We Tested 12 Garlic Presses—Two Crushed the Competition

Garlic presses have a controversial history. While they’ve been maligned for producing a harsher and more intense raw garlic flavor, our testing showed that once cooked, pressed garlic was only slightly stronger than the knife-minced stuff. And even then, in longer braises and stews, there is no discernible difference. Pressing garlic can be a big timesaver for recipes that require multiple cloves, but only if the garlic press has a large capacity and is easy to clean, allowing you to reset quickly after each press.

Most garlic presses have a few key parts: the hopper that holds the clove, the plunger that pushes against it, and the screen that the clove is forced through to mince it. But there are other designs (some promising, some silly), so we put 12 garlic presses to the test to figure out which one belongs in your utensil drawer. 

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Garlic Press

OXO Good Grips Garlic Press

$18 $12 at Amazon View on Webstaurant Store $26 $19 at Jcpenney.com

This garlic press features grippy handles that didn’t tire our hands even after pressing clove after clove. It easily dispatched garlic, swiftly pushing cloves through the press and extruding pungent, sweet “minced” garlic. While OXO did away with the silicone lining in the most recent iteration, it was still easy to scrape out any fibrous residue after pressing.

The Best Self-Cleaning Garlic Press

Dreamfarm Garject Self-Cleaning Garlic Press with Peel Eject

$50 $42 at Amazon $55 at Food52 View on Dreamfarm.com

With its scrape, loosen, and eject system, the Dreamfarm press made continuous pressing a breeze. It also features a larger capacity with bigger screen holes for milder raw garlic.

The Tests

• Mince Test: We pressed two to three cloves of garlic in each press (depending on the capacity), and compared the size and consistency of the results to a knife-minced clove. We also noted how much force each press needed at max capacity. 
• Raw Taste Test: We tasted a small amount of garlic (from a single clove) pressed through each garlic press and rated the flavor based on sweetness, pungency, odor, and intensity. We compared our tasting notes to knife-minced garlic.
• Unpeeled Clove Test: We pressed one unpeeled clove through each garlic press that claimed it could handle unpeeled cloves and ranked each based on the quality of mince, total yield, and how much force was needed. 
• Usability and Cleanup Tests: Throughout testing, we evaluated how comfortable the presses were to hold and use. We also examined the cleaning tools that came with each garlic press and noted how well they removed the garlic skins without getting garlic juice on our fingers. We looked for places where garlic might get trapped in each press, and we cleaned each press thoroughly by hand. 

What We Learned

Large Holes Produced the Best-Tasting Garlic

When the cellular walls of garlic are compressed, two enzymes come into contact with each other and form a compound known as allicin. This is what gives garlic its pungent aroma. Garlic presses with a coarser screen seemingly created less cellular wall damage and were slightly less intense than presses with finer holes. Don’t get us wrong: all of the raw garlic we pressed had a palate-ripping burn, and we wouldn’t recommend eating it raw. But if you are looking for a slightly toned-down bite, the OXO Good Grips Garlic Press was much less harsh than other models that produced stringy ribbons of mashed garlic. 

Hinge Orientation Was Necessary for Leverage

In the best presses,  the plunger rested against the screen when fully closed, creating squeezable tension even without garlic in the hopper. These presses had hinges oriented for extra leverage, making it much easier to press through multiple cloves one-handed. Other presses, like the Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press, could close fully without any tension between the plunger and screen. We found these models required extra effort and sometimes even two hands to get started.

Most Presses Were Messy and Hard to Clean

Because pressed garlic has such a strong odor, it was disappointing that most presses required removing the leftover garlic remnants by hand. While some presses had self-cleaning tools and brushes, they were still prone to mashed garlic squeezing out around the plunger, ending up in the hinges. Other presses with moveable screens still required the mashed garlic to be hand-plucked to clear them. Even then, deep hoppers, like on the Joseph Joseph Helix Garlic Press Mincer made it difficult to reach the spent cloves. Some of the presses took so long to clean that it would have just been faster to mince the garlic with a knife, and relinquishing speed felt like a dealbreaker. 

Comfortable Handles Were Appreciated

Our favorite garlic press, the OXO Good Grips Soft-Handled Garlic Press, had a curved handle that fit snugly in your palm and a silicone grip that kept it from slipping. While it didn’t change the effectiveness of the press, a comfortable handle made prolonged use much more bearable than models like the Orblue Garlic Press, which had slippery, cylindrical stainless handles.

Large Capacity Was Key for Easy Squeezing

Most presses struggled to fit two large garlic cloves in the hopper, which pushed the handles further apart and added extra resistance to the press. The presses that did have a larger hopper made it much easier to press and clear, even with just a single clove. A larger hopper also meant that a utensil like a fork could easily reach in and clear out any remaining bits of garlic, making the process quick and efficient. 

Always Peel Your Cloves

Many presses advertised that they could handle an unpeeled clove, and while that was true, it also created twice the mess. Unpeeled garlic was more likely to be smashed backward and gum up the hinges, and the overall yield was much lower, leaving about 1/3 of each clove still stuck in the press. 

