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Works excellent!!

A good size and rough at the bottom for easy grinding.

Nice, hefty item. It's a bit shallower than I expected, but close to the picture in the product description. Has some nicks and chipped areas.For the price, it's still a worthwhile item. Did I mention it is kinda heavy? haha. I think this will make an interesting serving dish for salsa and quacamole.Overall, I would recommend this item, it's very cost effective.Update: Read online how to cure the molcajete. Obviously, the instructions inside the box to merely wash the inner bowl with warm soapy water was insufficient. Spent the day working a water grind of the pestle and inner bowl (performed 3 times, 10-15 minutes grind then rest for a few hours). After 3 treatments, can see and feel a big difference. Not a very difficult task. Will repeat a few more times.Also, decided to buy another one. Building up arm and wrist strength. hehe. For the price, it's a worthy molcajete, even with the needed work.

This is a very strong bowl and very heavy. It crushes nuts, garlic ginger etc. Very handy when cooking.

Good product

This molcajete is said to be made from "granite", but it's carved from a very specific granitic rock called "syenite". Definitely a real rock source --- not artificial.! We prefer the rough texture of volcanic rock, but this smoother texture is easier to clean. This 8" diameter version too large for simple spice grinding., but perfect for larger quantities of salsa....

I really liked this item, while I probably could of bought a mortar and pestle already smoothed and ready to be used, which for this size would cost roughly $30, I wanted to not spend a lot of money and I like DYI projects. To this end I found this item. for the low price of $15.99 I bought this after looking at all the reviews and knowing full well that you will need to condition/smooth out the granite to a usable state. After getting the item, I can see that yes it is really rough, and in no shape to do any kind of food prep. So I researched the best way to go about doing that. I looked at the rice method, and it did not look as if that is a practical way of getting this mortar to a decent smoothness. Then I went on to YouTube and found a video from a guy who bought this exact mortar and he conditioned it by using only water and one rice conditioning at the end, and that is what I did, well with a few additional things. If you want to see his video just search for "Conditioning Granite Mortar and Pestle" on YouTube. Okay here is what I did.1) I used my and started with which I used on the entire mortar/pestle. I went from the 40 grit up to the 60 grit inside the bowl and on the pestle. On the outside of the mortar and the lip I went up to 700 grit to obtain a very nice smooth finish. 1a) In between each change of sanding disc, I would wash the granite with a hose, oh I should mention I did this outside on my driveway. This part of the project took a total of 3 hours to complete. Keep in mind I am a bit OCD about my work, so you probably could do this in half the time..2) In the bowl of the mortar AFTER sanding with orbital sander I followed the directions of the YouTube video I mentioned above and finished the mortar/pestle in 2 hours.3) After water grinding the mortar/pestle, I did exactly one rice conditioning of the mortar/pestle and I did not have any granite dust in the rice. I attribute this to the multiple washings in between my sanding.4) I finished my mortar by adding some non-skid pads to the bottom to not only prevent the bowl from moving around but keep it from damaging my counter.Total time of the project was 6 hours. Keep in mind you do not have to do anything to the outside of the mortar since it is not in contact with food, but I wanted a very smooth/shiny surface, plus I like the tactile sensation of the granite. If you omitted doing the outside of the bowl you probably can have it done in 2-3 hours or less.Pro/ConsPro: It is now a very clean, usable and personalized mortar/pestle. It was not very difficult to grind the rice into flour but I wish the bowl was deeper, Very sturdy/durable Looks beautiful after smoothing the outside. High value to dollar ratio.Con: (minus 2 stars) Shallow bowl for some projects. I probably put a bit too much rice (1/2 cup) into the bowl, or my technique is bad in grinding the rice. Tripod base is a bit tippy/wobbly if applying lateral force to bowl (ie. grinding up towards sides.) Pretty much non-existent directions on how to prepare the item for food use. The manufacturer should of made a detailed instruction on how to do it, but they did not, what they did have on the box, was to wash it out before use, which honestly is not going to cut it when you want to grind food, your food would be half granite flakes and the rest granite dust. the 2 star deduction comes from the lack of directions and misconception that you can use this with only a thorough cleaning.So in summation.Buy this if you are handy with tools, or do not want to spend a lot of money. Do not buy this if you want to have a ready to use mortar/pestle.I have added some pictures of the finished project. The white powder is the rice from the first grinding.

Producto sólido, magnífico diseño, muy funcional y resistente

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Works as noted but is built from granite and not volcanic rock.

I bought this item while looking at reviews for mortar and pestles. The reviews were the best and I figured I couldn't go far wrong by following them.The grinder is very solid, like it is carved from solid granite and the coarse surface makes short work of grinding spices such as peppercorns but without leaving any residue when washed that would taint whatever was ground the next time. It feels like it is a high-quality item and I am very happy that I chose this unit.

Expensive but very good