Spice Grinders

Looking neat and elegant in white, the Salton CG7W Coffee and Spice Grinder is a fine addition to your kitchen countertop. It is cylindrical in shape with a bottom that flares outward for added stability. Its top is a transparent lid, through which you can peer inside the machine. It is fastened to the grinder’s main body with plastic and wire clamps.

Visible through the clear lid is a receptacle for coffee beans or spices for grinding. Inside the container is a blade that is spun by a powerful motor in high speeds to reduce coffee, peppercorn, flax seeds, cinnamon, cumin, parsley, coriander, or allspice berries into tiny pieces. With a pulse control, you can easily choose the texture of your grounds, from coarse to extra fine.

The motor is concealed beneath the coffee or spice container. Although powerful, it runs quietly. All the noise you will hear when operating it comes from the beans or spices being thrown around inside the container. When they are cut in smaller pieces, all you will hear is the soft purring of the motor.

When grinding coffee beans, it can hold up to 65 grams, which is enough for 10 cups of a nice hot java. It may not be advisable to use the same grinder for your coffee beans and spices though. Their flavors may mix and the phrase “hot cup of coffee” may acquire a new meaning.

As a safety feature, the Salton CG7W Coffee and Spice Grinder stops running if its lid is removed. This does not only prevent the beans or spices from getting thrown out of the container, but also keeps your fingers from getting accidentally caught in the blades.

Freshly ground or chopped spices, herbs, and other food are always better than the dried and processed varieties. It is for this reason that food choppers and grinders are very useful tools to have in the kitchen. And it is even better if you can have them in a single device. This is precisely what you get with a Waring Commercial WCG75 Pro Prep Chopper Grinder.

The machine consists of a rectangular cuboid base housing a powerful motor, and two bowl and blade assemblies. One of the bowls has blades designed for chopping while the other is for grinding. To use the bowls, simply set them atop the base.

The motor is a high-speed 2-pole induction type that has a capacity of ¾ horsepower enabling it to spin the blades of the bowls at speeds of up to 3,450 RPM. At this speeds, whatever is inside the bowl is immediately reduced to shreds or grounds. In spite of its power, the motor runs quietly.

Both bowls have a capacity of ¾ quart, and are see-though thus providing you with a clear view of the food inside. Their blades and covers, however, differ. The chopping bowl has only two blades, compared to three for the grinding bowl. The former is intended for cutting chocolate, garlic, onion, shallots, and leafy herbs; while the latter can easily grind allspice, celery and mustard seeds, coffee beans, nuts, peppercorns, and Parmesan and Romano cheeses.

The cover of the chopping bowl has two openings allowing you to pour liquids or oils into the bowl even when the motor is running. This is perfect when making creams, sauces, or toppings. The grinding bowl’s cover, on the other hand, is completely closed to prevent ground food from flying out while grinding.

For a convenient and space-saving storage, the two bowls can be stacked. Although the bowls and blades are designed to last, in the event that they are damaged, replacements can be purchased separately.

The Waring Commercial WCG75 Pro Prep Chopper Grinder is 5 inches wide and 8½ deep. Along with a bowl mounted on the base, it is 10 inches high.

Sesame seeds are known to be a good source of Vitamin B, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. They also contain healthy fats, protein, and phytosterols that prevent the absorption of dietary cholesterol. Having a rich nutty flavor, they can enhance the taste of most foods. Sesame seeds are often mixed with other food, such as breads, buns, salads, pasta, soba noodles, hummus, and sushi rolls among others. They may be mixed whole or ground. Nutritionists, however, say that to maximize the absorption of their nutrients, they should be eaten ground. To grind them, you can use the Zojirushi CB-AA10 Sesame Seed Grinder.

The sesame seed grinder is a small piece of cylindrical equipment measuring a shade less than 7 inches tall with a diameter of 2.38 inches. The upper third is a removable transparent lid while the rest is colored white. A bright yellow square button protrudes from the cylinder. This is the on/off button which is mounted exactly where your thumb rests as you grip the grinder.

On one side of the cylinder is the spout through which ground sesame seeds are poured. This is neatly pushed back into the body of the grinder when not in use, but can be easily flicked and popped out when needed. The base of the grinder is a ring colored with the same yellow of the power button.

The grinding chamber is large enough to hold 45 grams of seeds. Underneath it is the motor that runs the blades. It is powered by four size AA batteries.

Texture of the grounds can be adjusted to three settings –fine, medium, and coarse. Grinding is quick, and will not clog the grinding mechanism.

The Zojirushi CB-AA10 Sesame Seed Grinder, however, is designed to work only with roasted sesame seeds. You may get unsatisfactory results if you use it to grind other seeds or even unroasted sesame seeds.

