My old coffee grinder I've used for spice grinding is looking pretty tired. I used it recently to grind some cloves and regardless of how long I ground them, I just couldn't seem to get it fine enough (which made for a rather disturbing mouth feel in the pumpkin pie). This brings up 2 questions.

1. It is possible that it is just old and dull and beating the spices to death. Are others able to grind cloves fine enough to use in a pumpkin pie with a regular coffee grinder?

and

2. anyone have input as to which grinder (brand or style) works best as a spice grinder in the kitchen?

It does sound like your coffee grinder might just be old or perhaps the blades are just not that sharp in your particular model. Next time, you may want to put the spices through a fine sieve before adding them to the dish.

As for spice grinders that are fine enough to go undetected to the tongue, I am sure there are some available. Currently, I also use a coffee grinder. I also have an old cast iron spice grinder that I use sometimes. From a quick online search you can see that there are many models available, so it's hard to say which one works best. I'll keep my eyes open though.

Good luck in your search. Cheers!