The Zeroll Ice Cream Scoop Will Save You From a Lifetime of Bent Spoons
Katie Okamoto is an editor on the discovery team. She’s covered the intersections of products, sustainability, and health for more than a decade.
I used to hack into hard pints of strawberry and cookies ’n’ cream with a spoon, watching it bend backwards against the ice cream’s dense, irregular terrain. As regularly as I ate ice cream, you’d think I’d have kept a scoop in my drawer, but I fell back on my poor spoons every time. Then (years before I worked here) I read Wirecutter’s glowing review, which credited the Zeroll 1020 Original Ice Cream Scoop with creating the most struggle-free scoop.
When people ask me if I have a favorite Wirecutter pick, this is what I say. The Zeroll scoop is simple, nostalgic, and beautiful. And, like coffee tools for coffee rituals or cocktail tools for cocktails, this scoops makes an at-home pleasure even more pleasurable. It was our pick for best ice cream scoop in 2013, and it’s still the pick.
Buying a Zeroll scoop was a roughly $20 commitment to a life of eating ice cream without apology. Years later, I make and eat my own ice cream regularly, and I still partake in the occasional carton of Häagen-Dazs. My Zeroll scoop doles out jolly, skirted domes of chocolate, houjicha, or ginger ice cream with ease. I promise: Give yourself this gift.
Our pick
Favored by ice cream shops everywhere, this scoop cuts into hard ice cream more smoothly, produces better spheres, and is easier to clean than any other model we tried.
A simple, effective design
The Zeroll scoop (pronounced “Z-roll”) is beloved by all kinds of folks who regularly scoop, including ice cream professionals and dozens of Wirecutter staffers.
That’s because the best ice cream scoops are the simplest. They’re sturdy and ergonomic enough to use repeatedly with one hand. And they have a chiseled lip to dig in and a deep cup to curl and form the ice cream into a classic scoop shape with a smooth release. They should also be seamless, with no mechanisms that make cleaning sticky dairy residue difficult.
Designed in the 1930s, the MoMA-exhibited, US-made, aluminum Zeroll ice cream scoop has all of these qualities, with elegant proportions and curves. The round handle is comfortable to grip, so you can serve up sundaes to a crowd, with none of the wearying hand-clenching of a mechanical release scooper.
Distinctly, this scoop’s handle also contains a nontoxic, FDA-approved mineral oil (encased and walled off behind a plastic seal); this oil helps conduct heat from your hand into the scoop, which makes it easier to scoop your ice cream.
But if you don’t want to struggle at all, you should still take your ice cream out three to five minutes before serving, to help soften it. “Don’t expect magic on super-hard, frozen ice cream,” said senior kitchen editor Marguerite Preston, who admits to bending a slew of spoons for years before seeing the light.
Not dishwasher-safe
Because of its interior design, the Zeroll scoop isn’t dishwasher-safe. The manufacturer warns against exposing the scoop to temperatures exceeding 140 degrees Fahrenheit, from any heat source. (Most dishwashers, including our top pick, have a cycle that gets hotter than that, according to our appliance experts.) Running the scoop through the dishwasher affects its material and surface appearance, according to a company representative. A number of Amazon reviews report oxidation and corrosion.
We’ve noted a handful of reports to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as one recall of a similar Zeroll-made scoop in 2011. Zeroll did not comment on the 1020 model’s current design in time for publication. To be extra safe and to keep your Zeroll scoop looking like chrome for as long as possible, always wash it by hand. Thankfully, the sleek, hardware-free design simplifies hand-washing, since it doesn’t have nooks or hinges to scrub.
Supervising editor (and former designer) Daniela Gorny still declares her slightly patinaed, eight-year-old Zeroll “perfect, no notes.” And editor Rachel Hurn’s household has been using the scoop almost every night for nearly as long. “It’s accidentally made it into the dishwasher a handful of times over the years,” she said. “It still works beautifully.” The oldest staff-owned Zeroll scoop that we’ve heard of is 20 years old, but if your scoop dates from before 2012 or has become oxidized or corroded, we recommend replacing it.
This article was edited by Annemarie Conte and Catherine Kast.
Meet your guide
Katie Okamoto is an editor on the discovery team and leads Wirecutter’s sustainability coverage. She has been covering products—from food to furniture—and their intersections with environmental impact and environmental health for more than a decade. Previously, Katie was an editor at Metropolis Magazine.
Further reading
The Best Ice Cream Scoop
by Lesley Stockton and Abigail Bailey
For perfectly round scoops with minimal hassle, you can’t beat the classic Zeroll scoop. It produces gorgeous scoops out of even the densest of desserts.
The 55 Best Gifts Under $25
by Samantha Schoech
We firmly believe gifts don’t have to be pricey to be stylish, useful, surprising, and delightful.
Our Favorite Ice Cream Maker Is Easy Enough for Kids to Use
by Marilyn Ong
We love how compact, user-friendly, and fast the Cuisinart ICE-21 ice cream maker is—it’s so approachable, one editor’s 10-year-old has become an expert user.
The Best Vegan Ice Cream
by Mace Dent Johnson
We tried 35 pints of vegan ice cream from 16 ice cream brands. We loved nine of them, including flavors from Jeni’s, Van Leeuwen, and Trader Joe’s.
