Worth every single penny!
Someone asked why I didn't just spend the extra money (not much more considering this one is already a bit spendy) and get the MannKind one (not sure if that is the name). And I thought about it but something about spending over $200 before shipping and taxes on a pepper grinder annoyed me, and I KNOW the HexClad brand. Another reason is because while my favorite professional famous chef touts her Pepper Mate - it is to me a literal piece of junk. And that is where I will start with why I absolutely love this pepper mill.A) It is DUR-A-BLE!!! It is heavy, it is stout, it is the ultimate weapon against peppercorns, and it will not back down. I have used cute, matchy, fun, "professional" and highly regarded peppermills and went back to the old grocery store McCormick. But I got so tired of 20-50 turns of the little beasts just to get enough pepper on my salads, I realized I would save so much more time, energy and yes - money - if I just did real research and found a peppermill I could cherish and work WITH me while I create such amazing dishes as my famous The "TSFGIABWABORSASWYG" - ("Throw some fresh greens in a bowl with a bunch of random stuff and see what you get"). Delicious!! ;)When I tell you I was obsessed with research before making my decision, I am not exaggerating. I watched YouTube videos (at least 30+), I read Food, Kitchen, and Chef articles, I made a File in my file system for various Peppermill reviews and even came up with an excel spreadsheet (no - just kidding, I only started to, but my better half stepped in...LOL) It got to the point to where that when I finally received this peppermill, I wrapped it up and gave to my husband as a gift - a gift of peace and quiet about a S$#@& peppermill.Compared to others I have tried; one problem I found is how many times you have to turn the knob to get a sufficient amount of pepper. This one - depending on how much you like pepper - can give the avg person the perfect amount for a dish with one turn. I LOVE lots of pepper and I am MORE THAN happy with 2 turns.Another is how you plan on applying pepper - directly from the mill or with a pinch or two? The problem with the Pepper Mate is it is a flimsy plastic, hard to detach piece that wastes all your pepper by flying out of the compartment all over your kitchen and with it - it can hardly stay stable on a countertop - all that work you just did to grind your pepper. Annoying. This peppermill is so sturdy. I can either remove the magnetized bowl/compartment from the bottom and grind directly on top of my dish, or I grind the pepper with the compartment on, remove it (PTSD makes me do it still carefully) and use pinches or tsps. as needed. The compartment is deep, only attached by a good magnet system, and the entire thing is made of steel (I think), so the ground pepper doesn't go flying out of the compartment. The coarseness is on point for the lowest setting (Coarse) to highest (Fine) and everywhere in between. Though I use mine somewhere in the bottom third of the way 95% of the time anyway.I wanted to stop wasting time and money on grocery store peppermills, one that wasn't reviewed by paid national reviewers, but I wanted one that I could have for the rest of my life and one that was manual. Simple, durable, and one that actual amateur, unpaid home cooks reviewed, and it had to last. This pepper mill is worthy every single penny.Update - I just received the Salt & Pepper Grinder yesterday. I’ll be using this one for salt. And again it’s pristine in design and quality. This one has a dark silver coat to differentiate from the original black coated pepper grinder.It is heavy duty so it’s got weight to it but this set is going to last me forever. And the grind in every setting is fantastic!