I needed a new blade-type coffee grinder, and
the cheapest one I found at a department store
was this one:

http://www.epinions.com/Hamilton_Bea...ffee_Grinder_1

What's neat about it is the grinding chamber
(including the blade) is a unit that can be
separated from the base. That's handy for
dumping the contents into something else and
also for cleaning. It's a great feature.

The top of the unit also locks onto the body
for grinding. That's another feature I've
never seen before on this type of grinder.
It's important for me because I always shake
the grinder while grinding. It's nice not
to have to hold the top on while shaking
the grinder.

I've only had the grinder for a few hours,
so it's way too early to say how happy
I'll ultimately be with this purchase,
but so far it's looking good.

Mark Thorson wrote:
>
> I've only had the grinder for a few hours,
> so it's way too early to say how happy
> I'll ultimately be with this purchase,
> but so far it's looking good.

I probably should have read the epinions
reviews before buying it. Two of the three
reviewers gave it a negative review because
their grinders died after a short time.
The third review was kinda weird -- too
short to be called a novel, but much longer
than a regular review, to the point I felt
the author was just sort of playing with
the reader:

http://www10.epinions.com/content_407052258948

But an amusing read, especially since I had
just bought the grinder in question and my
confidence was shaken by reading the other
two reviews.

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:40:35 -0800, Mark Thorson >
fired up random neurons and synapses to opine:

>I needed a new blade-type coffee grinder, and
>the cheapest one I found at a department store
>was this one:

<snip>

Mark - IMHO, I wouldn't have a blade grinder. If you're fussy about
coffe and ever going to grind coffee very fine, such as for espresso,
the blade grinder can burn the beans b/c you have to run the blades
longer and this generates heat. A burr grinder won't burn the beans.
They're more expensive, but produce a nicer result. There are two
kinds of burr grinders: the wheel grinder and the conical grinder. The
former is generally cheaper, but is noisy and can be a big messy.

I have a Capresso conical burr grinder that I love. It's a bit pricier
than most, but it will last forever and Capresso is a company that
only makes coffee related products and seem to know their stuff. See
Consumer Reports article:

http://products.howstuffworks.com/ca...565-review.htm

I also have the Capresso Ultima espresso machine, which is an absolute
whizz at making espresso really fast (and one of the reasons I went in
search of a really good coffee bean grinder).

And I have no ownership or stock interest in the company :-)

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines


To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"

Terry Pulliam Burd wrote:
>
> I have a Capresso conical burr grinder that I love. It's a bit pricier
> than most, but it will last forever and Capresso is a company that
> only makes coffee related products and seem to know their stuff. See
> Consumer Reports article:

I have a Ditting commercial grinder for coffee.
The blade grinder is for other stuff (so far,
I've only used it on fried onions).

Nunya Bidnits wrote:
>
> I take those reviews with a grain of salt, that is to say,.people who
> work for the product's manufacturer or their competitors seem to be
> seeding the reviews. Every product has one review that would make you
> think God even owns one, and one that makes you think the devil
> designed it.

Jury's still out on the latter. When the removable
grinding chamber is removed and washed, water penetrates
between the metal cup and the plastic housing. I can't
get this part to dry without removing four Phillips-head
screws. I may have to end up caulking this area myself,
or stop washing it. The combination of dust from grinding
operations and trapped water is likely to lead to growth
of nasty stuff.