gritTea Tea Grinder Review
Adagio sells the gritTea grinder as a tea grinder, but I really like it for using as a spice grinder too!
You need a spice grinder to make fresh spice blends.
The gritTea grinder has won a spot in my spice cabinet! I have been posting recipes that need a spice grinder of some sort to make the spice blends for quite a while now so I felt I should share a review of the newest grinder that I have been using.
The aroma of freshly ground spice is amazing when you take the top off.
I have found that this is a really great tool for grinding fresh cardamom pods. You don’t have to crush the pods, which is really tedious, just put them in the top and grind away! It takes a while, but it does a really good job.
You have to remove some of the chafe, but you know it’s fresh, and it really is much easier than crushing the pods, removing the seeds, and then grinding them!
I gave the gritTEA Tea/spice grinder for gifts at Christmas last year and I also bought one for myself. I thought this would be great because it comes with a jar attached that actually acts as the vessel that catches the ground spice and you can use it for storage. It came with a Christmas tea spice blend for the holidays, which gave me the idea to try it with spices.
My first thought when I took it out of the box was that it is very well-made! It’s sturdy and it’s even kind of cute!
You can adjust the grinder itself to grind the spices very fine but it takes quite a long time to get a decent amount of spice. It’s a good upper body workout!
I had it on the finest grind, and we timed how long it takes to grind 1/2 cup of loose-leaf black tea and it was 3 minutes! That doesn’t seem like a very long time, but when you’re standing there, turning a crank, it really is! Great for the kids. I ground the leaves twice to see if it would get finer, but there really wasn’t much difference. Spices take a little longer because of their tough hulls.
Because the GritTEA grinds so finely, Adagio claims that you can use this grinder to grind black tea and use it as you would green tea matcha! Unfortunately, you do not get as fine a grind as you do traditional Matcha green tea. It will still “bloom” in your cup, but I don’t think it would be palatable for most, unless you like the grit. Hmm, maybe that ‘s where the name came from?
But for use in baking, soups, smoothies, yogurt, cereal, that type of thing, it’s awesome! You get more health benefits from tea when you ingest the whole leaf! How cool is that? So you can grind your tea and use it in your recipes. I do not believe there is a product out yet that that is called “Matcha Black Tea ” (I made that up I think!), so now you can make your own!
To add another story, in my great grinding adventure, I was putting everything away, and I accidentally mixed some ground spices with my half cup of ground black tea. So now what do I do?
I used it in some Savory Tea Spiced Cheese Puffs! I found this simple recipe in my latest research on South African recipes. You can make it without the tea, then you just have little cheese puffs.
Overall, I think this is a handy dandy grinder and clean up is quick.
I just rinsed it quickly with hot water and let it air dry. It is perfect for a small amount of spices to make when you’re making curries or salad dressing mixes. You can be assured of always having fresh aromatic spices all the time!
If you own a GritTEA, I’ve love to hear what you think of it! Please leave me a comment.
Thanks! Jeanette