Best Garlic Presses and Rockers

This garlic press by KitchenAid was our Goldilocks pick. It’s not too heavy and not too light, the smooth plastic handles felt comfortable in my hand, it didn’t take a lot of wrist strength to crush garlic, and its holes were small enough to produce finely minced garlic. Its smart design also made it the easiest pick to clean.

Pros: When I used this to press down on one clove of garlic, it emitted a generous amount of minced garlic, and the bit of garlic left over in its chamber was thinner than in most of the other models (all of the presses and rollers left some garlic behind). For those who prefer multitasking, I was able to fit two medium-sized cloves in this pick’s chamber and it minced them both fairly well, though the Kuhn Rikon (below) was better at handling more than one clove at a time. You can use this to crush an unpeeled garlic clove, as well—though the KitchenAid (below) and Kuhn Rikon presses were better at cleanly removing the interior of the garlic from its peel with no extra mess. 

This press was the easiest to clean, thanks to its detachable mincing basket. After detaching, you can wash the components with soapy water or place them in the dishwasher. 

Cons: Its mincing chamber is smaller in size than those you’ll find in the Kuhn Rikon, Goodcook, and Oxo brands (below). Here’s why that doesn’t matter (much): With the exception of the Kuhn Rikon, even if you load most of these with several cloves of garlic at one time, they don’t effectively mince all of that garlic in one squeeze. I had to remove flattened garlic from the mincing chamber before I could effectively continue mincing the additional garlic cloves. This press is also slightly longer than the others, and its design more closely resembles that of a can opener. Although I didn’t have any trouble fitting it into a kitchen drawer, keep that in mind if storage space is limited in your kitchen.

This stainless steel garlic press is sleek and elegant. It’s heavier than the KitchenAid Classic Garlic Press, though it isn’t as heavy as the Oxo Soft Handle Garlic Press. 

Pros: Because it is more substantial in weight, I expected my wrist to hurt after pressing a few garlic cloves, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easily and smoothly this press crushes garlic—with minimal effort on my part. It produced a nice amount of minced garlic and just a small sliver of garlic was left behind in the chamber. I filled its chamber with three garlic cloves and it performed better than all of the other presses and rockers at producing minced garlic from all three cloves and leaving just a small shaving of garlic behind in the chamber. When I tried it on unpeeled garlic cloves, it nicely smashed the clove and provided some minced garlic, while leaving the peel behind in one neat piece in the chamber. 

Cons: The garlic press is designed with a hinge that allows its mincing sleeve to be pulled out (though not detached) for easier cleaning. On a few trials, as I was loading the chamber with cloves, the hinge made it spring back a few times in a way that was annoying. This is far from a dealbreaker, though. If you prefer tossing gadgets into the dishwasher, this may not be the best pick for you. According to the manufacturer, it is “dishwasher suitable, washing by hand is recommended.” Fortunately, I found it very easy to remove garlic residue from the press with soapy water and a sponge.

A garlic rocker is a less bulky device than a garlic press. To use it, you place a garlic clove beneath it, push down with the rocker until you hear a crunch, and then rock it from side to side to chop the garlic into fine pieces. The Vantic Garlic Press Rocker was one of two rockers we evaluated, and it came out on top for its comfortable arc handle and thoughtful accessories.

Pros: Its silicone arc handle allowed us to get a good, tight grip on the rocker, so it took less force and hand strength to crush and rock garlic. Its mincing plate is wider and longer than the one on the Joseph Joseph Rocker Stainless Steel Garlic Crusher (below), and it produced more minced garlic with less mess.

You can’t use a rocker to mince unpeeled cloves, but this pick comes with a garlic peeler so you can place unpeeled garlic cloves into the peeler and roll it back and forth to effortlessly remove the peel and use the clove. It also comes with a small spatula that’s helpful for removing both minced garlic and leftover slivers from the rocker and a mini cleaning brush with small, stiff bristles that were perfect for getting in between the mincing holes to remove small specks of trapped garlic. I washed it with soapy water and the brush and was pleased with the results, but it’s also dishwasher safe. 

Cons: I tried to mince three cloves at once and then two cloves at once, and this rocker wasn’t the best at producing results from multiple cloves without making a mess. To be fair, it could handle more cloves than the Joseph Joseph rocker, which could only accommodate one clove. But of the two rockers, this one is more difficult to store in a drawer given its bulkier design.

This lightweight garlic press was the only one we evaluated with plastic handles, and we had mixed feelings about its design and performance. While the handles felt soft to grip, it took more effort to press down on one clove of garlic, and my hand felt tired after 10 straight presses. About half of one clove emerged from the press minced, while the other half remained inside the chamber in a thick single layer that I had to peel off with a butter knife.

