Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: a $200 pepper mill is an inherently ridiculous product. I mean really, we’re talking about a device designed to turn dried berries (yes, peppercorns are technically a stone fruit) into a powder you can sprinkle on food. You can buy a totally decent pepper mill for under $20 from brands like OXO. Or if that’s too much, you can simply buy your pepper pre-ground (please don’t though) or opt for one of those pre-filled disposable grinders.

My point here is that there are a ton of pepper mills that don’t cost two Benjamins and are more than capable of getting the job done. But even so, I love my Pepper Cannon and since getting it, it’s quickly become one of my absolute favorite kitchen gadgets.

OK, now that I’ve roasted my overpriced pepper grinder, at least let me put up a defense. While I’ve always hated the word, I’m sort of a foodie, and during the pandemic cooking felt like one of the few activities that I could still enjoy while being confined indoors. And given the spike in people learning to make bread from scratch and all the social media food trends over the last two and a half years, I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way.

So a while back when I was searching for ways to upgrade my kitchen gadgets, I stumbled on Männkitchen’s Kickstarter campaign for the Pepper Cannon. Like a lot of people, at the time I was using cheap pre-filled pepper grinders from the grocery store. But after cooking more during the pandemic, I had become frustrated with how annoying they are to use. Their low-quality components often made cranking the grinder feel like trying to open a stuck pickle jar. And even when I was able to get a twist or two in, I was often left with a coarse pile of pepper sand so small even Anakin couldn’t find it irritating.

The bigger issue was that after testing out countless models in stores, I never really found an upgrade that had the design or output I was looking for. A lot of pepper mills look like they were made out of a handrail from a pre-war brownstone. If that’s your style, fine, but it doesn’t work in my kitchen. More importantly, I wanted something simple, durable and easy to use that allows me to adjust grind sizes while cranking out big mounds of pepper.

Then came my mistake, because after finding the Pepper Cannon, I forgot to back it in time to get the $50 off early bird discount. $150 is still a lot for a pepper mill, but it’s damn sure less than $200. Thankfully, my wife is both thoughtful and encourages my stupid obsessions, so last year, she bought me one for Christmas after it went on sale for the holidays. And I can’t thank her enough, because in a lot of ways, it’s a…

Read Full Story At: Engadget.

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