Crafted for chopping or grinding small amounts of food or spices, the Cuisinart MM-2M Mini Mate Chopper/Grinder can be used by persons who live alone cooking only for themselves. Families who might want to have a supplemental grinder right on their tables instead of bringing the big one from the kitchen would also appreciate the small machine.

Although small, the machine can perform big functions. It chops, grinds, and grates all kinds of food and spices. You can put in celery, cinnamon sticks, garlic, ginger root, herbs, horseradish, nutmegs, nuts, olives, onion, pepper, and peppercorns into it and they will come out either chopped, ground, or grated according to your preferences.

The Mini Mate has a cylindrical body that stands 8 inches. Its bottom section is a large clear Lexan work bowl with a capacity of 9 ounces. It rests on an opaque white base, and constitutes about half of the machine’s body. As it is transparent, you can clearly see if the food inside is properly chopped or ground. The upper half of the chopper/grinder is the housing for the appliance’s motor, and, like the base of the transparent bowl, is also made of white plastic.

Dangling from the motor is a stainless steel shaft that connects to a removable blade assembly. This assembly is designed in a way that the leading edge of the blade can be reversed. One edge of the blade is sharp, while the other is dull. You use the former when cutting celery, garlic, or herbs, while the latter is used for grinding cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, or peppercorn.

Cleaning is basically easy but because the many parts of the Cuisinart MM-2M Mini Mate Chopper/Grinder require disassembly for a thorough cleaning, it may take a little time.

Plenty of grinders now used for spices began life as a coffee grinder. Perhaps some chef with carpal tunnel syndrome couldn’t crank the manual grinders for whatever he was cooking, coincidentally caught sight of a coffee grinder, and decided to give it a try. Thousands of other chefs and cooks soon followed his example. Indeed, some manufacturers began calling their coffee grinders “coffee and spice grinders”. Although its creators have not included “spice” in its name, the Nesco BG88PR Professional Coffee Grinder is, nevertheless, also popular as a spice grinder.

The Nesco machine is a burr grinder that uses two revolving abrasive surfaces to reduce coffee beans or spices into grounds. The distance between the two surfaces can be adjusted allowing you to choose the size and consistency of your grounds. The machine has 17 grind settings you can choose from, from extremely fine (think coffee grounds for espresso) to coarse (like coffee for a French press). You are likewise assured of grounds that are of uniform sizes.

Unlike grinders that use blades that cut through coffee beans, peppercorns, or flax seeds at very high speeds thus generating high levels of heat, friction from the Nesco burr grinder is minimal. This helps preserve the aroma and taste of your spices.

The Nesco BG88PR Professional Coffee Grinder has a large hopper. It comes with a safety lid preventing your spices from spilling out while grinding. As it is transparent, you can clearly see its contents. It can hold as much as 8.8 ounces of coffee beans or 13 ounces of black peppercorn. Ground spices fall into a bin below the grinding mechanism. Like the hopper, it is also transparent.

In order to keep the grinder firmly grounded on your countertop, it is equipped with a vibration-free base that resists slipping and sliding.

As clearly indicated in its own name and manufacturer, the Mr. Coffee IDS55 White Blade Coffee Grinder is originally designed for grinding coffee beans. Some ingenious homeowners, however, perhaps seeing that their spice grinders have broken down or that they do not have any, began using the IDS55 for spices. It must have worked because plenty of people now use the machines for the purpose. In fact, even Mr. Coffee now calls its versatile little machine the White Blade Grinder, dropping the “Coffee”.

The grinder is small and cylindrical with a diameter of 4.8 inches and a height of 9. It has a large transparent plastic lid, which is used to transfer ground coffee or spices to the brew basket or spice holder. The cylinder widens slightly at the bottom providing a stable base for the grinder. For further stability, and to prevent it from dancing around your countertop while it is in use, it is fitted with rubber feet.

Since the grinding bowl of the machine is made of stainless steel, it is easily cleaned thus minimizing the cross contamination of coffee and spice flavors. You can also throw in a small piece of bread into the bowl and grind it after processing either coffee or spices to absorb any remaining oil.

The on/off safety switch activating the machine is mounted on the lid. With this design it is impossible to turn the grinder on unless the lid is securely in place, thus there is zero possibility of accidentally cutting your fingers with the blades or of coffee beans and spices flying all over your kitchen.

The blades inside the grinding bowl are capable of grinding not only coffee beans but also allspice berries, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, flax seeds, parsley and other herbs, and peppercorns. Made of heavy-duty steel, they are expected to keep on cutting up and grinding for years.

There are two other variations of the Mr. Coffee IDS55 White Blade Coffee Grinder –the IDS57, which is colored black, and the IDS59, finished in chrome.