It’s simply the zest! Better than all the zest! Welcome to the top 10 zesters you need so you can Tina Turner your lemons, limes, and spices into fantastic citrus zest and ground spices. Citrus zest is the perfect ingredient to brighten up a dish or drink that you’re making at home, and finding a grater that can handle the delicate job of providing zest that’s light and free of pith can be a serious challenge. Fear not! We’re here to list our favorite zesters to make your shopping as light and as easy as freshly zested fruit.
View The Best Zesters Below
1. (Best Overall) Microplane Premium Classic Zester
It’s no surprise and certainly no mystery that the Microplane Premium Classic is on this list. Originally designed for woodworking, the Microplane was adopted by the professional cooking world as a not-so closely guarded secret to getting thin, light and fluffy cheese, lemon zest, ground spices, and chocolate toppings.
With its soft handle and made-in-the-USA stainless steel blade, you can zest your favorite citrus fruit to your heart’s content. Its teeth are razor sharp and made with the patented photo-etched technology used to make all Microplanes. If easy-to-use, sharp blades are your thing, it’s hard to do better than the Microplane 40020 Premium Classic Zester.
Pros:
+ Perfect Zester for citrus fruits and doubles as a grater for hard cheeses
+ Comfortable rubber handle
+Easy to clean and dishwasher safe
Why We Like It – The Microplane 40020 has become a mainstay in almost every professional kitchen. Whether you use it as zester or a grater for hard cheeses, you will be so happy with the Microplane Premium Classic.
2. (Premium Choice) KitchenIQ Ginger Grater Tool
The KitchenIQ 50484 Ginger Grater Tool is a fantastic multi-tool for working with ginger. It has four separate functions to help you get ginger into the size and shape that suits the dish you’re making the best. It comes with a ginger peeler to easily remove the skin of your ginger root. We love this peeler because using even the thinnest pairing knife can often mean that you leave behind some of the nutrient-laden layers of the ginger’s delicious innards.
This stainless steel grater is so easy to use. With its razor-sharp blade, your grated ginger is collected on the inside of the grater, and upon removal, this tray ensures that you catch every single piece of ginger that you grated with a handy piece of rubber attached to the tray. Flipping the Ginger tool over reveals a ginger specific mandoline for slicing ginger very finely for cooking purposes. Utilizing the cover that comes with the ginger tool, you can press your Ginger to make ginger juice for use in smoothies.
Pros:
+ Perfect for lovers of ginger, daikon, and garlic
+ Lots of different functions
+ Easy to clean and dishwasher safe
Why We Like It – The KitchenIQ Ginger Grater tool is perfect for someone passionate about their ginger. While it may not be perfect for someone looking for a general zester or grater, we suggest it for getting fine ginger. That’s perfect for use in Asian dishes and smoothies.
3. (Great Value) Cucisina Zester/Grater
Similar in design to the Microplane, you might find this zester has some nice features that can make zesting and grating easy and fun. This zester has a wide, steel blade, making its grating surface ideal for efficiently grating and zesting fine and fluffy fruit zest and hard cheese.
It’s perfect for deserts and for topping hors d’oeuvres. With a strong but soft handle that tilts at a comfortable angle, you will find this sharp zester easy to use. For those requiring a similar experience to the Microplane at a slightly more modest budget, the OXO Good Grips Grater is a fantastic zester.
Pros:
+ Angled comfortable handle
+ Stainless steel sharp holes make fine zest and grated cheese
+ Good Grips is perfect for fruits, hard cheese, and chocolate
Why We Like It – This dishwasher safe zester grater will make sure you get your zesting done with minimal hassle. The OXO Good Grips Zester Grater is easy to use and one of the best products on this list.
4. Deiss PRO Citrus Zester & Cheese Grater
Deiss kitchenwares are a fantastic example of quality German-made kitchen products. Known for stellar knives and fine wares, german engineered products have always been some of our favorites. Deiss offers a wide variety of utensils for the curious, from ladles and spoons to pizza cutters and Julienne peelers, all in extraordinary quality. Today we’re talking about their Microplane inspired zester grater.
With its striking yellow handle, it’s hard not to love the visuals of the Deiss PRO Citrus Lemon Zester. Perfect for grating your hard cheeses or for use with citrus fruits, this zester is a tool that will stand out in your utensil drawer. Stong and well built from premium components, the Deiss PRO Citrus Lemon Zester and Cheese Grater is a great choice for someone looking for a product made of the best stuff available.
Pros:
+ Attractive and comfortable yellow handle
+ Stainless steel blade
+ Very sturdy and dependable
Why We Like It – Deiss is a great company that makes quality products. The Deiss Pro Lemon Zester and Cheese Grater is no exception.
