The 5 Best Pepper Grinders of 2024, Tested & Reviewed

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We tested 21 manual and electric pepper mills to find our favorite picks.

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Food & Wine / Will Dickey

A good pepper mill is a fundamental tool to have in your kitchen. After all, nearly every recipe calls for seasoning with salt and pepper, from charred steak recipes to the classic pasta cacio e pepe. But with so many options, it's difficult to know which is truly the best pepper grinder.

We tested two dozen popular models from FinaMill, Le Creuset, Männkitchen, Peugeot, and OXO, including manual pepper mills and electric pepper grinders. These machines can turn peppercorns into fresh ground pepper at the texture of your choice, but they're also a good choice for coarse salt and plenty of other ingredients, just like any of the best spice grinders. Read on to find the best pepper grinder for your needs, and get ready to season your meals like a pro chef.

This pepper mill is functional and stylish, and it comes in an array of classic colors.

The capacity could be considered small to some.

Le Creuset is known best for its enameled cast iron cookware available in lots of eye-catching colors, and its lightweight ceramic grinder comes in 11 bright hues to match. You control the grind size with the Le Creuset by simply turning the metal knob on top. Despite the lack of a clear indicator for exactly where you've set the dial, the mill produced consistently sized grounds during testing — from super-fine to coarse. The glossy exterior is easy to clean with a cloth, but we should note that it’s not dishwasher-safe. After three months of long-term use and a couple of refills, it's still working just as well as in initial testing, too.

A minor issue with the Le Creuset pepper mill is its relatively small capacity for its size, though it's doubtful in most home-cooking situations that you'd need to grind more than a full ounce of peppercorns at once. (That's enough to coat an entire homemade pastrami.) The major issue is its high price. This is an expensive grinder, especially for a manual model, but it looks great on the dining room table and works well.

Material: Ceramic | Capacity: 1 ounce | Dimensions: 2 x 2 x 8 inches | Power: Manual

This pair of grinders strikes the perfect balance between style, capacity, and performance.

Their large size might make them difficult to use one-handed.

Out of everything we tested, the Latent Epicure Battery Operated Grinder Set was one of the best pepper grinders, scoring the highest in every category. Despite its sleek, low-profile design, it surprised us with its performance and capacity, as it can comfortably fit a sizable load of peppercorns and offers a consistent, reliable grind. Because it’s electric, this grinder does pretty much all the work for you — simply load it, select your desired coarseness, and press the top button. Whether filled to the brink or running low, the grind remained steady.

The only downside is that it might require two hands for proper use, as the body is larger than others. It’s also not dishwasher-safe, and the care guide recommends cleaning out the grinding mechanism occasionally to maintain performance. With that said, it held up wonderfully to three months of daily use, during which we didn't have to change the batteries even once. Its price is right, too, only slightly above the average of the manual and electric models we tested. It also comes with a second identical grinder for other fancy spices.

Materials: Stainless steel and acrylic | Capacity: 1.06 ounces | Dimensions: 4.41 x 3.15 x 8.66 inches | Power: Electric (4 AA batteries per grinder) | Includes: 2 grinders, acrylic stand

This budget-friendly grinder is durable and comfortable to hold.

There was some inconsistency in grind size in testing.

We love this manual pepper grinder because it’s well-designed, durable, and comfortable to hold; plus, it’s a solid choice for anyone on a budget. The body is lightweight and easy to handle yet sturdy enough for everyday use. The slight tapering where you grasp the chamber and the thick rubber-covered handle you turn with the other hand offer secure grips. The clear body lets you see when it's time for a refill, and we like how the side hatch tilts open for easy refills without having to take the whole thing apart. A snap-on lid keeps excess pepper bits from getting on your countertops.

Overall performance was good, but we encountered difficulty creating a consistently fine grind. Some coarse bits always made it through, no matter how fine we set the adjustment screw on the bottom.

Material: Plastic | Capacity: 1.31 ounces | Dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 2.62 inches | Power: Manual

Interchangeable pods let this battery-powered grinder switch from pepper to salt to any spice you like with ease.

There's no clear indicator of where you've set the grind texture, and the set only includes two pods.

