Author：Jake | TIME：August 06,2019 904
For cooking enthusiasts, zest could be very essential for the recipes and making delicious food. So what is a zest? Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by grating, scraping or cutting from the outer, colorful rind of unwaxed citrus fruits like lemon, lime, orange, and citron. Just as what you can imagine, zest adds flavor to the food and brightness to the dish.
So how to make lemon zest? Taking efficiency and output into consideration, a grater or zester should be the best lemon zest tool. It helps make zesting much easier and faster. If you are new to this field and not experienced at grating or zesting, we suggest you try a made-easy lemon zester or cheese grater.
Generally speaking, a competent lemon zester itself is not only capable of zesting citrus fruits, but can also be used to grate many other food and vegetables such as cheese, chocolate, carrot, ginger, and garlic. No matter what kind of stuff you might want to zest, you need a handy food grater.
| Image | Product | Dishwasher-safe | Cover | Warranty | Editor's Rating | Price |
 | LWTER Microplane Lemon Zester | Yes | Yes | 90-day return & exchange policy | ★★★★★ |  |
 | Microplane 46020 Premium Classic Zester Grater | Yes | Yes | Not Mentioned | ★★★★ | |
 | Deiss PRO Citrus Zester & Parmesan Cheese Grater | Yes | Yes | Not Mentioned | ★★★★ | |
 | Raniaco Cheese, Lemon, Ginger & Potato Zester | Yes | Yes | Not Mentioned | ★★★★ | |
 | Spring Chef Parmesan Cheese Box Grater | Yes | No | Lifetime Warranty | ★★★★ | |
Though they can help you zest in quite a similar way, a lemon zester, cheese grater and microplane grater have some obvious differences from each other.
A lemon zester is designed in small size so it can be held in hands easily. It has small holes at the top along with ridges at a curved edge. It enables you to rasp small pieces of the citrus peel with the ridges across the top. So a lemon zester is great to remove the zest from the pith by using with just a small amount of pressure across the peel.
A pampered chef cheese grater comes with sharp holes along the edge down the side. It is capable of creating ribbons or thin shreds out from fruits or cheese. There are different types of cheese graters, including box graters and hand held graters. A box cheese grater usually has different sized holes on each side so you grate finely or coarsely; while on the contrary, a hand held cheese grater has only one size holes for grating cheese, citrus or other food.
A microplane is a piece of steel attached to an ergonomic handle, much like a rasp. The steel usually has an incredibly fine, razor sharp edge that won’t dull or rust easily. This type grates food by digging into it. It is perfect if you need to grate cheese or zest citrus.
Despite of the different shapes, these three types of zest graters can actually be used to grate different ingredients. For example, a lemon zester is capable of zesting not only lemons and other citrus fruits, but also cheeses, chocolate, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and so on. This is also true for a kitchenaid cheese grater and a microplane grater that you use for different tasks.
Below we rate top 5 food processor grater options based on a variety of buying considerations like versatility, quality, ease of use, pricing, and after-sale service.
LWTER Stainless Steel Blade Lemon ZesterThe LWTER microplane grater is made of hard and durable structure stainless steel with natural wood handle, durable enough for years of use and strong enough for various zesting and grating tasks. Another feature let it stand out is that its stainless steel is magnetic and you can easily hang it in a knife holder. Perfect solution to how to get lemon zest.
- Great for cutting hard cheeses like Asiago, Pecorino and Padano.
- Perfect for zesting oranges, lemons, limes, garlic, ginger, chocolate flakes
- Ideal for hard cinnamon or nutmeg cutting. You can even use it to cut bottle corks.
Large grating area
Magnetic stainless steel
Easy to clean and store
Dishwasher-safe
90-day return & exchange policy
Holes may not be small enough for fine lemon zest/lime zest
The Microplane 46020 Premium Classic Zester Grater is razor-sharp lemon zester. It is more efficient than a lot of other paddle or rasp graters. The garlic grater has a narrow and easy to operate plane and even holes on the curved edges of the grater, letting you grate hard-to-reach spots. Stainless steel blade ensures zesting efficiency and the soft touch handle make it comfortable while you are using it.
Razor-sharp stainless steel blade for zesting quickly
Soft touch ergonomic handle made comfortable
Non-slip rubber feet add stability and protect your plates
Easy to clean and dishwasher safe
High quality and durable
Doesn't have enough bite to get into a lemon peel
A little more expensive than its competitors
Deiss PRO parmesan grater features a simple design with no moving parts, a sharp stainless steel blade, and a non-slip handle. It is the ideal hand grater for esting lemons and limes, as well as grating spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, hard cheese, etc.
