COPCO’S EASYGRATE container grater at $12.99 fails with an F.

COPCO EASYGRATE CONTAINER GRAGER
I found this on a European product-design awards site, and thought it offered the perfect solution. It’s pretty and compact, and comes in nice colors. With the grating plate set on a 45-degree angle, it should let you use an efficient downward stroke.

Since the product is so new it’s not yet in stores, I had to write the manufacturer, who was kind enough to send two samples in white. I hope he never sees this review.

The product comes with two grating planes, one fine and one coarse. Both let you grate into the same two-cup container. But I couldn’t figure out how to hold it.

To make that 45-degree downward stroke, I had to criss-cross my hands, holding the high end with one while grating with the other. And since the beautiful curves on every plane make the thing rock and roll with every stroke, it feels like you’re constantly trying to keep up with the thing. Lots of wasted motion. The blades are only about average-sharp, so this one makes you work hard.

Worse—way worse—the grating surface sits above the plastic rim. If you put it down on the counter, either the counter or the blades get ruined. If you hold it in one hand, well— bloody palms on one hand, bloody knuckles on the other. But you can’t set the blades below the rim, either, or you won’t have a clear surface to run the cheese over. Conclusion: Two-sided graters are a bad idea.

The little container stays securely closed while grating and dumps out nicely, though. But I’d rather take the $12.99 and get some pre-grated cheese.

GOURMET STANDARD’S 3-piece bowl set with grater and plastic storage lid at $19.99 more than fails with an F–.

GOURMET STANDARD
Online, this one looked great. It’s made of sturdy stainless steel, with a grating plate that fits snugly into the bowl’s rim and a snap-on plastic lid for storage. The grating plate pairs large and small grating patterns on one side, but it works because the patterns are separated, and each is wide enough for a typical block of cheese. The plate has a slicing blade on the flip side.

Out of the box, it was a bust. The plate does fit nicely into the rim, but the slick metal bowl slips around on the counter when you apply pressure—and you have to apply a lot of pressure, because the grater is dull as a hoe. If you do slip, the pressure you’re applying will rip nice chunks out of you. Not nice shreds. It makes little crumbles out of the cheese.

When you flip the plate over to try to make slices, dull as a hoe is not the only problem. The plate sits well below the rim. You can’t hold the block of cheese at a low enough angle to make a thin slice. Instead, you get a triangular wedge.

At $19.99, this was the worst performer of the four.

OXO’S MULTI GRATER at $9.99 gets a B+ for innovation and value.

OXO MULTI GRATER
At first glance, this product is odd. Why make a grater with two panels hinged together? Sure, it folds flat for easy storage, but wouldn’t the hinge make it unstable? The illustration on the package answers the question. It’s not meant to be used standing on the counter, but in a bowl, which you supply. Why duplicate what you already have? See the little foot sticking out from the bottom in the highlighted circle in the photograph? That’s what holds it onto the edge of the bowl.

There are some nice physics here. The feet on the rim naturally oppose the feet inside the bowl. If you position the grater parallel to your shoulders, the handle is at a comfortable angle, and your holding hand easily makes enough pressure to stabilize the grater in the bowl. In the bowl, the grating plane is at a fairly comfortable angle—about 35 degrees, so you get some of the benefit of a downward stroke.

But there are other problems. The bowl skids around just like the Gourmet Standard product. And since the blades aren’t particularly sharp you have to use some force, which makes it skid around even more. In the process, you’re scattering shreds everywhere—they slide right o. the grater surface.

Like the others, it also fails to offer knuckle protection.

At $9.99, it’s almost there. But I’d happily pay more for a version with a better blade and something to keep the bowl from skidding, or even a special non-skid container. Not to mention some knuckle protection.