To Find the 4 Best Cherry Pitters, I Pitted Dozens of Cherries

Seeing how far you can spit a cherry pit out of your mouth is at least half the joy of eating one. But if you’re baking with them or using them in a fruit salad, the “pit ‘em in your mouth” method doesn’t work so well. 

Pitting cherries by hand can be, well, the pits. It’s a fiddly job—tough to do well, quickly, and cleanly. Cherry pitters can help. While it’s never going to be a mess-free, fast job, the right tool can make it a lot more enjoyable. I recently tested six cherry pitters and confidently recommend four of them.

The Tests

• Cherry Pitting Test: To find the best cherry pitter, you’ve got to pit a lot of cherries! In this test, I set a timer for one minute and pitted as many cherries as I could. Once the time was up, I counted how many cherries I got through, as well as how many were pitted successfully. Torn or mashed cherries were placed into a rejects pile and subtracted from the total number. (Don’t worry, they still made a delicious dessert.)
• Cleaning Test: Pitting cherries is a messy job. The best cherry pitters were easy to clean. After completing the first test, I set the cherry pitters aside for 90 minutes, about the time it would take to follow a recipe for cherry pie. I cleaned each one according to the manufacturer’s instructions, noting any pain points.

What We Learned

I Should Have Worn an Apron!

My tests revealed that a cherry pitter can help get the job done faster, but it’s not necessarily any cleaner. After using all six tools, I was covered in cherry juice—and so was my butcher block. Features like splatter guards and catch basins all cut down on the chaos, but ultimately, you’re going to have to roll your sleeves up and don an apron. Working over a plastic cutting board that can be run through the dishwasher is smart. Happily, although pitting cherries is messy, the pitters themselves were easy to clean. All but one was dishwasher-safe, too.

The Key to a Clean Cherry Was a Good Plunger

Cherry pitters work by driving a plunger into the fruit. This force pushes the pit out. The plunger comes out the way it came in, leaving a clean hole in the cherry. Four of the cherry pitters I tested had efficient plungers. The two that didn’t—the YYP Cherry Pitter and the Ordekcity Cherry Pitter—suffered. The YYP has plastic plungers that couldn’t exert enough force, even when I put my body weight behind the motion. I was able to run through 28 cherries in one minute, but only 19 of them were usable without cleanup. The rest still had their pits attached!

Multi-Cherry Pitters Were Only Fast If They Were Easy to Load and Unload

Of the multi-cherry pitters I tested, the OXO’s Quick Release Multi Cherry Pitter won out. Like the YYP Cherry Pitter, the OXO had plastic plungers, but they were deeply grooved with sharp tips. Plus, the force of closing the lid exerted enough pressure to cleanly slice through cherries. But the real edge here was in its usability. OXO’s Multi Cherry Pitter can hold up to 75 pits, and lining up the plungers over the cherries was nearly effortless. I couldn’t churn out as many cherries with the YYP simply because I struggled to align the base and the lid. Add to that the fact that many of the cherries got stuck in the YYP because they were half-pitted, and I began to wonder if it’d be faster to do the job with my knife.

The Fastest Cherry Pitters Made It Easy to Get Into a Groove

I was floored by how easy it was to churn out pitted cherries with the Leifheit Cherry Stone Remover. Although it looks bulky, using it couldn’t be simpler. The hopper holds a lot of cherries, and they funnel into the pitting station before rolling down a chute. What slowed me down during every other test was grabbing more cherries from my bowl and arranging them in the pitter.

The Leifheit eliminated that issue. Is it the best cherry pitter for everyone? Maybe not—it’s pretty big for a single-purpose tool—but if you pit a lot of cherries at least once a year, it’s worth it. Don’t want to invest in a big cherry pitter? Get one with comfortable, grippy handles, like the OXO cherry pitter. They go a long way in reducing fatigue.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Cherry Pitter

The best cherry pitters have sharp, grooved plungers that cleanly extract pits without tearing the fruit. Multi-cherry pitters should be easy to load and unload, and deliver a large amount of clean cherries—they’re not useful if half of each batch comes out torn. To make the job more comfortable, get a cherry pitter with grippy handles and a design that can exert a lot of force on its own.

Our Favorite Cherry Pitters

The Best Cherry Pitter

OXO Good Grips Cherry and Olive Pitter

$18 at Amazon View on Williams Sonoma View on Kohls.com

What we liked: The OXO Cherry Pitter has one job, and it does it well. The small splatter guard kept spray to a minimum because the design was so compact—the juice stays contained! The handle is very lightly textured, which means it doesn’t slip around in your hand. Most important: The plunger is strong, sharp, and precise. It locks shut when not in use.

What we didn’t like: It’s not the best option if you have a ton of cherries to plow through. But there are two other great pitters on the list for that!

