Cuisinart Style Collection Electric Spice & Nut Grinder | Midnight Grey | SG21U

Product Information

Although there aren’t any programmed settings that allow you to control grind size, the grinder comes with a clear lid that allows you to see what you’re doing so you can stop grinding when your spices reach the desired fineness.

You’re not limited to just salt and pepper, though. You can fill the chambers with any dried herbs or spices that are a staple in your kitchen for easy access to fresh grinding. Hamilton Beach Fresh Grind Coffee Grinder: This model has a low capacity of only 35 to 45 milliliters, depending on what spice you are blending. The activation button is hard to hold down and the plastic parts in the grinder bowl easily became clogged with spices. The lid fits on very tightly and it’s tough to remove, leading you to spill upon opening. Probably unsurprisingly, KitchenAid, one of the leaders in kitchen gadgets, earned the spot of best multipurpose spice grinder with its dual coffee and spice grinder. Unlike other grinders, which require thorough cleaning between different spices—or when you switch from coffee grinding to spice grinding—the KitchenAid comes with three separate stainless steel grinding bowls. There are several great spice grinders out there, but the Secura Electric Coffee and Spice Grinder earned the best overall spot for a few reasons. One of the biggest is that it has two separate milling bowls: One for grinding dry ingredients and the other for chopping wet ingredients. The bowls also have measurement markings on the inside, so you can easily add what you need without using separate measuring spoons. This grinder includes a clear plastic cover that sits on top of the stainless steel bowl to keep ground ingredients from flying out as the blades spin.

Our tester found this model to work best with spices (vs. dried herbs) and required at least a tablespoon of each ingredient to get a proper grind. Since the bowl is removable, it's easy to get every last granule of ground spice out with a few taps. It comes with a coffee spoon that has a brush on its handle to help whisk away any residual dust or powder. The manufacturer recommends hand washing the lid and bowls and advises against placing them in the dishwasher. Proctor Silex Fresh Grind Coffee Grinder: The button on this model is hard to press down. Combined with a low capacity—20 grams of cinnamon maxes it out—and spillage upon opening, this unit didn’t make the cut. It does, however, have the best visibility while blending, so it’s a good choice if you like to watch your spices whirl. The design of this grinder makes it an excellent choice for anyone with manual dexterity problems, especially since, instead of pressing down on an on/off button, you can activate the motor by pushing down on the entire lid instead.

Our tester liked that each end has an adjustable grinder, so you can select the desired fineness or coarseness of your spice. It's attractive enough to keep on the table for mealtimes or stash next to the stove to use while cooking. Pestle and mortar: Made up of a heavy bowl (mortar) and a club-shaped tool (pestle), this is a primitive and centuries-old means of grinding spices and other foods. These come in a range of sizes, from small ones no bigger than a teacup to large Mexican molcajete. Pestle and mortars are versatile as both dry and wet mixes can be ground in them. If you don’t need the power of an electric grinder, but you still want an easy and effective way to add freshly ground spices to your dishes, the Kuhn Rikon Ratchet Grinder is one of the most user-friendly manual spice grinders on the market. This Swiss-designed model has a door on the front of its body that you can open and use to easily fill the spice chamber with one dried spice or a combination to create your own spice blend. The two-blade grinding bowl is meant for handling dried ingredients from herbs, like rosemary and thyme, to spices, like peppercorns and cardamom. Our tester noted that it created a fairly consistent, fine grind on most spices and worked beautifully to create enough freshly ground pepper for cacio e pepe in about 10 seconds. She noted that lightweight herbs like mint had a hard time staying down near the blade, so the results were less even, but these types of herbs generally don't need a super consistent grind. If you need a spice grinder mainly for salt and pepper, the Eparé Dual Manual Mill can handle both at the same time. Its dual design combines two separate chambers in a sleek space-saving device that has separate milling blades on each end. Dials on the end of each blade cap allow you to independently control the fineness and coarseness of each spice.Unlike other grinders, which can be obnoxiously loud, the Krups Silent Vortex Electric Grinder was designed with quiet in mind. If you’re an early morning cook or need something that gets the job done during a child’s afternoon nap, this model from Krups is probably the best choice for you. It comes equipped with patent-pending Vortex Spin Technology that helps pull ingredients into its blades for grinding that’s as quiet as it is efficient. It has a one-touch button that you can hold down for continuous grinding or tap to pulse. KitchenAid Blade Coffee and Spice Grinder: This comes equipped with two bowls with different blades, one for spices with a winged blade and one for coffee with a straight blade. The one for coffee performed poorly, leaving lots of large and unevenly processed cumin seeds. The spice bowl performs better, but only slightly. It's slow to grind, has an uneven grind, low capacity, and the opaque lid makes it difficult to see inside the bowl to monitor the grinding process. The spice bowl performed better with 20 grams of spices than with 10, but it can't do much more than that, resulting in a limited sweet spot where it grinds well. Spice gets under the removable cup, where the ridged surface makes it difficult to clean. The Shardor Coffee and Spice Grinder was expertly designed to be the perfect multitasking tool. It comes with two stainless steel bowls. The first is a two-blade grinder bowl that handles dry items, like spices and coffee beans. The other is a four-blade chopper bowl that can wet-grind garlic and herbs, like basil, eliminating the need for manual mincing as you cook.