Lemon reamer

This article is about the kitchen utensil. For the hand tool, see reamer.

A wooden lemon reamer

A lemon reamer (sometimes, a "citrus reamer" or simply a "reamer") is a small kitchen utensil used to extract the juice from a lemon or other small citrus fruit.

It consists at one end of a convexly tapered conical blade, with deep straight troughs running the length of the blade. The very tip of the blade is often a smooth spike. The other end is a cylindrical handle. The blade may be made of wood, plastic, or metal. The simplest reamers, which many consider the best, are solid pieces of milled and carved soft wood.

To use a reamer, the user first slices a chosen fruit in half with a knife along its equatorial midsection. Grasping the fruit in one hand and the reamer in the other, the user first pierces the exposed flesh of the fruit with the tip of the reamer blade, then grinds out the inside with a twisting wrist motion until nearly all of the juice is extracted. This dislodges the seeds and some amount of pith, so the juice must generally be strained before use.

Reamers are prized for their simplicity, durability, safety, high yield, ease of use and cleaning, and low cost relative to other juice extractors.

See also

• Juicer
• Lemon squeezer

References