Bodum Bistro Electric Blade Coffee Grinder, Brushed Stainless Steel, 2.1oz

I’ve never used a coffee grinder before, so keep that in mind.BUT, I am a HUGE fan of coffee, although I’m not a pro or a sommelier of coffee by any means; I just know I love the taste and can tell when Dunkin gives me hot coffee that was cooled down instead of the cold brew that I ordered (it tastes BURNT, dang it! I can tell the difference between cold and hot brewed coffee. Okay, maybe I’m a tiny bit of a coffee snob.)I DIGRESS.I wanted to try buying coffee beans and grinding them myself instead of using coffee pods or pre-ground coffee, just to see what it was like. I love Bones Coffee, and I saw that this particular model of coffee grinder was also sold on Bones’ website, so I figured it would be a good one to try out.Design/Aesthetics:It’s compact; we have a very small kitchen, so having an item I can pull out to use and then put away is very attractive to me. I LOVE that the cord winds up around the base and has a notch in the back for the plug to stick out; it’s just a GREAT feature to keep rogue cords from getting tangled and a huge bonus to this device’s already compact design.It has a textured design which makes it easy to grab and hold onto; even if coffee ground powder has found a way onto the sides of it, there’s no chance of having it slip out of your hand. Not a needed feature of course, but also a bonus.It has a one-push button design; the longer the button is held, the longer the blade spins and the more the coffee is ground. Simple and straightforward, which is nice for a beginner like me.The capacity is small, but for daily morning coffee consumption from a Keurig it provides an ample amount of grounds for my purposes.Using:The use is really straightforward and easy with just the push of a button.I’ve never used a coffee grinder before, in part because I was afraid of just how loud they can be and we have thin walls and neighbors. But I don’t have to worry about that with this little baby! I was shocked at how quiet it is! The initial grinding sound is loud, but that is because it’s chopping up whole coffee beans; after the initial second of loud beans bouncing around inside, it becomes shockingly quiet as it continues to process the beans. It gets even quieter if you pick it up off the counter to use it, and the grips come in handy if you decide to do that daring feat.I like that the top of it is made of clear plastic to allow me to see inside the grinder to gauge how fine the grounds have become.I know they make different types of grinders and this one uses a blade that continuously spins to karate-chop the beans as they come into contact with it. The biggest problem I found is that it doesn’t let the grounds become very uniform; there is a ton of fine powdery espresso mixed in with giant chunks of unprocessed beans, so I do have to take away points because the lack of uniformity is pretty extreme.The finely chopped beans do create quite a mess, but the it’s easy to wipe out/off and in less than a minute I can have fresh coffee brewing and the grinder put away and ready for my next coffee break.Oh! And even though, I don’t think this is specifically supposed to be used to grind spices (and I am DEFINITELY not fancy enough to be doing that!), I did end up using it for sugar for its debut use. I ran out of confectioner’s sugar for a recipe and only had granulated sugar on hand; I poured it into the grinder and voila! I had more confectioner’s sugar with the press of a button! I probably wouldn’t use this for that purpose regularly, but in a pinch it is nice to be able to use it for that as well.Overall, I think it’s a great personal-use grinder, especially for beginners dipping their toe into the whole-bean-coffee-world.