BeaterBlade ZestN’est, reviewed

The people at New Metro Design, who brought you the BeaterBlade and the MixerMate Bowl, are at it again with the ZestN’est. The ZestN’est is an updated take on a microplane and is designed with zesting citrus in mind. The gadget is shaped like a half of a lemon, with a microplane-style grater on what would be the cut side of the fruit. As you grate, the zest falls right into the N’est, which pops open to release the zest when you’re ready to add it to the rest of your cooking or baking ingredients. It also comes with a cover that will allow you to store the zest in the N’est and keep it fresh.

I really liked the look and the design of the ZestN’est right off the bat. It was easy to hold, and the way it collected the zest was convenient. The stainless steel zesting blade seemed unusually sharp to me, and it is indeed designed to give you either a fine or coarse zest depending on how much pressure you use. Longer, coarser zest would be better for garnishing drinks than baking, and it took me a few tries to get use to using less pressure to get the zest I wanted. I liked this zester even more for shaving chocolate and grating spices. For these two tasks, which usually result in very fine particles getting all over my cutting board, the N’est really came in handy to collect all of my shavings and the blade was easily sharp enough to grate nutmeg and cinnamon with very little effort. I’m not going to replace my microplanes with these (yes, I do have multiple microplanes), but it’s a useful and attractive gadget to keep around or to gift to someone that might need a little zest in their lives.