, I tried these methods so you don't have to.

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[coleockerse]

Love how James would rather figure out a way to grind coffee without a grinder rather than use pre-ground coffee.

[nathanjfield]

James on Wednesday: makes coffee with a £1, 500 hand grinder
James on Thursday: makes coffee with a hammer

[CameronCrosby]

You could've put the chopped up smaller bits of coffee from the knife/hammer into the pepper grinder so it grinds more and has an easier time grinding

[FernandoHernandez-xqzi]

I live in a very small town in the U.S., and I own a coffee shop in this small town (I’m talking 1, 000 full time residents). I have access to horses and fields, so when you’re ready to travel to the U.S. to brew some cowboy coffee, I’ll gladly host you!

[ijchua]

Funding James to make coffee in America on horseback is the next thing we should do!

[realkoko-loco]

I was once in this situation. I did the hammer first, but what works best-I'm surprised you didn't try this. Put the beans in a bag and rollover them with a can or rolling pin or what ever you have that's cylindrical and keep flattening them until they're the right texture. 🙂 Real coffee addicts know. If you know, you know!

[meson]

James Hoffmann, doing his best impression of a bus service. None for ages then three come along at once. Loving it @James Hoffmann

[ciggythedrummer]

I was definitely expecting him to wrap the coffee in either the tea towel or the kitchen paper when using the hammer in order to not have the beans flying everywhere 😂

[thereveck]

when you first discover james, you don't really expect him to drink anything worse than you do. when you really get into the channel, you start realising.

[jasonocart]

"And there's no way that I'm talking about cowboy coffee until I'm in America on the back of a horse." Clip it and ship it boys. Hoffy's going to America

[samuel]

The image of a full-bearded Survivalist Cowboy James briping hammered coffee shards into the sunset on horseback is now on my list of things that I need to witness in my lifetime to truly be fulfilled.

[radash]

We need a combo option:
1. Put the beans in the tea towel
2. Roughly break the beans with the hammer
3. Wash the pepper grinder
4. Run partially-broken beans through the pepper mill

[jamiedavie]

"After a lot of grinding, my yield is not very much."

Sounds like a typical night on the town 😿

[sladeslack]

“If I had a pepper grinder that didn’t have pepper in it, that did accept bigger things that would be a coffee grinder.” I laughed out loud at this line.

[thelopen]

Assuming you washed out the pepper grinder, you could use it along side the hammer method with some modifications: If you placed the coffee beans inside something like a plastic bag that would likely be an effective strategy to minimise your losses when using the hammer. Then since you've broken down the coffee somewhat, you could more effectively utilise the pepper grinder to get a decent grind.

[YngveH]

"It feels like I'm drinking clothes" was not a sentence I expected to hear today.

[radleychin]

My god how are we this blessed with so many videos in one week.

[jaredkomaike]

James: “That’s not good, that’s bad”
Also James: Continues to drink the laundry detergent coffee

[brockmacd]

I stayed over at my brother’s once, a non coffee drinker, but when I woke up in the morning, he had a coffee grinder on the counter! I was so surprised and thankful, I ground my beans, brewed up a pot of French press. 10 ish minutes later, I have a SPICY cup. Thought maybe something was in the mug. Nope. He used a coffee grinder to grind up his smoked jalapeños/chipotle. Quite a surprise

[urouroniwa]

I'm a bit surprised you didn't use the classic "I don't have a grain mill" homebrrewed beer method of crushing it in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. It works incredibly badly, but I've got to think it would be better than the hammer. In Japan there is a kind of mortar and pestle called a suribachi. It has grooves in it. I've discovered that it is amazingly good at grinding spices once you learn how to do it. I think I'll give it a try with coffee tomorrow. Wish me luck!