I attended the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC), held September 19-21, 2014 in Seattle. In exchange for registering for the conference at the discounted blogger rate, I agreed to write three posts about the conference. Additionally, as a sponsor of the conference, Crisp provided zesters to attendees, and I also received a peeler and paring knife to test and review on my blog. The content of this post and opinions expressed herein are solely my own.
The recently launched collection of Crisp kitchen tools features 27 different tools (knives, peelers, tongs, strainers, etc.) for fruit and vegetable preparation. The tools can be purchased on Crisp's website, which offers free shipping on orders over $49. I ran shipping estimates for an order of one item (the peeler) and all three tools I tested (peeler, paring knife, and zester); in both cases the shipping cost was $7.99. All tools are dishwasher safe, and the three tools I tested were made in China.
Straight Peeler ($8.99 plus shipping): Hands down, this is the best peeler I've used. The ergonomic handle was easy on my wrist, while the angled head and very sharp blade made it easy to exert consistent pressure and peel in one pass. The peeler also comes with a plastic blade cover. Since the cover is fairly small and made of clear plastic, it may be easy to misplace, and it took a few tries to fit it over the blade. However, the peeler itself is an efficient tool that I wouldn't hesitate to purchase.
Straight Paring Knife ($11.99 plus shipping): Unfortunately, this knife was a bit of a disappointment. It comes with a nifty cover that includes a sharpener, but the cover fits so tightly that it was extremely difficult to slide the knife inside. The tapered knife handle felt awkwardly small in my hand (Mike also tested it and had the same experience). While this isn't a bad knife, I wouldn't recommend it due to the ill-fitting cover and uncomfortable handle.
Zester ($12.99 plus shipping): The zester is a four-in-one tool, with blades for zesting, scoring, and garnishing and a fine zesting grater blade that swivels out from the handle, and includes a plastic blade cover. The zester performed all of its functions perfectly: the scoring blade cuts through peels with ease, the garnish blade produces a thick curl of peel, the zest blade produces slightly thinner pieces of peel, and the fine zest grater leaves you with a pile of peel shavings in no time flat. The ergonomic handle felt especially comfortable when using the grater. Although I personally don't have a need for the zesting, scoring, and garnishing blades, I would recommend the zester solely on the strength of its efficient grating functionality, ergonomic design, and compact size.
Thank you to Crisp for providing me with the peeler, paring knife, and zester to test and review. All these tools, plus the rest of the line, can be purchased on Crisp's website.