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.