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Garlic Press 

The best garlic presses had large capacities, wide press holes, and were easy to clean. They also featured handles that gave firm leverage and were easy to reset, making them a great timesaver for recipes that call for a lot of garlic.

Our Favorite Garlic Presses

The Best Garlic Press

OXO Good Grips Garlic Press

$18 $12 at Amazon View on Webstaurant Store $26 $19 at Jcpenney.com

What we liked: This garlic press was fast and effective—it crushed garlic quickly, extruding sweet, pungent allium pieces. We liked the grippy handles, which were comfy to hold and squeeze, and that the press was overall easy to clean—just pick out any garlic debris, give it a wash, and it’s good to go. 

What we didn’t like: There really wasn’t much we didn’t like about this press; it was gentle on the hands and swiftly minced garlic. It was easy to clean, too.

Key Specs

• Weight: 9.5 ounces
• Materials: Stainless steel, silicone
• Max capacity: 2 medium-sized cloves 
• Cleaning tool included: No
• Care: Dishwasher-safe
• Can it handle unpeeled cloves?: Yes
  

The Best Self-Cleaning Garlic Press

Dreamfarm Garject Self-Cleaning Garlic Press with Peel Eject

$50 $42 at Amazon $55 at Food52 View on Dreamfarm.com

What we liked: This press from Dreamfarm also had a large hopper with wide holes in its screen, but what was really impressive was the scrape, loosen, and eject system built into the hinges. After you press your cloves, reversing the handles triggers a spring-driven wedge that scrapes the pressed garlic off of the screen. Continue in that direction, and a cleaning grid pushes the remnants through, loading them onto a spring-driven lever that lets you pop the spent skins out. It’s a truly clever system that keeps your hands clean, and the wider-than-tall hopper design also makes it easier to load cloves side-by-side, making the most of its capacity. 

What we didn’t like: While the scraper worked like a charm every time, the eject lever struggled to pop every skin out perfectly, only loosening them slightly and requiring one to pick them out by hand. The wider hopper also put cloves closer to the hinges and required more cleaning after pressing. We also found the longer handles were hard to get a grip on with smaller hands. It’s pricey at more than twice the cost of our top pick.

Key Specs

• Materials: Zinc, plastic
• Suggested capacity: 2 cloves (3 max)
• Cleaning tool included: Yes, on the backside of the press
• Care instructions: Dishwasher-safe
• Can it handle unpeeled cloves?: Yes

The Competition

• Kuhn Rikon Epicurean Garlic Press: This press smashed garlic around the edge of the plunger, making cleanup a longer process than most.
• OXO Steel Garlic Press: With smaller holes on the screen, the mince from this press was repulsively pungent. The smaller holes clogged easily and were hard to clean. It also appears to be discontinued.
• Williams Sonoma Stainless Steel Garlic Press: The hinged screen on this press flipped back for easier access, but without a self-cleaning tool, the skins needed too much prying to pull free. 
• Vantic Garlic Press Rocker: It was difficult to reach the high levels of force needed to roll this press over the garlic, leaving the garlic mostly half-smashed and not minced. 
• Orblue Garlic Press: A deep but small-capacity hopper meant garlic was smashed into the hinges and skins were tough to remove. 
• Alpha Grillers Garlic Press and Peeler Set: This press was identical to the Orblue model with all the same hang-ups. 
• Joseph Joseph Garlic Rocker: The holes on this rocker press were extra-wide, meaning what did get pressed was more of a chop than a mince. Plus, it leftover half of each clove unpressed and required too much force. 
• Joseph Joseph Helix Garlic Press Mincer: With a deep hopper and plastic handles that flexed, it was hard to clean the screen and find enough leverage to mince the garlic. 
• Zyliss Susi 3 Garlic Press: This press worked well, but its cleaning tool dislodged frequently and its smaller capacity kept it from being a top pick. 
• Amco Garlic Press and Slicer: The addition of a slicer on this model made it unwieldy, and the slicer itself was less efficient than using a knife. It appears to be discontinued.

FAQs

What does a garlic press do to the garlic?

Garlic presses use a plunger to press the garlic through a screen into a mince-like texture. Because it applies pressure to the garlic, the flavor tends to be more pungent and intense than a clove that was minced by a knife. 

Is a garlic press better than chopping?

While a garlic press can save time, the results are more intense than if it’s cut or minced by hand. For recipes that use raw garlic, a knife-mince will provide a sweeter taste and milder odor. Garlic that’s cooked, however, loses some of its intensity, and a garlic press can be a great timesaver. 

Can you chop garlic with a food chopper?

Most food choppers are too big to handle garlic—and we don't recommend them, anyway.

Why We're the Experts

• Jesse Raub was Serious Eats' commerce writer and spent over 15 years working in the specialty coffee industry.
• For this review, he pressed over 40 cloves of garlic and tasted them all raw to assess their flavor and harshness.
• Grace Kelly is the commerce editor at Serious Eats, where she has been reviewing gear for nearly two years. 
• Grace tested the redesigned OXO garlic press by using it to crush clove after clove of garlic for weeks.