Popular coffee brewing methods like pour-over, French press, and cold brew work best with coarse coffee grounds. Since most pre-ground coffee is finely-ground, you may need to grind your own beans if you want them to be perfectly coarse, and if you don’t have a grinder on hand, we have the perfect workaround.

You can break up your coffee beans by putting them in a sealed zip-top bag and whacking them using a heavy cast iron pan, or even a hammer. You can get similar results with less blunt force by crushing the beans using a mortar and pestle, though the smaller surface area means you’ll need to put in a little more elbow grease.

This method won’t produce medium-sized grounds you need for drip coffee, but the larger chunks work well for French press or cold brew. If you don’t have a French press, you can also hack it by putting your grounds in any heatproof glass jar or container and pouring boiling water over them, then filtering them through a strainer.