Black & Decker CBG100 Electric Blades Grinder
- Type: Electric
- Grinding Method: Blades Grinder
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2445
Black & Decker Coffee Grinder - Disappointing Overall
Pros
cleans up easy
Cons
beans don't grind properly, no way to measure beans, no adjustment for volume or coarseness
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Most people who grind their own beans won't be happy if they purchase this grinder. It's good to have around in case of emergency only.
The coffee grinder is an essential appliance in my home. Not having one constitutes an emergency. That’s why, when our old grinder was beginning to act temperamental, I got one to keep around for that time when it finally kicked the bucket. That happened recently, and the new coffee grinder from Black & Decker was immediately put to use in its place.
All I can say after a couple of weeks of using the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder is that I really miss my old grinder. Anyone who’s not into grinding their own beans won’t understand, but for those of us who are coffee connoisseurs, you’ll end up disappointed with this. It seems simple, right. I mean with a coffee grinder you put the beans in, grind it and they are ready for coffee. For some of us it’s not quite that simple.
The housing of the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder is made of hard plastic that’s easy to clean with a damp cloth should it get dirty or some stray coffee land on it. The gray plastic handle that’s on the clear lid fits into a slot on the side of the grinder and once it’s securely in place it gets pressed to operate the grinder.
My old grinder had buttons on it for setting the coarseness of the grind as well as the amount of beans in the grinder (based on how many cups of coffee I intended to make). Not with the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder. It’s a basic grinder that relies on you, the operator, to adjust the grinding time as needed.
Both the blades that grind the coffee beans and the interior bowl of the grinder are made of stainless steel. This is pretty much a standard on coffee makers nowadays. Blades for roasted coffee beans have to be strong enough to cut through the beans. The bowl needs to stand up to the jagged edges of beans being flung at it at a high speed. Plastic, no matter how hard it was, just wouldn’t work. The materials in the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder are pretty much the standard for coffee grinders.
Measuring out the beans for the grinder is something you need to have a separate tool for. The lid on my old grinder had lines for me to fill with beans in correlation to the number of cups of coffee I wanted to make. This doesn’t have that.
Now I have some beans in the grinder and I’m good to go, right? Not so fast. Even if you say I don’t need all the bells and whistles; even if you say I can measure the beans myself or I always make a whole pot of coffee; even if you think you only need the most basic of coffee grinders I can pretty much guarantee the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder will disappoint you. The problem is the way it grinds the beans. For the most part, the blades seem to push the beans around while only grinding some of them. The result is some powder, but for the most part I’ve found that I end up with large hunks of beans pushed to the edge of the grinding owl or beneath the blades.
I occasionally had issues with that with my other grinder, but because I could turn it on and not have to hold the button to keep the power on, I could pick the grinder up and shake it to get a finer grind. With the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder, the problem is that it has a PULSE control, meaning that when you are holding down the handle, it’s on. When you let go, it’s off. Trying to pick the grinder up and shake it to circulate the beans better while at the same time holding down the power is not easy.
The Black & Decker Coffee Grinder touts that there is cord storage in the base. From the looks on the outside, I thought this was similar to my old grinder where I twisted the very bottom of the grinder and the power cord got sucked up into it for storage. Nope, there’s just a plastic X on the bottom nested in the grinder that allows the user to wrap the cord around it. We just forget about storing the cord in the grinder.
The one plus is that it does clean up easy. In addition to the housing cleaning up easy, the inside bowl and blades clean up easy with a paper towel. I usually don’t clean with water as all that’s in this is beans and we don’t need to.
I guess some people will be perfectly satisfied with the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder. Not me. When I get a chance, I will purchase something new with all the bells and whistles that I liked before and that grinds the coffee the way I like it with little aggravation. This is a decent spare to have around in case of emergency, but if you grind your own beans a lot, you’ll probably end up aggravated by it.
© 2009 Patti Aliventi
All I can say after a couple of weeks of using the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder is that I really miss my old grinder. Anyone who’s not into grinding their own beans won’t understand, but for those of us who are coffee connoisseurs, you’ll end up disappointed with this. It seems simple, right. I mean with a coffee grinder you put the beans in, grind it and they are ready for coffee. For some of us it’s not quite that simple.
The housing of the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder is made of hard plastic that’s easy to clean with a damp cloth should it get dirty or some stray coffee land on it. The gray plastic handle that’s on the clear lid fits into a slot on the side of the grinder and once it’s securely in place it gets pressed to operate the grinder.
My old grinder had buttons on it for setting the coarseness of the grind as well as the amount of beans in the grinder (based on how many cups of coffee I intended to make). Not with the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder. It’s a basic grinder that relies on you, the operator, to adjust the grinding time as needed.
Both the blades that grind the coffee beans and the interior bowl of the grinder are made of stainless steel. This is pretty much a standard on coffee makers nowadays. Blades for roasted coffee beans have to be strong enough to cut through the beans. The bowl needs to stand up to the jagged edges of beans being flung at it at a high speed. Plastic, no matter how hard it was, just wouldn’t work. The materials in the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder are pretty much the standard for coffee grinders.
Measuring out the beans for the grinder is something you need to have a separate tool for. The lid on my old grinder had lines for me to fill with beans in correlation to the number of cups of coffee I wanted to make. This doesn’t have that.
Now I have some beans in the grinder and I’m good to go, right? Not so fast. Even if you say I don’t need all the bells and whistles; even if you say I can measure the beans myself or I always make a whole pot of coffee; even if you think you only need the most basic of coffee grinders I can pretty much guarantee the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder will disappoint you. The problem is the way it grinds the beans. For the most part, the blades seem to push the beans around while only grinding some of them. The result is some powder, but for the most part I’ve found that I end up with large hunks of beans pushed to the edge of the grinding owl or beneath the blades.
I occasionally had issues with that with my other grinder, but because I could turn it on and not have to hold the button to keep the power on, I could pick the grinder up and shake it to get a finer grind. With the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder, the problem is that it has a PULSE control, meaning that when you are holding down the handle, it’s on. When you let go, it’s off. Trying to pick the grinder up and shake it to circulate the beans better while at the same time holding down the power is not easy.
The Black & Decker Coffee Grinder touts that there is cord storage in the base. From the looks on the outside, I thought this was similar to my old grinder where I twisted the very bottom of the grinder and the power cord got sucked up into it for storage. Nope, there’s just a plastic X on the bottom nested in the grinder that allows the user to wrap the cord around it. We just forget about storing the cord in the grinder.
The one plus is that it does clean up easy. In addition to the housing cleaning up easy, the inside bowl and blades clean up easy with a paper towel. I usually don’t clean with water as all that’s in this is beans and we don’t need to.
I guess some people will be perfectly satisfied with the Black & Decker Coffee Grinder. Not me. When I get a chance, I will purchase something new with all the bells and whistles that I liked before and that grinds the coffee the way I like it with little aggravation. This is a decent spare to have around in case of emergency, but if you grind your own beans a lot, you’ll probably end up aggravated by it.
© 2009 Patti Aliventi
