Okay this is beautiful but it doesnt look like a very functional mortar as the grinding surface is quite small. The most I could use this for is grinding some cloves. For my everday kitchen duty this wouldnt work. Maybe AT Kitchen could do a top ten of mortar & pestles.

I always thought a mortar & pestle has to be of stone, with a rough surface in the bowl (would that be the mortar or the pestle?) so you can really get a good grind. so to speak.

porcelain is pretty, but is it tough enough?

I have thought about buying this for a couple of years now - they have it at the MoMA design store. I think it is beautiful. The outside is shiny, but the inside and parts that grind are rough. I have always used ones made from porcelain...but I somehow only recall using them in labs.

This is so depressing. I was doing a deep clean of my kitchen this weekend and I broke this mortar and pestle. I hadn't even used it yet. :'(

Beautiful but way too tiny to be useful.......

I have this and it has been very useful. I have mostly ground small items and it's just worked really well and was easy to clean. Plus it's really decorative, I love the snowy whiteness of it, as well as the way it feels in my hands, very substantial. It, it's called the "Full Contact" mortar and pestle and it's produced by Mint if you want to google around for the best price on it.

it's the most beautiful i've found. and it is functional too.
the inner side is deep and rough enough and the full contact helps with smaller quantities.
it works beautifully to crash spices and seeds and make curries.
for herbs and leaves, depending on the quantity, it'll be necessary to repeat the operation, but it's not such a nuisance.

bmoviemagee, that's so sad!!