I was able to fit four cloves in the chamber at one time, but so much of the garlic got left behind in the chamber after pressing it that I felt like I was wasting money. When I tried the press with unpeeled garlic, it loosened the skin from the clove, but didn’t produce a lot of minced garlic. If you’re looking for something that peels but leaves cloves intact and flat for baking, this worked well.

The metal mincing plate was difficult to clean because tiny bits of garlic became trapped inside of it and I had to stick a toothpick through the holes to remove it all. The manufacturer says it is dishwasher-safe, but after one spin in the top rack of my dishwasher, the press was left with a few noticeable dents in its plastic body. To keep it in good condition for the long run, I would recommend washing it by hand.

The generous width of this garlic rocker makes it easy to grasp either side to push down and rock garlic cloves. It crushes smoothly, but I found it to be a little messier than the Vantic Garlic Press Rocker. Its mincing plate is also smaller than the Vantic’s, so crushing more than one clove at a time isn’t efficient. Still, it’s easy to store in a kitchen drawer, it felt comfortable in the palm of my hands, and its curved plate was a pro—it’s easy to scoop minced garlic out with a spoon and into your recipe. The rocker is dishwasher-safe and its mincing holes aren’t so small that it’s a challenge to clean them with a sponge or toothpick.

This garlic press stands out for its slimmer handles and smaller round garlic mincing plate with studs at the top to help crush garlic effectively. Its handles weren’t the most comfortable to grip, and I found it required more strength to crush garlic cloves with this press than with the others. It did an overall nice job of producing uniformly minced garlic, and left behind a thin sliver of garlic, which sometimes stuck to the top studs but could be removed relatively easily. I was able to fit four small cloves into its chamber, and it did a decent job of mincing them all, though garlic juice seeped from the sides of the mincing plate and was messy. The press is dishwasher-safe, but I was able to clean it easily with soap and water. It did a commendable job of removing unpeeled garlic cloves from their skins and left the peel behind in a way that made it easy to remove from the press.

This is a substantial garlic press—the heaviest we evaluated—and looks like it will last a long time. It has a deep garlic chamber that allowed me to fit five cloves of garlic at one time. But pressing them all took considerable wrist strength, and I had to keep removing leftover flattened garlic from the base of the chamber to continue pressing and clear the way for new garlic to be minced, so I didn’t find this saved time. It produced a decent amount of minced garlic from one clove, though. It effectively loosened peels from unpeeled cloves, but I found this task messier on the Oxo than the KitchenAid and Kuhn Rikon picks. Its built-in cleaner is a nice feature for removing garlic that’s stuck in its mincing holes, but I then found that the cleaner itself had to be cleaned, so this also didn’t feel like it saved time. It is dishwasher-safe, though, and cleaned well in the top rack. 

I loved the idea of cutting down on gadgets and storage space by investing in one quality vegetable chopper like this pick from Oxo. I imagined mincing garlic, slicing onions and carrots, and chopping peppers all within a few minutes. But this pick’s grate has holes that are too large to effectively mince or chop garlic into fine pieces. I placed one clove of garlic on the grate and pressed down on it with the lid (which was so easy to do), but it only chopped that clove into three smaller, but still too-large pieces. 

Next up: we chopped garlic by hand, which would make grandma proud.

What would a trained chef do when confronted with garlic? It depends. CR’s deputy content editor and classically trained chef Paul Hope says that in terms of preference, he always slices garlic by hand with his 8-inch chef’s knife. “I start by slicing each clove just so they’ll stay put, then I rock my knife over them to get them even finer,” Hope says. “Lastly, I sort of use the side of my knife to mash the cloves into a paste.” 

I tried this technique using one of our top chef’s knives picks from Henckels. Navigating around a small garlic clove with a large knife took some getting used to, but it wasn’t long before those pieces were finely minced. It was easy to get the hang of chopping numerous garlic cloves and I appreciate how much easier it is to clean a knife and a cutting board than it is a press or rocker. However, I found that I compromised on uniformity—my knife skills aren’t sharp enough to produce the kind of perfectly symmetrical results I got from my presses and rockers. Even though Hope is miles better than I am with a knife, it’s nice to know he doesn’t shun time-saving tools for prepping garlic faster.

“When I need a little minced garlic, I either use a cheap little garlic press or I run a few cloves (one at a time) over a microplane grater,” Hope says. “When I need a lot of minced garlic, I do tend to break out my food processor because it’s just so much faster. Plus it saves your hands from getting garlicky.”