A great garlic press promises to make quick work of mincing garlic. Our winner is the Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press and has been for many years. It minces evenly and efficiently and is comfortable to hold and easy to clean.
A garlic press is meant to be a convenient alternative to a chef’s knife, giving you minced garlic in seconds—no knife skills required. This small everyday tool is usually quite simple: The traditional design consists of a hopper or perforated basket that holds garlic cloves, a plunger that presses garlic through the perforations, and a lever mechanism or handles that force the plunger down on the cloves.
What to Look For
- Uniform, Small Mince: Most garlic presses gave us an even, paste-like mince, which is important because the more consistent the texture of the garlic, the more consistently it will cook. The presses we tested produced minced garlic that was acceptably sized and uniform, so there were no noticeable flavor or texture differences in our infused oils or pasta dishes.
- Requires Minimal Strength: Our winner and other highly rated presses made it slightly easier to force garlic through the perforation, though the process still required some effort.
- Simple Design: Our favorite products were intuitive and easy to use, with simple, streamlined designs and few parts, making cleanup a breeze.
- Flat, Smooth Plunger: We liked presses that had smooth, flat plungers, with no protrusions to clean afterward.
- Wide Openings: We preferred models that opened wide enough for us to load garlic easily.
Nice to Have
- Swing-Out Hopper: Some presses had a hopper that swung out from the hinge, making it easy to remove clove remnants after we’d finished mincing, facilitating cleaning.
What to Avoid
- Large Mince: Two presses produced a mince with slightly larger pieces, but one model had drastically different results than the rest: It created little columns of garlic, like a julienne.
- Requires Too Much Force: Two presses required our full body weight, straining our shoulders and wrists.
- Too Many Parts: Two models had multiple parts—one as many as six pieces. They required disassembly prior to washing. This meant we had to keep track of the parts and put everything back together after each use, which is totally impractical for a tool that’s all about convenience.
- Special Features: Some models had additional elements that were useless or even hindered performance. One product’s handle had an attached cleaning brush that kept popping out mid-mince. Another model’s “ejector,” which operates much like a portion scoop’s release mechanism, inadvertently trapped some of the garlic underneath while flinging the rest toward us. A cube-shaped model had a push-down lid that put users’ fingers at risk; it once snapped shut on a tester’s finger and drew blood.
- Textured Plungers: Plungers that were covered in nubs trapped garlic and were difficult to clean.
- Narrow Openings: One press had a small 1¼-inch opening between plunger and hopper. With little room for our fingers, it was difficult to insert cloves.
- Mince five peeled cloves of garlic one at a time
- Mince five unpeeled cloves of garlic one at a time
- Mince three unpeeled cloves of garlic with woody stems cut off, one at a time
- Mince two or three peeled cloves of garlic (depending on hopper capacity) simultaneously
- Mince two or three unpeeled cloves of garlic (depending on hopper capacity) simultaneously
- Ask four users of varying hand sizes and skill levels to evaluate each model
- Scrape paring knife across face of each press to remove minced garlic a minimum of 25 times
- Rinse press after each test and wash in dishwasher 10 times
- Make our Garlic Basting Oil for Vegetables (top-ranked models only)
- Mince 25 cloves in a row to make our Pasta with Garlic and Oil (Aglio e Olio) (top-ranked models only)
