The Best Spice Grinder Will Earn Its Place in Your Kitchen

Have you ever looked at a recipe that called for toasting and grinding whole spices and just…eyeballed the pre-ground stuff instead? Me, too. Not out of laziness or because I thought it didn’t matter. I did it because up until recently, I didn’t have a spice grinder.

Grinding your own spices is like grinding your own coffee beans: Real heads will tell you it’s the only way to go. Just as whole coffee beans stay fresher longer than the ground stuff, whole spices contain a ton of flavor and aromatic power that starts to fade the moment they’re ground. Toasting and blitzing cumin seeds right before you use them, for example, unlocks a depth and complexity that’s impossible to access with powder from a jar. I knew this, but a lack of proper equipment kept me and every chicken I ever roasted from accessing our full flavor potential.

Sometimes the pre-ground stuff is exactly what you need: quick, available, and flavorful enough, especially if it’s not the same jar you’ve had in the pantry since 2013. (Check the date!) But when you have the time and the right tools, starting from whole will turn even your dependable weeknight staples into something worth showing off.

I tested a few of the top-rated spice grinders on the market—three electric and three manual—to find the best in each category. To me, the right product would make quick work of whole spices (and maybe other things, too) and be easy to clean, an undeniably useful and straightforward addition to my kitchen arsenal. Read on for more about the models that came out on top.

The Best Electric Spice Grinder: Cuisinart Electric Spice-and-Nut Grinder

I knew from a speed and ease perspective that I’d likely prefer an electric grinder over a manual one, but the Cuisinart Spice-and-Nut Grinder delivered in more ways than I expected. First, it was insanely fast. I found that pressing the cup down rather than pulsing it created a fine, even powder out of any whole spice in mere seconds. It was relatively quiet, which I wasn’t expecting, particularly because my coffee grinder sounds like a mechanical pencil sharpener with a megaphone. And it had the largest capacity of any grinder I tested, holding over twice as much as the other models.

The real reason the Cuisinart surpassed the competitors, however, was its ability to handle ingredients other than spices. Marketed as a “spice-and-nut” grinder, this model can handle up to ½ cup raw or roasted nuts, transforming them into virtually any consistency, from a rough chop to a fine flour. I loved being able to make my own almond meal in a flash, and had visions of creating personalized dukkah blends in just a few pulses.

Because the Cuisinart has a removable grinder cup rather than a fixed one, it’s very simple to clean. All of the removable pieces are dishwasher safe, and errant spices can be wiped from the base with a damp cloth. As with most electric grinders, running rice or bread through the Cuisinart also cleaned out any lingering specks of spices between batches. (Associate Editor Joe Sevier introduced me to the idea of making savory spiced breadcrumbs with the bread used to clean a spice grinder. Honestly, give the man a Nobel Prize.)