Coffee Grinder for Indian Spices

I have the Capresso cool coffee and spice grinder. I use it for spices only. It makes very nice powders, also does not heat up. Unlike the blender buttons, this one only has a touch down button which allows you to run the machine in small intervals only..so that the powders do not heat up.
I have used it to grind spices, make garam masala, sambar masala, chilli powder etc. Love it.

 

Magic Bullet- the best..
very good for chutney grinding too

 

I had a Cuisinart coffee grinder that I used to grind dry spices for years. Lately I've been using a fairly cheap Krups grinder - model 230-70 Krups 203 Electric Coffee and Spice Grinder with Stainless-Steel Blades, from Amazon for $20. It's fine, but since then I've bought the Chef Pro Wet and Dry Food Grinder for $70, also from Amazon. I now use the Chef Pro for nearly everything and seldom get the Krups out anymore.

The reason I bought the Chef Pro was to make chutneys because neither of my blenders will handle small amounts for chutneys and podhi very well, even if I put a small mason jar on the blade. It turns out it also does a bangup job of grinding dry spices. It does not have a built in fan for the motor so you need to pulse it and should not run it for long, but everything I need to make it grinds up into as fine a paste as I need in just a few seconds.

The instructions tell you not to run it for more than 30 secs at a time, but I don't think I've run it for more than 20 secs at one go. It is well made, with all stainless steel container, steel connector, and heavy duty rubber bumper. The lid is heavy duty plastic with a silicon gasket so you can see what you're grinding. The only spice I've ever had that it didn't do a good job grinding was thyme, which I doubt you will ever use if you are doing only Indian cooking. The thyme seeds are so tiny and light weight they fly up in the wind created by the blade, but if you grind them with other things they will usually get ground up too.

I would not use it for a heavy duty application like making nut butters (at least not often) because with no built in fan that task WILL overheat the motor, and when you overheat the motor it will, of course, eventually fail. It's not made for that task. Also, if you often make larger amounts of chutney it is again probably not suitable. But for small amounts of podhi, chutney, or for making pastes for cooking, there is nothing else on the market that will do the job like this one.

When grinding you should pulse it, that is less stress on the motor, less heat buildup, and for dry spices, it gives everything a chance to fall back into the bottom so it will hit the blades and get ground up properly. Holding the button in just makes everything fly up to the top of the container and not get ground as well.

For larger jobs like making dosa batter I recommend the Vita-Mix mixer, which you can often get on sale at demonstrations at places like Costco, or you can get a $20 coupon to defray shipping if you want to order from VitaMix direct. Just google for VitaMix coupon or go to the Vitamix website to find demonstrations in your area (not all demos have reduced prices so you must check, Costco nearly always does but Whole Foods almost never does). You can get a refurbished Vitamix from their website or if you live in or near Cleveland there is an outlet store there that you can go visit. The plain model, the one they have on the website that is refurbed, is the one I recommend. It will do ANYTHING, including make a pretty good ice-cream substitute, believe it or not. The only thing it isn't good with is very small amounts. I recommend the Chef Pro for that.

The Vita-Mix is expensive, but the Refurbished models also have 7 year warranty and are a lot less, and it is WELL worth it. I have burned out so many blenders over the last 30 years trying to make dosa batter. The blender I have now was $150 - that's halfway to a Vitamix - and I have to baby it along to get the dosa batter ground up, takes me about an hour because I have to keep stopping to let it rest and cool down. It does the job, but only with a lot of trouble. I wish I'd just bought a Vitamix to start with! I didn't believe they were as good as they claimed until I saw one in a friends house, she just put in the soaked rice and the soaked urud ghoti and WHIRRRR - it was all done, just needed to ferment! I was so envious! LOL!

BTW, burr plate grinders are not good for grinding spices - the oily ones will clog up the burrs. A bladed type grinder is better for most spices.