Norpro Herb Mill, 6.25in/16cm, White

This is very common in France, where I have always had one in my kitchen. I was missing one here in America and looked for one in stores and online. This is the best deal I had found (about 6 $) but I was anxious after reading the bad reviews. Now that I have used the item myself, I know it is exactly working the way it is supposed to. I guess - no offense - that the people who wrote a bad review had very little experience with such a grinder. So let me tell you how to use it with fresh herbs (I've never seen it used for dried herbs) such as cilantro or parsley (in French, the item is called a hâche-persil, literally a parsley-grinder) : - insert a few clean stems - with the leaves - at a time (the purpose of the grinder is to use every part of your cilantro for example, not wasting the very flavorful stems). Let's say 5-7 ? If you put too many at a time, it will jam up (reviews about it are right). - start turning the handle in one direction. The leaves and stems will be pushed towards the grinder. Usually you don't need to press the stems in, but if you see that one stem remains out of reach of the grinder slightly press it down. - when it is done, turn the handle in the other direction, allowing some of the herbs still in the grinder to fall in your salad bowl - repeat the steps if you need more herbs - then open the grinder. Some herbs ALWAYS get stuck in the metal parts (this is normal), so take a small, sharp knife and use the end of the blade to remove them. Scratch over the salad bowl, so you won't waste any herbs and won't have to clean. - clean immediately the grinder, using a brush and water. If you wait, the herbs will dry in the metal parts and will be more difficult to scrub out. You can choose to pay more for the same kind of item but you won't get a better one. 6 bucks is really a great deal. I am so happy to have found my new kitchen-friend for so little money ! Use it over every greens, it will add savor in a few seconds.

So disappointed in this gadget. It might work on dried herbs, but not on anything fresh. I gave it a third and final try this evening and then put it in the trash with a wad of fresh parsley still stuck in the teeth.

Good product. But one of the screw came off within first few weeks of use.

works great with some herbs, and not well with others (more juicy ones). For this mill herbs should be fresh, but dry (not wet).

For the price, I thought I must try this before purchasing the higher priced models. I am so glad I did - and glad I read the how to use review. You have to use it on fresh - totally dry (as in not wet) herbs and works great also very easy to clean. Not sure about the reviews that state hard to clean, I guess if you use wet herbs it is and it will also not grind them very good if they are wet. For me, you just take apart (which is quick and easy) rise off and let dry - that is it. I do not know how I lived without this. The hardest part is waiting for my herbs to dry off after washing.

I was hoping this would be good to chop small amounts of parsley and basil. Herbs need to be really dry. Even slightly damp herbs clog the blades. Dry works a little better but awkward to have one hand on the handle, one hand grinding, and stopping to push herbs into the grinder. I don't recommend this.

I received this as a gift for Christmas and couldn't be more thrilled with it. I am left handed and constantly have to adapt to a right handed world, but this product made it easy to reverse the handle. I love to cook with fresh herbs, but hate chopping them up finely. I recently used my Norpro Herb Mill to cut up some fresh rosemary and worked so well and made it so easy. I am very pleased with this product.

This item is designed to use for fresh herbs, so the manufacturer says. I picked some basil from my garden and ran it through the mill. What a wet gloppy mess it made. The mill ground up the basil into juice. The wet herbs stuck to the blades making it difficult to get the ground basil out of the blades to use. I was very disappointed. I'll just go back to chopping my herbs with my knife....