FinaMill

It starts with the founder, Alex Liu, who grew up surrounded by big family meals and the smells of whole spices and fresh herbs (traditional Chinese family cooking was a huge influence).

In 2006, Alex launched a pepper-mill business making preloaded, disposable spice grinders for major brands (the kind you buy already filled).

The turning point came when he spoke to a purchasing director who basically said: manual grinding was too much effort, and they’d rather use pre-ground pepper. That pushed Alex to redesign the grinder from the ground up keeping the flavour benefits of fresh grinding, but removing the hassle.

After consulting spice industry experts (who reinforced that freshly ground is better), the concept became: one electric mill + interchangeable pods so you can swap spices instantly without mixing flavours or constantly refilling a single chamber.