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I bought this while waiting impatiently for CI's recommended Zyliss Jumbo garlic press to arrive. After comparing the two, I liked this one much better. I later bought CI's latest favorite, the Kuhn Rikon and I have to say, I think I prefer the Calphalon. The latter two work pretty well, but the Calphalon is significantly less expensive, so I would go with it.
The Calphalon has a round well to put the garlic into. It has prongs on the plunger to pierce unpeeled garlic skins, which makes it easy to press them. The skins get stuck on the prongs, so you can add more garlic and keep pressing. It presses as much garlic out of the cloves as the other presses, unless you use peeled garlic. When pressing peeled cloves, a fair amount of garlic gets stuck to the prongs instead and you lose it. The solution is simple though--don't waste your time peeling the cloves. Clean-up is very easy with a toothbrush. The brush simply unsticks anything attached to the prongs and the whole thing is cleaned quickly under running water.
The handle of the press is a ~3/8 inch rod, extending from the garlic hopper, covered in rubber or silicone or some-such to make the grip confortable and non-slip. After pressing lots of garlic for 7 months, I did manage to snap one of the rods, but I may have been overzealous in trying to press more garlic out of the skins. (I detracted one star for it, nonetheless.) I now realize that there is probably no garlic press out there that is any better at extracting more garlic than this one is.
The Kuhn Rikon, on the other hand, is easy to squeeze and easy to clean, but it presses garlic out of any available crevice of which there seem to be many. The hopper is not closed in the front and garlic presses out of the front, and around the pusher as well as out of the holes. If it were not for getting garlic coming out all over the place, instead of just though the holes at the bottom, I just might agree that it is better. That not being the case, I would save my money and go with the Calphalon. It works really well and it easy to clean.
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I really love the Calphalon brand. However, the garlic press hasn't been so successful here. I've bought 2 of them so far and each of them eventually break at the handle. Could it be an overzealous cook? Possibly! (smile) Though I really think these should be made to withstand more pressure. I sent a polite email to Calphalon letting them know about this problem.This happened with 2 separate garlic press units that I bought in different places, including amazon.com.
Great brand, but this press is too delicate for the job.
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PROS:1. The plunger teeth go all the way through the holes, clear to the outside. This is a rare and good design strategy.
2. Soft handles. A near must for garlic presses. You wouldn't sell someone a cement pillow, so don't sell us hard handled garlic presses. If I was a skinny grandma, this kind of thing would really bother me. Anyway, nice padded handles on this one.
CONS:
1. Because the teeth go CLEAR through the hopper holes, the garlic gets a bit "mashy", (but at least not chunky).
2. Doesn't produce as much garlic as you'd think it should, probably because the teeth are so deep that some of the garlic clogs within them.
3. The masher is the swinging lever type, which makes you finger it into perfect position before you can press down. This is just one of those small hassles I'd rather do without. Also, such extra complications add to the risk of future breakage.
4. Clean-up is a hassle because on one side, hopper is deep and narrow, and on the other side, long teeth retain garlic.
SUMMARY:
Look, I've tested about 7 garlic presses, and this one isn't bad, but it's not optimal either. A good bit of design-thought was put into it, so I commend Calphalon for that. However, for what it's worth, my favorite is the "Zyliss Susi 2", which simply produces a better result.
Honest reviews on Calphalon Gadgets Garlic Peel and Press
I have a kitchen full of Oxo and Zyliss, so it took a while for the rave reviews to convince me to give this Calphalon garlic press a try. I picked mine up at BB&B for $15 and used one of their ubiquitous $5 coupons (off a $15 purchase) for a final cost of just $10 (only a quarter of the price of the Kuhn Rikon which I had been coveting after CI's recommendation. It says on the packaging that it has a lifetime warranty so I tossed the package and the receipt in the kitchen file and took out a couple heads of garlic. It was so much fun! Who knew I'd ever say that about a garlic press?Nothing squeezed out around the sides and only a paper thin bit was left on clove after clove. Even my three year old pressed a couple. I took care with the amount of pressure I used on the handles because some of the other reviewers indicated the handles may break. (Many of those reviewers bought the same press again however!) Despite exerting less than maximum pressure, the cloves were still perfectly pressed.
My experience with this alone will lead me to check out Calphalon's other kitchen tools. BTW, I would have bought this on Amazon if they offered it with Prime shipping, but the current seller's price plus shipping was more than twice what I paid in town.
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In short:Large basket will accept large cloves or several small ones.
No need to remove the skins.
Good leverage. Easy to exert enough force to fully crush large cloves.
Relatively easy to clean. Leave the skins on! That way they get compressed into one layer and you can just peel it off the press. There will probably be some residual garlic caught on the prongs of the press (see pictures), and at the bottom of the basket. I use a very stiff bristle toothbrush to clean the garlic off the prongs and dig any garlic out of the basket. Doing this under a running tap makes it all the easier.
Edit: Changed my review to one star. After 2 months, the upper handle (the one attached to the press, not the basket) snapped off. Although this garlic press felt fairly sturdy when I received it, it's made of pot metal, not steel, and this cheap construction can't hold up to repeated use.
I replaced it with a WMF Profi Plus Garlic Press. Very happy with the new stainless steel press.
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