5. 1Easylife Stainless Steel Zester
The 1Easylife stainless steel lemon zester is not what you might expect on this list because of contemporary zester tool designs like the Microplane, but if you or someone you love is a star behind the bar, this tool is perfect for you. Cocktail makers, rejoice! A channel knife allows you to make light, delicate garnishes for your French 75 and also long extravagant garnishes like you’d find in a Horse’s Neck.
If you like inventing preparations in the bar or for your deserts, a channel knife its a fantastic tool we can’t recommend enough. That being said, the hanging loop zester isn’t the most efficient way for you to zest your fruit, and we consider this feature secondary to the channel knife’s useful function. If you only require a zester for small jobs but think a channel knife could up your presentation game, we recommend the 1Easylife Stainless Steel Zester Grater.
Pros:
+While it only just makes it onto the best zesters list, the knife is fantastic for making a twist garnish
+ Stainless steel handle and sharp holes for garnish creation
+ Easy to clean – super simple design
Why We Like It – We love home bartending, and if you can find more ways to treat your friends to elaborate garnishes that give them the bar experience at home, pick up this Channel knife and Hanging Loop zester from 1Easylife.
6. Microplane 34630 Flexi Zesti Zester
This tiny little piece of sunshine is as efficient and sharp as it is fun and cute. The Microplane 34630 is a little golden ray of sunshine that belongs in your fruit bowl. It’s great for dressing dishes in the zest of your favorite citrus fruits. With its awesome photo-etched sharp blades and the best possible zest catcher, we think this is a perfect tool for a person who needs the best tool for the smallest jobs.
With its quirky design, the Microplane might look too fun for being as serious a tool as it is. This zester fits in the palm of your hand is completely dishwasher safer, which is perfect for saving yourself from its sharp edges. So what’s not to love about the Microplane 34630?
Pros:
+ Fun Design
+ Photo-etched Microplane blade known for being the best zester on the market
+ The protective cover collects your zest for you
Why We Like It – It’s hard not to wear a smile when using a tool like the Microplane 34630. With its fun and efficient design, we think it will bring a smile to your face and citrus fruits too.
7. ZYLISS 2 in 1 Zester
Another Channel Knife and Zester combo, the Zyliss 2 in 1 zester, is an upgrade on a traditional bar and kitchen tool. The traditional zester and citrus twist tool has some serious ergonomic flaws. Its long metal handle can make it quite a chore to get the lemon zest your need without cramping up your hand. Thankfully, the Zyliss 2 in 1 Zester has a super comfortable handle that can help you get through zesting multiple citrus fruits without having to get out the plane that you use for really big jobs.
The knife portion for drink garnishes also receives an upgrade by relocating the edge so that you can pull the knife straight rather than using your wrist to guide the peeler from side to side. This is a much more natural motion for most people, making it much easier to create long and thin garnishes easily.
Pros:
+ Great easy to hold the handle
+ Ergonomic changes make it much easier to achieve desired effects without strain to your hands
+ Perfect for bar use
Why We Like It – The Zyliss 2 in 1 Zester is a near-perfect tool for small zester jobs like creating single cocktails or decorating a dessert.
8. Mueller Ultra Bi-Directional Citrus Zester & Cheese Grater
Mueller’s plane-style zester/grater makes some interesting lateral choices that differentiate it from Microplane products and other planes on the market. Its square-shaped teeth are a little wider than some of the other zesters on the market, and while that’s not a bad thing, people looking for an ultra-fine zester might want to look elsewhere. These square holes, however, make for a very sharp zester that planes in both directions and make it very easy to use and handle. It’s a great stainless steel blade with a BPA free handle, which is quite impressive.
It’s very clear that Mueller cares about the quality of the materials used in their products. Lastly, its handy protective cover doubles as a way to catch your favorite grated hard cheeses and citrus fruits once they’ve been zested. While Mueller claims to beat its competition easily, we think this product is at the very least on par with other planes of this price point.
Pros:
+ Bi-Directional for easy grating
+ High-quality materials
+ Protective cover doubles to catch zest and cheese while grating
Why We Like It – The Mueller Ultra Bi-Directional Citrus Zester and Grater pulls no punches. This product is a great deal for those in the market for a premium zester.
9. NSpring Pro Zester
NSpring has gone all out in providing extra features for this orange zester. Not only does it include a zester with a deluxe, comfortable handle, and a stainless steel plane, but it also comes a protective cover and cleaning brush to store and keep your plane zester sparkling. We’ve made it pretty clear that if you have a lot of zesting to do, and need a strong tool that is easy to use, a plane-style zester is the way-to-go. Very similar to the Deiss zester, we think this one is of noteworthy quality. With its full feature set and extra cover and cleaning brush, this package is hard to beat.
