I already own a more traditional zester, the kind with 5 or 6 little holes across the top. It does a great job when I want bigger pieces of zest for an accent or a garnish. But when it comes to things like recipes calling for the zest of one lemon to mix into other ingredients, I would have to take all those little strips of zest and chop them up. Now I have microplane and life is wonderful. Zip, zip, zip and I've got a lemon's worth of perfect tiny zest. I'm looking forward to trying it on things like chocolate, nutmeg and particularly ginger. Buy this. Really.