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The Best Salad Spinner

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Pushing aside the milk and the half-full jar of pickles, you reach into the back of the fridge, looking for that bag of romaine you bought on your most recent grocery trip. You emerge, produce in hand, only to notice that it’s slimy . The lettuce has gone bad, forgotten behind so many leftovers. It happens to the best of us. Salad greens seem to last for only a few days before they more closely resemble a third-grade science project. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Enter the salad spinner. Washing greens won’t make them last longer, but getting them as dry as possible will. You can then keep them fresh in an airtight container, along with a damp paper towel, and since they’ll be ready to go, you may even use them up faster. (Plus, salad dressing sticks better to dry leaves.) A good salad spinner makes washing and drying easy. We’ve compared dozens of models and tested over 20 spinners since 2014, and the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner has remained our top pick. ...
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The Best Maple Syrup You Can Find at the Grocery Store

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I love maple-sugaring season. Every year, just as the temperature starts to thaw in New York City, I know it’s time to make my annual pilgrimage to the rural outskirts of Western Massachusetts where my family lives. We drive along winding roads and rolling hills dusted with snow, and we look for trails of smoke snaking over the sugar shacks, signaling that the boiling of maple sap is underway. It’s here, in cozy wooden shacks nestled among maple trees, where the fresh maple sap is reduced to a syrup, and those in the know come to celebrate (and stock up on) the season’s latest offerings. As a kid growing up in California — far from the maple-harvesting regions — I was no stranger to pouring corn-syrup–based “pancake syrup” on my hotcakes as I watched my Saturday-morning Looney Tunes. But I can remember the first time I tried real maple syrup at a diner. And it was a transcendent experience — from the silky way the syrup poured to its robust flavor and how it absor...
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The Best Uncrustables and Their Dupes

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Small children and endurance athletes have a lot in common. A strict nap schedule. Boundless energy. And a love for crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When the prepackaged iteration showed up in the freezer aisle in the early 2000s, easy to eat and easy to store, it was an obvious hit with the lunch-box set. But they’re not just for kids. In recent years, they’ve shown up on the sidelines of college basketball games. They’re popping up in group chats with my marathon-running friends. The NFL reportedly pounds over 80,000 of them a year . And of course, the freezer aisle has boomed. From the decades-old stalwart, Smucker’s Uncrustables, to a burgeoning field of competitors, crustless sandwiches now promise to be more wholesome, more protein-packed, more exciting, more chef-backed, and more athlete-approved than the classic offerings. Wirecutter’s kitchen experts tasted over 20 crustless sandwiches, looking for the best out there — great texture, great f...
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8 Very Practical Gifts That Are Unexpectedly Great

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In this edition of The Gift, we're talking about the very best practical gifts — that are anything but boring, actually. I am not what one might call a “practical” person. I live in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment — with a dog. (It gets great light, okay?) When I decided I wanted to run my first race, I signed up not for a 5K, but for a half-marathon. I own not one, but three, of Wirecutter’s most opulent gifts and have gifted many more. I relish in life’s decidedly unpractical, at times irresponsible, delights with abandon. (I am, obviously, a Sagittarius.) Gift-giving is a space we’ve collectively carved out to say, “Hello, this is beautiful. Please have it for no other reason than being born.” And sullying that with something practical (a six-pack of white socks, a gas-station gift card, an extra charger) has always seemed sacrilegious to me. But after a weekslong informal survey of Wirecutter’s most practical gift givers and receivers, I’m realizing I’ve p...
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The Best Tinned Fish

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Is there any food as versatile or varied as seafood in a can? Depending on what’s in it, a tin of fish could be equally at home on a camping trip, at a cocktail party, in a lunch box, or served at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Maybe that explains the recent surge in popularity in the US (elsewhere, it never went out of style). Maybe the pretty packaging has something to do with it too. Maybe it’s all that plus the simple truth, already well-known to many, that good tinned fish can be a treat on the level of expertly crafted charcuterie or finely aged cheese. That’s the kind of tinned fish that this guide covers. It does not include plain tuna and plain sardines , for instance — though you can find truly special versions of these, too. They are staples in their own right, and have their own dedicated guides. For now, we’re focused on tinned fish that feels special or doesn’t fit neatly in a category. In all I, along with several other members of Wirecutter’s kitch...
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6 Very Giftable Bags We’re Eyeing

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In this edition of The Gift, we share very cute bags we love, including a structured leather handbag, a fun-loving tote, and a slouchy purse that checks all the boxes. Is there a sartorial staple more intimate than a bag? Cradling my side, mine holds the keys to my life — literally and figuratively. Variably, its contents include cash, credit cards, government identification, dog-eared books, at least three lip balms, and a shameful mess of faded receipts. Sure, your underthings may hold your private parts, but a bag carries sustenance and secrets. I’m not losing sleep if some bikini bottoms go missing. What a pity then that my current everyday bag is a situationship gone on far too long. Back during a moment of mass disruption, out of office and out of a job, I purchased an affordable and practical black nylon Baggu Cloud Bag . It does the job, but my heart doesn’t skip a beat. I intended it to be a holdover until it made sense to invest in a more soigné leather o...
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Is Trader Joe’s Skincare Actually Good?

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Listen and follow The Wirecutter Show Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio Trader Joe's is beloved for its quirky snacks and frozen meals, but its beauty aisle has quietly become a hotspot for budget-friendly skincare and viral "dupes". This week, beauty writer Neha Tandon shares the results of her extensive hands-on testing of Trader Joe’s moisturizers, cleansers, serums, and sunscreens. She reveals which $10-and-under products are high-performing gems and which popular items missed the mark. This episode covers The $4 Holy Grail: Why the Rose Facial Toner is a highly versatile, multi-use must-have for refreshing skin, setting makeup, and even reviving curly hair. A $7 designer "dupe": How the single-ingredient Marula Facial Oil performs just as beautifully as luxury versions costing six times as much. The absolute misses: Why Neha suggests skipping the "Pine-Sol-esque" tea tree oil cleansing pads ...
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