Pros:
+Easy to clean
+Comfortable handle
+Cover and cleaning brush included
Why We Like It – This plane-style zester is of familiar quality but with the inclusion of the cover and cleaning brush. It is certainly makes our list as the best zester.
Zesters Buyer’s Guide
Choosing a zester or grater for your home kitchen or bar is made much more simple by figuring out what features you will need for what tasks. We’ve done a lot of research into what to look for on what products so you don’t have to. If you’re looking for a plane, or aren’t sure quite yet what kind of tool is necessary for the job you’re doing, we are here to help you figure out what you need to know about your zester and grater.
Plane
Popularized with the Microplane, the plane wasn’t always a household and professional kitchen staple. Instead, it gets its start as a woodworking tool. Made with industrial-grade strength, these tools are super sharp and are meant for people with very intensive zesting and grating to do. They can be a little hard to use and require some level of accuracy as the grating surface can be quite small and thin, so these are to be used with caution and technique.
That being said, these are the best zesters to zest a dozen or more citrus fruits in a very short time because of how sharp and accurate they are. Used all over the world, its hard to enter a restaurant in a major city without seeing one behind the bar or in the kitchen. Microplane still reigns supreme in this realm, having single-handily invented this category of kitchen tool, even if it was done completely by accident.
Multitool
There are several types of multitools, ranging from citrus fruit and root vegetable specific ones to multitools that you can use for anything you want. A lot of them have multiple functions. We suggest shying away from food-specific tools to find the multitool that’s perfect for you. Making sure that you have a versatile, sharp tool can make your kitchen experience so much better.
In particular, we like the Channel knife and zester combo for bartenders. This multitool is a classic. It’s a requirement for a fully stocked tool kit for bar and kitchen use. You’re able to add a little zest here and there and also provide beautiful, delicate garnishes. That makes this an indispensable tool. Again, we caution against expecting the hoop zester to provide incredible amounts of yield.
If you plan on zesting multiple citrus fruits in the same sitting, a plane is more likely to be the solution you’re looking for. Use this tool for made-to-order cocktails, for brightening up a syrup, or providing a garnish for your desserts and drinks!
Box Grater
Contemporary box graters have come a long way since your grandma’s hunk of partially molded metal. Instead, many box graters have become considerably adept at providing all of the functions of multiple planes at the same time. With coarse, fine, and ribbon tooth patterns available by companies that make professional-grade planes like Microplane, you can get the convenience of a box grater with the accuracy of plane-style zesters and graters.
Things to watch out for:
Dishwasher safe
Finding a dishwasher safe zester is a great idea. Due to the nature of the fine products that zesters make, they are truly a pain to clean. Being able to put your plane zester in the dishwasher can save you a lot of time cleaning and can keep your zester from smelling when particles and debris get lodge in hard to reach places and being to decay. Sometimes finding a dishwasher safe product can mean that you have to sacrifice a truly comfortable handle, but we think it’s super important so you can keep your zester the best zester it can be.
Stainless steel construction
Stainless steel is often used as a buzz word to sell products. In actuality, it is an alloy that contains at least 11% chromium that keeps it from rusting. Rust is no friend of food or food safety, so it’s highly suggested that you choose a product that guarantees that it’s completely stainless steel in any place that is going to touch food.
Ergonomics
It’s very important that you choose a zester that is comfortable. Especially if you’re going to be using it for long periods of time every day. Consider the angle at which the edge sits, what the handle is made of, and whether you have any motions that you find particularly difficult. Before pulling the trigger on your new zester, take a second to imagine yourself using it, and ask yourself if that motion will feel comfortable.
Bonus features
Some of the products on this list boast bonus features that can make your life a lot easier. Containers to catch the zest or grated cheese can be really handy, especially if they double as a protective case. A protective sheath for your plane might be a good idea if you need to provide a safe environment for young people. Other features to consider are special cleaning tools to use on your zester and also multitool components that can turn your zester into a variety of tools.
Conclusion
Whether it’s citrus fruits, chocolate, or hard cheeses, use a zester to make creating fine textures in your cooking easy. There is such a fantastic variety of products out there for this function. We hope these reviews and the buying guide have lifted some of the burdens of choice off of your shoulders.
Whether you choose a plane, a multi-tool, or a box grater, there is a product on this best list that we are sure you will love. The right one will help you make some really incredible meals. Brighten your day with a new zester and the delicate, fresh taste of freshly zested fruit.
