Kyocera Provides A Sharp Lineup For The Holidays

Its hard to imagine, but Christmas is fast approaching. Only a couple of weeks remain for you to wrap up your presents, much less figure them out. With that in mind, we’re trying to focus our coverage on some excellent gifts, from stocking stuffers to larger presents for loved ones. Kyocera, famed for their ceramics that we’ve covered in the past, falls both categories- and today, we’ve got something for the java junkie and the blade lover.

This isn’t the first time that Truly Obscure has delved into coffee grinders. We’ve seen quite a few in the past. But for those of you who are considering a conical burr grinder but are deterred by price or reliability issues, we suggest the Kyocera Ceramic Coffee Grinder which is a fairly unique twist on a classic low-tech item.

Obviously when using a hand grinder, there is going to be more preparation and grunt work. We felt the grind was consistent, and one of the biggest compliments we can give this grinder is the silent treatment. It is a vast improvement from the noise of electric grinders. It even made up for the fact that this is a bit more difficult.

Since this is a multi-purpose grinder, we were able to not only prepare coffee; we also tried it with green tea. As an avid tea drinker, my other half who is a coffee drinker and I were able to compromise on the usefulness to a household that is torn between coffee and tea. As far as grinding is concerned, since it is a manual burr grinder, we were able to adjust the size of our coffee grounds from fine to coarse. This task is easier said than done, but after a few trial runs, we felt we had the grind for a decent French press. The only relatively difficult aspect to the grinder is trying to steady the grinder while turning the handle. Small hands and sleep stupor caused a few stumbles but we managed.

Clean up is always the least amount of fun and can often be a deal breaker depending on if the product is a nightmare to wash and/or put away. The grinder disassembles so it can be cleaned separately from the glass container which is dishwasher safe. We took a suggestion about using a toothbrush and that seemed to be the best alternative. Small and compact it is, we were able to store the unit in a tiny kitchen fairly easily.

We were able to spot the Kyocera Ceramic Grinder from Amazon for $50. A fair price for a solid grinder with a nice glass jar and that has no operating expenses, though we note that Amazon was out of stock at press time and other vendors varied in their stock levels.

Moving on to another product in the Kyocera lineup, the Electric Diamond Knife Sharpener is sure to wow even the most skeptical critics- at least those with dull knives. As a battery-powered knife sharpener, this handy item does jujitsu on most any type of blade and can take up to .5mm nicks off the blade. Though recommended for Kyocera ceramic knives, we suggest taking a look at the Kyocera website as the models not recommended for use with this device are listed.

We opted to use the sharpener with a few ceramic knives we had from their selection and were overjoyed at the outcome. The diamond stone is industrial 600 grit and did a miraculous job renewing our blades. It looked like a factory job done right. The assist roller allowed us to achieve a 35 degree angle and results that made us want to sharpen our whole collection.

For around $67 on Amazon this is sure to please those with some fine cutlery in their cabinets. It isn’t quite as flexible, easy-to-use or durable-seeming as some other knife sharpeners that we’ve seen, but it is quite a bit cheaper and certainly got the job done fast on our ceramic blades.