Best Spice Grinder Australia: Breville and Sunbeam Compared

Cumin seeds ground a minute before they hit the pan smell like a different spice from the powder in the jar. Whole spices hold their oils for a year or more. Ground spice starts fading the week it is milled, which is why the jar at the back of the cupboard tastes of nothing much.

An electric grinder is a small motor spinning a blade in a steel cup. It chops rather than mills, which suits seeds, peppercorns, dried chillies and hard spices, and does not suit anything you want a truly even powder from. The three sold through the appliance chains here are all built that way, so the choice comes down to control, bowl size and price rather than grinding method.

1. Best overall: Breville Coffee and Spice Grinder

Around $70 with a stainless bowl and blade, and the bowl lifts out, which is the part that matters. A fixed bowl means cleaning a grinder with a brush and a damp cloth around live electrics; a removable one goes to the sink. The Good Guys lists it at 4.6 from 294 owner reviews, the highest score of the three.

It suits anyone grinding both spices and coffee, because a spare bowl is cheap and keeps coffee oils out of the cardamom. Running it in short pulses rather than holding the button down is what keeps the grind even.

What We Like:

• Bowl lifts out for washing
• Highest owner rating of the three
• Grinds coffee as well as spices

What We Don't Like:

• No timer, so the grind is judged by ear

2. Best for a repeatable grind: Breville the Coffee and Spice Control

Around $100, and the extra thirty dollars buys a timer dial. Set it, and the same spice ground next week comes out the same coarseness, which the pulse-and-guess method never quite manages. Owner reviews run to 4.4 at The Good Guys.

It suits anyone who grinds the same things often enough to have a preference about texture, and particularly anyone who wants coarse cracked pepper one day and a fine curry base the next. It is still a blade grinder underneath, so the timer controls how long it chops, not how evenly.

What We Like:

• Timer repeats a grind exactly
• Same removable bowl as the BCG200
• Coarse pepper or a fine curry base

What We Don't Like:

• Thirty dollars more for one dial

3. Cheapest: Sunbeam Coffee and Spice Grinder

Around $39, which is roughly half the Breville. It does the same job with the same blade principle, and for grinding a spoonful of cumin or coriander before dinner the result on the plate is hard to tell apart.

Owner reviews at The Good Guys run to 4.1, the lowest of the three. It suits an occasional grinder, or a second grinder kept for coffee so the spice one stays clean.

What We Like:

• Around $39
• Same job for half the money
• Stainless bowl

What We Don't Like:

• Lowest owner rating of the three

How to choose a spice grinder

Ratings, review counts and prices were read off The Good Guys listings on 21 September 2026.

A removable bowl gets washed; a fixed one gets wiped. A grinder that has to be wiped out around the motor gets used for one spice and then left. All three here lift apart, which is worth checking on anything cheaper you find elsewhere.

Blade grinders chop, burr grinders mill. Nothing sold as a spice grinder in the chains here is a burr mill. If you want a genuinely even powder for something like a masala, a mortar and pestle or a dedicated burr coffee grinder does it better, and a blade grinder pulsed in short bursts gets close enough for most cooking.

Keep one bowl for coffee and one for spices. Turmeric and fenugreek hold on to a steel cup for weeks. The Breville bowls lift out and a spare is the simplest fix; otherwise grinding a spoonful of rice between jobs lifts most of the residue.

Heat is what dulls the flavour. Holding the button down for thirty seconds warms the spice and drives off the oils you ground it for. Short pulses with a shake in between do the same job cooler.