I don’t think you’re going to get an answer that applies to all blenders. It seems like it should work (assuming you can control the timing enough to avoid pulverization), since a lot of the cheaper grinders are basically the same technology (spinning blades).
But I’d just sacrifice a cup of beans and give it a try.
I’ve done it successfully with a low-end blender. It took about 20 minutes to do a 10 oz bag of beans. I didn’t do anything special except stir it once in awhile to ensure it all blended well.
You should get a good burr grinder, you’ll have trouble getting a consistent grind, ranging from espresso at the bottom to coarse grind on top using a blender. Also, the blender produces heat, which can destroy the oils in the coffee bean.
My wife and I are coffe snobs who buy green coffee, roast our beans, grind them, and have a ridiculous certified by Interntional Cupping Association Brewer to precisely brew our coffee.
So here’s my take:
Will it work? Sure. It may be n issue getting your blender clean but it’ll work.
Here’s why you don’t want to do it:
Blade grinders are generally inferior to burr grinders, because you don’t control the size of the particles you are making. Some stuff will get chopped into a fine powder, others not so fine. A uniform grind is key to making good coffee. Too fine my clog your maker, too coarse nd your coffee can be too week.
Even so, blade grinders are designed to give you as uniform a grind as possible within the limits of their technology. They are designed to work with air and beans in a small chamber. A blender is optimized for liquids and counts on a vortex type action to cycle material from the top to the bottom. This vortex works poorly without liquid. You will end up with almost whole bens on the top and a superfine powder at the bottom. Not great coffee.
Also, you get the best results by grinding right before brewing, so best to do a little at a time if possible.
I do. It would be one of the worst possible ways of brewing coffee. As has been said above, the best way to get a good cup of coffee is to use an even grind. If the fragments are of different sizes, the big ones will be under-extracted and the small ones will be over-extracted, producing bitterness. This method guarantees that you will be extracting from the maximum possible range of fragment sizes from whole beans to powder.