Key Specs

• Materials: Zinc, stainless steel
• Capacity: 1 cherry
• Dimensions: 5.9 x 3 inches
• Cleaning instructions: Dishwasher-safe
  

Another Great Cherry Pitter

Cuisipro Cherry Pitter

$17 at Amazon View on Walmart

What we liked: The Cuisipro is another great handheld cherry pitter. It performed just behind the OXO during my tests. Like the OXO, it locks shut when not in use.

What we didn't like: The splattter guard on the Cuisipro is a little messier to use. It's a dollar or two more than the OXO, depending on sale prices.

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic, stainless steel
• Capacity: 1 cherry
• Dimensions: 8 x 3.25 inches
• Cleaning instructions: Dishwasher-safe (top rack only)
  

The Fastest Cherry Pitter

Leifheit Cherry Pitter with Stone Catcher Container

$45

$40 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Bed Bath & Beyond

What we liked: This is the best cherry pitter if you go through a ton of cherries. The catch basin’s capacity isn’t stated, but I’m pretty sure it can hold about seven million pits. (Leifheit claims you can process up to 25 pounds of cherries in one hour.) While this is technically a single cherry pitter—it only pits one at a time—you can preload cherries. They’ll tumble into the chute when it’s their turn to go. In my tests, this pitter produced clean cherries, and using it was genuinely pretty mesmerizing. It’s easy to get into a good rhythm with this one.

What we didn’t like: It’s pretty big, and may not fit in all utensil drawers. There’s no collection bin for the pitted cherries, but that’s an easy workaround: Just put a shallow bowl underneath the chute.

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic, stainless steel
• Capacity: 1 cherry
• Dimensions: 6 x 4.5 inches
• Cleaning instructions: Dishwasher-safe
  

The Best Multi Cherry Pitter

OXO Good Grips Multiple Cherry Pitter

$25 at Amazon View on Williams Sonoma View on Webstaurant Store

What we liked: I know what you’re thinking: Why isn’t the best multi-cherry pitter also the fastest cherry pitter? This one takes a little longer to load and unload, so it couldn’t compete with the Leifheit on time. But it’s a fantastic option for cooks who want to pit multiple cherries at once. For such a hardworking tool, the OXO Multi Cherry Pitter is surprisingly compact. When it’s not in use, it closes up tidily—a big win for a gadget that likely won’t get used more than a handful of times each year. The loading dock can hold every size cherry, and although the plungers are plastic, they’re deeply ridged, which makes for clean cuts. In fact, this one had the highest percentage of perfectly pitted cherries in my test. The catch basin holds a lot and stays put while in use. Like the OXO single-cherry pitter, it’s a pretty burgundy color.

What we didn’t like: Nothing; it’s great! (Unless you only want a single-cherry pitter.)

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic
• Capacity: 1 cherry
• Dimensions: 13 x 7.6 inches
• Cleaning instructions: Dishwasher-safe
  

The Competition

• Ordekcity Cherry Pitter: The smooth plunger on this tool couldn’t cleanly pierce cherries, and its hinge mechanism wasn’t as strong as the OXO single-cherry pitter.
• YYP Cherry Pitter: This multi-cherry pitter couldn’t hold a lot of stones, was tricky to line up, and couldn’t reliably separate the cherry from its pit.

FAQs

How do you use a cherry pitter?

If you’re using a single-cherry pitter, place a destemmed cherry underneath the plunger with the splatter guard facing downward (ideally over a bowl to catch the pits). Squeeze the handles together to trigger the plunger; it will pierce the cherry and eject the pit. Remove the cherry and repeat. If you’re using a multi-cherry pitter, you’ll need to load it with cherries, replace the cover, and press down on a button or handle. Multiple plungers will pierce the cherries, and the pits should be collected in a basin below.

How do you pit cherries without a cherry pitter?

Got a chef’s knife? Turn it on its side and use the widest part of the blade to bear down on a cherry. It will split open, and you can then remove the pit with your fingers. It won’t look as clean or round as if you used a cherry pitter. You can also slice cherries in half with a paring knife and scoop out the pit.

Can you use a cherry pitter for olives?

Sure, why not? That said, especially large or oblong olives won’t fit in cherry pitters. Your best bet is small, round olives like Castelvetrano olives.

Can you do anything with cherry pits?

Yes! Try making whipped cream or a syrup.

Why We’re the Experts

• Rochelle Bilow is an editor at Serious Eats. She’s a culinary school graduate and previously worked at Bon Appétit magazine. 
• For this review, Rochelle tested six cherry pitters, judging them on how quickly and efficiently they could pit cherries. 
• She made a cherry crumble and cherry limeade after completing this review.