Simple concept; exceptional grinder

In my opinion, there's nothing like the taste of good coffee freshly ground and brewed in a French Press (i.e., a Bodum-style plunger coffee maker).

So I've been grinding my own coffee in a cheap, plastic electric grinder for years... the kind you can get for between 10 and 20 dollars from your nearest department store. And basically it did the job. It didn't die. It chopped up my coffee and that was all there was to it.

However, just before Christmas I started to notice a new kind of coffee grinder - ones where the bean hopper is separate from the bowl where the ground coffee ends up. Most of these grinders are large plastic contraptions and typically cost about double what the small ones do. The advantage, however, is that you don't have to dump the ground coffee out of the top of the grinder into a container and inevitably spilling coffee residue on the counter.

I put the word out to my family that this was the type of thing that I wanted for Christmas, to avoid the influx of usual pointless chotchkes that I often get.

So it was with great happiness that I opened up one of my presents this Christmas to find this Cuisinart grinder.

More than I expected
This Cuisinart grinder is much more than originally meets the eye. When I had first laid eyes on this in the store (I was window-shopping so that if my family let me down, I could just buy one myself), I had originally just dismissed it (and the relatively high sticker price) as simply a stainless steel version of a cheap grinder. How wrong I was.

Simple but well-designed
The key difference between this and a cheap grinder (other than the snazzy stainless steel exterior) is the removable stainless steel grinding bowl. It's such a simple concept, but it's just so smart.

Here's how it works: You put your unground coffee beans in the large grinding bowl (it has measurements on the inside for the amount of coffee you're grinding), you put on the plastic grinding lid and you press the button, holding it down until it's finished grinding (with large amounts, I find it helpful to start and stop several times to give the beans a chance to circulate a bit, otherwise the coffee becomes too fine for a French Press).

When you're finished grinding, you take off the lid, and then remove the entire grinding bowl (the blade is contained in the bottom of the bowl) and then you snap a little black tupperware-type lid onto the bowl for storage. It's brilliant! You store the coffee in the same thing you chop it in, meaning you don't have to mess with pouring it from the grinder to another container, you don't really have to clean the bowl very often, and when you do clean it, because it's stainless steel, none of the coffee sticks to the bowl. As well, because they give you an airtight lid, your ground coffee will stay fresh until you use it up!

Okay, I admit I feel kind of stupid getting so excited about this thing. I mean it's just a coffee grinder, after all. But it makes the whole mess of coffee-making (and it IS a very messy business, as any coffee connoisseur can attest) so much cleaner.

As well, the motor on this baby has a very deep and satisfying rumble. Comparing with your typical grinder, it's like comparing the sound of a small motor-scooter with a Harley. The cheap ones come across as whiny and underpowered; this one just turns the simple act of making useable coffee beans into a joyful and satisfying occasion.

Overall
As you can tell, I love this product. I've been grinding my coffee in it for four months now, and the unit is in fine shape. I have noticed no dulling of blades or misfiring of motor. The simple innovation of making the grinding bowl removable like a blender makes my counter cleaner and my life just a little bit happier. And, ultimately, that makes my coffee taste better.