Pepper isn't the only spice you need to grind in the kitchen, but most pepper mills make it a huge pain to switch from one ingredient to another. FinaMill is here to change that. Its interchangeable pods pop in and out of a battery-powered base, so you can switch from pepper to salt to coriander to cardamom with no cleaning required. The generously sized pods can hold an entire jar, providing extra spice rack storage.

The FinaMill produced a fairly uniform grind in testing, though a few big chunks made it through on finer settings. It's also a bit annoying that there's no indicator on the bottom of the pod which direction goes finer and coarser, or where you've set the texture on the scale. On top of that, you only get two pods with this starter set; if you want more, you must buy extra FinaMill pods separately. The electric part of this grinder and its pods are easy to clean with a wet towel, though they’re not dishwasher-safe.

Materials: Plastic, ceramic | Capacity: 2 ounces per pod | Size: 9.88 x 6.73 x 3.58 inches | Power: Electric (3 AA batteries)

This monster pours out ground pepper at 60 different coarseness levels.

Its huge price makes it overkill for most home kitchens.

True to its "pepper cannon" name, this mill shoots out ground spices that are extremely consistent in size, no matter the setting. Its quick, powerful performance is balanced by a sleek, stylish aesthetic that makes it fun. The Männkitchen also has one of the largest capacities of the models we tested. It can hold a full jar of peppercorns with room for more.

This may be a manual grinder, but it'll plow through pepper faster than some electric models. The precision-milled aluminum parts turn smoothly and easily. The texture adjustment is levels above any other machine, with a dial that clicks into places in any of 60 separate options.

"I've been using the Männkitchen for a few months now, and I truly am impressed by its power," says Associate Editorial Commerce Director, Dana Fouchia. "I've always liked the physicality of grinding my own pepper, so I've never purchased an electric one for that reason. However, this thing has such an impressive output that you'd think it was electric. I can season an entire turkey in under a minute, which is something I've never been able to say about my past mills."

Here's the problem: This is a $200 pepper mill. It's more than double the price of any other model we tested. It's incredible, looks fantastic, and is likely the last pepper mill you'll ever need, but that price is pretty wild. However, it makes a seriously thoughtful kitchen gift for a home cook.

Material: Aluminum | Capacity: 2.3 ounces | Sizes: 7.25 x 2.2 x 2.2 inches | Power: Manual

The Latent Epicure Battery Operated Grinder Set proved to be our overwhelming favorite. It was the only pepper grinder we tested to achieve a perfect rating across the board, from size and design to ease of use to grind consistency, and its reasonable price makes it a superior value. The best part is that it’s a set of two, so you can easily grind salt and pepper with one kitchen tool.

We bought 21 of the most popular pepper grinders, including manual and electric models, and tested them in our home kitchens, using the same methodology for each model. We looked at many different factors to determine our overall ratings:

Food & Wine / Will Dickey

Food & Wine / Will Dickey

Food & Wine / Will Dickey

Nearly every pepper mill uses a rotating motion to crush peppercorns, but the power can come from your muscles or electricity. A manual grinder can work by twisting the top part against the bottom, or with a small crank, which can be easier to operate for kids or those with arthritis, carpal tunnel, or other movement issues. Electric pepper grinders (most often battery-powered) rotate by themselves, at the push of a button. This style is convenient but also more expensive.

The most important element of a pepper mill is the actual grinding mechanism. Metal is very common, but it can rust and deteriorate with exposure to water. Stainless steel helps prevent this, but it's important not to get metal grinder parts wet no matter what they're made of. Some higher-end pepper mills use ceramic, a longer-lasting material that's also more expensive. Some cheap models have plastic grinding parts, which we say to avoid: They can chip, flake, and get dull quickly, making your pepper grind inconsistent.

Pepper grinders come in plastic, wood, metal, ceramic, and other materials. What the body is made of doesn't affect performance, so this is just an aesthetic decision. Plenty of models are available in multiple colors to help match your kitchen decor.

Most pepper mills let you adjust how coarse or fine they grind to at least some extent. This is often as simple as turning a dial or knob on the top or the bottom of the grinder, which moves the grinding teeth closer together or further apart. You might only have one or two coarseness options, but some grinders have dozens of micro-adjustments.

