Gourmia Portable Infusion Smoker Cool Smoke to Enhance Taste Battery Operated Compact & Convenient, Free E-Cookbook Included

This thing works GREAT! I smoked a couple of chicken salads right on the plate that I made them on and we were stunned at the flavor imparted into every bite. Delicious! Easy to use, terrible (no) directions. A bargainUPDATE! This thing worked great all 9 or 10 times that I've used it in a bit less than a year. It is now dead as a doornail. I kept it stored separately in a clean dry location, fresh batteries, no moisture. For such a simple device, I would think it should last at LEAST a year, if not years. I DO NOT RECOMMEND>UPDATE #2!!! I contacted Gourmia and explained what happened with my unit and they are sending me a replacement free of charge. This is above and beyond excellent customer service in my opinion. As a result, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Gourmia and can't wait to return to smoking with their excellent product.

Last night I pulled the Gourmia smoker out of its box and attempted to use it for the first time, and was on the verge of returning it. As others have remarked in their reviews, the fatal flaw in the design is the battery compartment. It is horrible! My problem with it was different than what others have posted. I spent over an hour struggling just to get the thing open so that I could insert batteries. I saw the arrow on the compartment lid and naturally figured that it should slide out in that direction. But try as I might, I could not get it to budge at all. It was as if it was glued in place. My last ditch effort finally worked, when I used a thin knife to carefully pry up the front edge a bit, then used a knife handle to gently tap the back edge forward after loosening the front. Eureka, it opened at last! I will leave the compartment door very slightly open, not flush, to avoid this problem in the future. Inserting the batteries was clumsy, as others have noted, but not rocket science for anyone who has inserted countless batteries into various devices. But it is obviously a major design flaw that should be fixed.Once I got the batteries inserted I became a big fan! I smoked some leftover chicken wings that were already cooked from the night before. It was a snap to use, and the flavor was amazing!! I loved it so much that I immediately went online and ordered another for a friend who has a birthday coming up. As others have noted, some smoke comes out from cracks in the body of the device, not just from the hose end, so prolonged smoking could lead to a smoke-filled room. I solved the problem by doing the smoking on the counter adjacent to my stove hood and turned on the exhaust fan to evacuate the smoke.I ordered the Camerons Products “Oak, Cherry, Hickory, and Alder Wood Smoking Chips- Wood Smoker Chips Value Pack- Set of 4 Resealable Pints” when I made my original purchase, and the chip size is perfect for this smoker. Such a small amount is needed that these chips will probably last a very long time – even though I will probably be smoking just about everything in sight for awhile!

Don't let the simple build fool you. The Gourmia Smoker is a surprisingly effective smoker. I've used it (along with "BBQ Wood Chip Wine Quicksmoke") to cool smoke everything from asiago cheese to zucchini. I've even used this to create a smokey flavor in soups and to smoke frozen salmon for sushi/sashimi. If you love smokey flavors and don't want the char that comes with barbecues, then this is the kitchen tool for you.The only downside to the Gourmia (and I don't know how his compares to the Smoking Gun) is that it uses a fan to push out the smoke. This then creates air pressure that tends to push smoke back out for as long as the fan is running.Also, I've made my own DIY smoke station with two plastic bowls with lips, a couple of binder clips, and a hole drilled out for the tubing to pipe smoke into, While obviously not airtight, it's done great things for helping keep my smoke detectors from going off any time I feel too lazy to smoke foods outside.

Works moderately well. Decent for the price.Pros:- Basically does what it's designed to do.- You can take the mesh screen area out to clean it fairly easily.Cons:- The flat/horizontal nature of it means that the hose has to snake up and then down to get IN a vessel such as a cup or glass, for example. Or you have to hold the device or prop it up high to get the hose not to make a weird U shape. This would probably not be an issue except for...- ...the hose is VERY flimsy/thin. So they fold up the hose on ship. It arrives VERY kinked, and due to the thickness of the hose, those kinks are almost closing off the hose even when fully straight. With any bend at all, and those kinks snap shut, and the smoke won't expel (and instead starts coming out every which way from the device). For it being flat, to get the hose where you need it to be, the hose should be MUCH thicker, so it doesn't kink and block so easily. And should probably not be folded to fit in the box.- The mesh screen that holds the chips is a little coarse. It could be a bit finer.

Gourmia GSM160 Portable Infusion Smoker. I've only had this a short while but it's a solid piece of gear so far. I bought the fine-chopped wood chips for this and they work great - a big cloud of smoke almost instantly after you fire up the bowl. Great to have handy to add an extra layer of flavor to just about anything. I looked at other makers of this sort of device and after reading the reviews and comparing prices, I bought this one - and I'm very happy with it so far.The only con I can find is the battery compartment - the cover slides on and off, but underneath that is a separate piece of plastic with metal contacts for the batteries. The negative (flat) side of the AA battery goes on the spring contacts and once you know this, you can properly place the plastic piece with the contacts, but it's an odd design I've never seen before. Once you understand what goes where - not rocket science - it works fine and feels well made.

This is a must have for any kitchen, priceless, easy to use, worth every cent!!!

Very practical ,to smoke a single dish .

Everething ok, good quality