Knock box guides
Everything we have learned about spent espresso pucks — how to knock one out, where they should go, what they do to a basket, and how to keep the tool that catches them clean.
9 August 2026
What is a knock box, and do you actually need one?
It looks optional next to a grinder. Here is what it replaces, and what the bin and the sink each cost you over a year.
10 August 2026
How to use a knock box
The grip, the angle, where on the bar to strike and how hard — plus the rhythm between two shots and what actually marks a basket.
9 August 2026
Wooden knock box or stainless steel?
Wood looks warmer on a counter and behaves differently once coffee oil reaches the grain. What a year of daily knocks does to each.
9 August 2026
How to clean a knock box, and how often
Ten seconds a day, a proper wash every few weeks, and the one part that decides whether either is realistic.
9 August 2026
What to do with used coffee grounds
Compost, garden bed or bin — all three work. Plus the uses that are half true, and the one place grounds must never go.
9 August 2026
Why coffee grounds block drains
They do not dissolve. They bind with the grease already in the pipe and settle in the trap — and a disposal makes it worse.
9 August 2026
Where to put a knock box when the counter is full
It takes about the footprint of a large mug. Four placements that work in a small kitchen, and the one that quietly fails.
9 August 2026
Building your own knock box
Three details — bar hardness, base weight, sealed interior — decide how a home-made one holds up. Here is what each one does.
20 August 2026
Espresso station or a simple knock box?
A station bundles a tamping pad, a tamper cradle and a knock bay into one fixed tray. What that shared frame costs the bay, and how to tell which you need.
4 September 2026
Coffee grounds and fruit flies
They are eating the yeast, not the coffee. What that means for a container of damp grounds, and the one spot a rinse does not reach.