Coarsely ground pepper is good for flavor and texture, adding crunch to dishes like pepper-crusted skirt steak with charred leeks. But the intensity of big pepper flecks is too much for a more subtle dish, where finely ground pepper will blend in more evenly and add to the background flavor. Not all pepper grinders can grind evenly. Many models that didn't do well in our tests let larger bits through on fine-grind settings.

The more peppercorns you can fit inside a pepper grinder, the less you'll have to take it apart to refill. A standard jar of peppercorns that you can find at any supermarket contains 2 ounces, which is just about as much as the largest grinders can hold at once.

“While salt and pepper mills may look very similar, the material of the grinding mechanism is often different. Therefore, they are not usually interchangeable," says Anthony Contrino, an Emmy-winning culinary producer, food stylist, and host of Saucy on Peacock. "For pepper, a case-hardened metal or carbon steel is often used so that it can easily grind the firm peppercorns.”

The actual grinding process for coarse salt and whole peppercorns is largely the same, but salt is very hard on metals. “A salt mill does have to contend with often-damp salt, so its workings, if metal, can corrode. That is why ceramic or nylon workings are better for salt mills,” says cookbook author Susan Herrman Loomis.

According to both Contrino and Loomis, there isn't one. A pepper mill and a pepper grinder are the exact same thing and perform the exact same job: grinding pepper.

“A pepper mill works like an old-fashioned grain mill, where two sturdy stone wheels crush whatever is needing to be crushed between them. However, a pepper mill is more refined, since the wheels generally fit one inside the other with teeth that mesh," Loomis says. "These teeth grind the pepper to the coarseness that you specify by moving them closer or further apart."

Kuhn Rikon Essential Adjustable Ratchet Grinder ($27 at Amazon)

One of our editors has been consistently using this grinder in their kitchen for years. Even after daily use, and more than a few drops from the countertop, it still produces an even and consistent pepper grind for all of their peppery needs. Plus, its cleverly designed handle makes it super easy to control how much pepper goes into the dish.

Peugeot Paris u’Select 9-inch Pepper Mill ($62 at Amazon)

This grinder excelled at fine and medium grinds, producing extremely uniform ground pepper. However, there was some inconsistency with the coarse setting. We love it as an everyday spice grinder but wouldn’t recommend it for tasks that require larger pieces, such as a rub for prime rib.

Fletchers' Mill Federal Pepper Mill ($58 at Amazon)

This pepper grinder has a beautiful stained-wood look and feels comfortable to hold. Its simple design makes it easy to use, and it performs well. We might have put it on our list of favorites if it hadn't arrived with nicks and chips in the stain toward the bottom.

Cole & Mason Lincoln Duo Salt and Pepper Grinder Combo ($25 at Amazon)

The grinds were very consistent with this pair, especially on the finest setting, and they feel high-quality product despite their low price. Our issue was that adjusting the coarseness was harder than expected due to the confusing control knob and absence of instructions.

OXO Contoured Mess-Free Pepper Grinder ($18 at OXO)

This OXO is easy to use, has a generous capacity for peppercorns, and is made of ceramic that won’t absorb flavors, meaning you can use it for various spices. We just preferred the other OXO model featured above, which has an easier-to-use crank and is cheaper.

You wouldn't think there's a big difference between pepper mills, but our tests show otherwise. The major issue with models we didn't put at the top of the list was inconsistent texture, with large peppercorn bits and fine pepper powder mixed. Other problems included being uncomfortable, having too small a capacity, and simply costing too much money. Among the 11 pepper grinders that didn't make our list are the HexClad HexMill Pepper Grinder ($130 at Amazon), Cole & Mason Derwent Pepper Grinder ($45 at Amazon), the Peugeot Olivier Roellinger 5.25-inch Pepper Mill ($125 at Amazon), and the Cuisinart SG-3 Rechargeable Pepper Mill ($59 at Amazon).

Clarissa Buch Zilberman is an acclaimed food writer with nearly a decade of experience. With a degree in journalism from the University of Miami, she has written for Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Visit Florida, and more.