Review: Large 4-Piece Santa Cruz Shredder
Save yourself the bi-yearly trip to the gas station and buy a legacy grinder that you can will to your grandchildren.
Throughout my late teens and early 20s, I was the guy that would buy the cheapest quality of something just to get a good deal. That included things like televisions, clothing, and grinders, I’d skimp on the quality of anything just to save a quick buck, well anything besides high-quality cannabis (let’s face it, you can’t cut costs there). Then, when the cheap stuff broke, I’d get upset.
Over time, I realized I was spending more on cheaply made garbage over the course of time instead of making larger, up-front purchases on high-quality items. I try not to skimp on quality unless I absolutely have to, like when I’m traveling, and I realize I lost my phone charger for the 10th consecutive business trip. Then I slowly slouch-walk over to the nearest gas station and purchase a new, cheap-ass phone charger that I will inevitably lose. Losing things is unfortunately embedded into my DNA.
Fortunately for me, when it comes to purchasing hardware for my hooch, the higher-end purchases are more or less stationary. The expensive bongs with the ash catchers and percolators don’t move around as much compared to other pieces. Grinders do not travel much either.
The more something stays in one place, the more likely I am to find it there (or something like that).
In comes the Santa Cruz Shredder.
This war tank of a grinder is probably not going to be moved anywhere anytime. It is made to grind up the bud for those 3-gram destroyers that you roll perfectly when your friends are over at the end of the night.
We cannot say enough good things about this grinder after the test we put it up against.
The CCW team placed a 6-gram bud of Betty White from MedMen into this BEAST, and we were blown away.
The Large 4-Piece Santa Cruz Shredder can take on the densest, dankest hooch on the planet and turn it into consistently broken, beautifully grounded buds.
For the last few years, I’ve been wasting my time going to the gas station and buying these shitty grinders for anywhere from $8.00-$25.00. The price isn’t bad. It definitely beats breaking it up by hand. Plus, the gas station is close to my house. I go there and pay the price.
But the problem, as you might have guessed, is that I return to the same shitty gas station every few months to buy the same shitty gas station grinder. It always has the same shitty problem: it tarnishes too quickly and can’t be opened. The tarnish on the gas station grinder makes it impossible to clean.
It’s a tragedy. The excess keef and residual builds up in the catcher due to the low-grade quality of the grinder’s metal. Not even a nickel could save it. Sad stuff. Keef should be treated like the remains of an ancient artifact. It’s not, sadly. Not enough people care about keef. Y’all need your keef.
So this year: I took a stand. I decided to buy quality over low cost. Instead of going to that gas station, I mustered up the courage and spent $90.00 on the Large 4-Piece Santa Cruz Shredder.
From the moment that I picked the grinder up, the magnetized, slotted-ridges in the lid told me that I was in for a serious shredding experience. The lid is durable, slightly heavier than you’d expect. It can survive any fall. Other grinders can break easily by losing a tooth… not with this thing.
After easily slotting the entire 6-gram bud into the grinder, I turned the top compartment three full rotations in each direction. When I opened the middle chamber, it looked like a 3-star Michelin Chef had just grounded some fresh pecorino into the grinder (Full disclosure: it smelt little like that too). I’ve never seen such consistency from any grinder ever.
The teeth and slotted openings on the Santa Cruz Shredder are placed strategically for optimal grinding. Most of the herb fell into the middle chamber with less than 10% of the bud remaining on top.
OK, maybe 6 grams was a bit excessive, but the grinder still worked. We had to turn the top a few more times, but we didn’t think that it was too big of a deal considering the fact that we shoved 6 grams of bud into it not even 1 minute before that. Other grinders would probably need three separate grinds to do the job that the shredder did. That gas station grinder I used to have would never be able to grind it up like that.
Santa Cruz has an entire lineup of other grinders that I haven’t tried yet. You can see them on the Santa Cruz Shredder website. One of the coolest parts about this grinder is that it is USA-made, so you are supporting a domestic business that cares about the products it makes.
Best of all, the grinder is medical grade and ultrasonically cleansed with anodized aluminum. Go to your local headshop or visit the website today.
Grinder Review: 30/30
- Teeth Placement: 10/10
- Durability: 10/10
- Design: 10/10
