KitchenAid Reviews

My previous experience with burr grinders was eh...they were just fine for drip coffee (so is a blade grinder for that matter), but mediocre for espresso-making and French press use. Well now that all I have is a French press, I decided to get the best burr grinder I could get for less than $100, and this is it.

It seems pretty well built, solid. I like the glass jar, definitely better than plastic as far as static is concerned. I use the "just-less-than-coarse" setting, and the grind comes out fairly even. There are still some larger chunks here and there, but almost no powder-fine stuff, so I'm happy. It means a lot less mud in the bottom of the cup, although I realize that this is typical in French press coffee. I haven't yet tried grinding beans for espresso, so no comment on that. It comes with a glass beaker for catching the grind, so if you aren't careful you might get coffee all over the counter. I've gotten a few bits to clean up here and there, nothing annoying. However a neat freak might feel otherwise. The beaker is also marked with numbers corresponding to how many cups you're planning on making, as opposed to a weight or volume, and this is how you know how much coffee you've ground out. I've never bothered measuring with a tablespoon how accurate these numbers are, but my coffee tastes pretty good, so it's probably close enough. For me.

Overall, it's a keeper, easily the best grinder I've owned.

I purchased a slightly larger set a few months ago and am absolutely in love with them! I originally bought Kitchenaid because I wanted to train myself on a "beginner's" set before I spent big bucks on "real" knives but don't see me replacing these anytime soon. After watching RR on the Food Network I just HAD to have the santoku knife that came with the set. I have found, however, that the chef knife has been my favorite. It even slices through tomatoes with NO effort! I do run my knives over the steel a couple of times after every use and even with using multiple times daily these babies stay SHARP! By now I'm sure my husband is tired of hearing "I LOVE my knives!" every day. Chopping is an absolute pleasure - in fact, I'm disappointed when I don't get to chop! Because of my awesome knives I'm using many more fresh fruits, vegetables and garlic in my cooking so we're eating healthier too. I have to say, this is one of my best purchases EVER. Love them, love them, love them!

When I bought the Coffee Marker that uses this filter I should have known something was up! The Sales Clerk told me when I purchased the machine that "I should stock up on filters, as we have them on sale at a really good price" I did, not knowing that I would not be able to find the replacement filters, #KCMCF ever again. I called Kitchen Aid to source for these filters and their only response was that "the filters are optional and don't effect the performance of the Coffee Maker" That's crap! The whole reason for the filter is to inhance the quality of the coffee by filtering out impurities in the tap water! I am completely dissatisfied with Kitchen Aids attitude regarding this product and won't be purchasing any other products that they sale or market under their name. Thanks Kitchen Aid for standing behind your products!

About 18 months after selling me a coffee maker that used these Charcoal filters to remove things like chlorine from the tap water, before making coffee, Kitchen-Aid dropped the Machines as well as the needs of all of us that they suckered into buying them. The foreign company that made these stopped making them, and kitchen Aid's advice is , "Live Without Them " ! !