Health Smart Granite Mortar and Pestle

I really liked the mats, but I have two cats that destroyed them within a couple of weeks. It became their scratching post and looked horrible in a few days. There is white foam underneath the black that shows through.

They look great in my kitchen and feel great on your feet! Good price for the set as well!

Seasoning it as per instructions was a 2 day workout. Have rice, cumin seeds, garlic, and coriander seeds ready to get this versatile kitchen tool ready for use. I can't wait to use it to hold hot cheese dip and keep it hot for a good while. HAHAAA, mocajete is seasoned and ready to use!

I initially thought about buying the wood version but all my co workers swore by this one instead. I use this for so many dishes as well as DIY projects. My 11 year old enjoys using this to help out in the kitchen as well. Every household should have this in the kitchen.

The rice used to prepare this mortar %26 pestle set sat in the thing for week. I would grind a few times every so many days. Then I realized I should be grinding more by putting a little spin on the pestle. Only then did the rice seriously begin to pulverize into powder. I did not complete the instructions to-spec for recommended preparation but have elected to wing it for now. In my first grind with fresh garlic, basil, oregano, peppercorns, olive oil, and a few other spices, I detected no granite granules in the finished product. I had probably ground enough rice all over the bowl interior to prep three of these units! It works easily now. I clean it, contrary to instructions, in running water with a bristle brush — but never use soap. It's not exposed to freeze, so that should be all right (i.e., no fissures).

This is a fantastic mortar and pestle. You can feel the weight of it which is important to using one. I used the water method for conditioning because I did not have all the things they suggested to prep it. Works great. My first meal made with it was tuna fish with some fresh sea salt and black pepper.

I just received this today. Perfect size and weight. No complaints. I did the seasoning like they said. Except after the first round of rice grinding (took about 45 minutes) it seemed smooth enough for me. So I used garlic, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, salt and whole cloves. I didn't have the spices they recommended. I highly recommend this one.

The Health Smart Granite Mortar and Pestle is a high quality product. Durable, heavy, solid, and beautiful! Excellent for grinding to powder. I love the look of the dark granite. Makes processing my herbs and shells easy. I use dried plants to grind as well. Love this!!

This product seems heavy, durable, and quality. Having never owned a mortar and pestle before, I was surprised to see one has to 'season' or prepare it before regular use. If you order this product, make sure you have 1.5 cups plain white rice, 2 cloves of garlic, coarse salt, cumin seeds and whole coriander. Directions and warranty are included (see photo). Get ready for an arm workout!

Fully functional, looks great, takes forever to prep. The "cleaning" instructions start with grinding about 2/3rds of the container size of rice until the rice turns into rice dust. It is supposed to come out grimy and grey the first few times. Once the rice is no longer grimy and grey, the user can move onto the next steps which are much faster. I have only managed once cycle of rice mashing so far and could only do so with about 1/4th of the container full of rice. After trying new strategies every time i had an idea, i decided to simply get it done, maximum one hour until id give up mashing rice. It took about 30 minutes to grind 1/4th of the container full of rice into mostly fine powder. Id need to do this about 10 more times to get the full clean effect before real use. that's 5 hours of arthritis inducing *THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD* (I am aware slowly grinding against the side is the usual method of grinding, but that does nothing to dry rice). I am going to start with rice flour and see if that works, I think the idea is to get the muck out by drying the bowl and dry rice flour will work much faster. I'm just a little annoyed since this is clearly a machined product, and they could do the rice aspect with a machine in seconds. 5 hours is $50 at most entry-level jobs :/