Super sharp and durable stainless steel blade
Soft solid grip
Dishwasher-safe
Protective cover included
May get clogged in small holes while grating freezer hardened cheese
Raniaco Stainless Steel Cheese, Lemon, Ginger & Potato ZesterThe Raniaco ginger zester is perfect for shaving off just the right amount of peel from your lemons, limes and other citrus. Made of stainless steel, its sharp blade is capable of grating a variety of citrus fruits, food, and vegetables, for example, lemon, ginger, coconut, chocolate, carrot, and more. The rubber feet at the grater tip reduce the chance of scratching the counter. It’s easy to clean and store with the hole in the grip. If you are not sure about how to zest a lime or lemon, this handy tool can simplify your work.
Easy to use for various food
Sharp stainless steel blades
Non-slip silicone rubber
Dishwasher-safe
Needs rubber feet for better stability
Hand wash recommended
Featuring a stainless steel blade, the Spring Chef box grater can last for years without rust. The sharp blades enable you to grate or zest without too much effort. It is versatile with four sides that offer different levels: coarse shred, medium shred, fine shred/zester, and slicer. You can grate, slice and zest anything from cheese, nuts, lemon zest, vegetables, etc. The non-slip base is designed to securely keep grater in one place without slipping and causing accidents.
4 sides for 4 grating levels
Highly stable base
Made of rust resistant stainless steel
Dishwasher-safe
Lifetime warranty
Scratches quite easily
Not easy to clean
A good zester grater can improve your efficiency and create fine lemon zest/lime zest to add flavors to your food. Since there are various types and options, you should take into consideration of many buying factors.
The good quality material is to ensure your zester to give perfect zesting by using the razor-sharp blade. And stainless steel is applied to avoid rusting, which ensures it can last for a longer lifespan.
The best zesters are engineered to work for both right-handed and left-handed cooks with a straight handle. And soft touch cover on the grip will make it comfortale for you to use. Good lemon zesters will enable you to grate or zest effortlessly.
Since the sharp blades can hurt your hands or fingers easily, and it may do damage to dishclothes, sponges, brushes, scrubbers, and the tiny holes is not easy to clean, so it’s better to get a dishwasher-safe potato grater.
You may probably need a versatile lime zester to zest and peel your citrus and cheese. So you will first need to decide what zest type you want: long thin peels, or small bits of skin. Or you can just pick up a lemon zester that is capable of zesting both types.
Lemon zester or microplanes are incredibly sharp, so you would like it to have a cover that protects your hands from getting hurt. If the Amzon cheese grater you choose doesn’t come with a cover, you’d better put in cut resistant gloves for safety.
Some sellers provide warranty and refund policy, while others do not. So you should make it clear if the one you choose offers such a after-sale service.
If you are looking to how to zest an orange, lemon, lime, citrus fruits, or cheese, you can do it with different types of zesters such as microplanes or box graters.
A microplane grater is not only great for making grated lemon zest, but also perfect for grating hard cheeses.
1 Hold the microplane zester over the board and plate.
2 Swipe the lemon/cheese against the grate in a gentle way by using an up and down motion.
3 Continue the process and at last till you get the desired amount of lemon/cheese.
4 Tap the metal end of the grater against the plate to release the excess trimming in an effective manner.
A box grater usually consists of four sides - each side has different levels of teeth such as smaller, larger and medium-sized that let you grate cheese, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, or zest citrus for various uses. For make the process easier, you can coat the outside of grater with some cooking spray.
1 Hold the grater firm with its handle(if your grater doesn’t have a handle, hold the cheese and grater over the large bowl).
2 Rub the cheese in up and down direction against the grater.
3 Once you reach at the end, you can use your palm to rub it.
If you don’t have a zester or grater, and you don’t have a plan to buy one yet, you can use a sharp chef’s knife instead. We honestly do not suggest you try this way because it is not easy to manipulate and can hurt your hand easily. But if you have to go for it, keep in mind the followings:
1 Use one of your hands to hold the lemon firmly on a cutting board, and hold a knife in your dominant hand.
2 Starting from the lemon top, cut into the skin and remove the peel in strips with the knife around the lemon.
3 Watch out for the pith here - it can be easy to break into the lemon itself.
4 Once the lemon is fully peeled, slice or mince the lemon peel pieces into the lemon zest.
For the sake of kitchen hygiene as well as long life span, it is suggested that the zester be cleaned thoroughly every time after you use it. And here are some tips on how to clean a grater.
1 Dip the lemon zesting tool/cheese grater in warm water.
2 Brush the holes of the grater with a toothbrush or something like that.
3 Dip the grater in warm water again and then use dry cloth to wipe clean the grater.
4 Avoid storing the grater in humid place.
Note: To make cleaning easier, just make sure you use the cheese grater to grate frozen cheese.
