Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was so surprised that the actual product in my kitchen has blown my expectations through the roof. This thing is HUGE! And very very heavy. ( do not drop onto stone or wood floors and certainly not your feet. ) I paid a little under $30.00 and I thought I was gonna get some tiny little contraption that was barely useful but boy was I wrong. I love it and I'm very pleased with it. I'm a Trinidadian and we use a lot of natural ingredients and spices to prepare our foods and most of them require some sort of pounding or grinding in order to release those natural flavors into the food. My grandmother used one when I was 3 years old and I thought that the mortar and pestle was a thing of the past. I could not believe that I found it here on amazon. Great buy but before use I would scrub the inside of the mortar thoroughly with some vinegar or lemon and warm water and then pound some white rice( cooked soft ) using the pestle. This is to ensure the all the natural dirt from the stone is gone. If the rice looks a little grayish rinse the mortar and add fresh rice and try again. Do this until rice appears to be white when you are finished crushing it into a paste.