Equipment: Pestle and Mortar

This granite pestle and mortar is an essential piece of equipment in my kitchen. I've had several others in the past, including a very nice blue and white striped one with a wooden pestle that was absolutely useless. The pestle needs to have enough weight to crush the contents, and the bigger it is, the more you can process in one go.
The set prior to this one was very similar and was purchased from a equipment suppliers near Manchester's curry mile. One day the pestle rolled off the worktop and broke on the floor, luckily after we had moved out of the kitchen with white ceramic floor tiles.
This is the replacement and is about 150mm square, weighing 3.2kg it needs two hands to move, which is great as it stays still when you are using it. It's also got a good course internal texture which really helps when grinding spices. You can get a similar one here.
There are some tests of different styles of pestle and mortar on the spicelines.com blog, which also come to the conclusion that a heavy set is best for spices, but points out that if you want to do delicate crushing, for instance basil leaves, then a lighter set may also be useful.