“If you need to grind an amount of pepper to measure a tablespoon, like with a dry brine, or when you’re making cacio e pepe, it really makes a difference,” says Carla Lalli Music
founder Sana Javeri Kadri, who says she owns two and has tested about a dozen other grinders. Like Baz, Javeri Kadri says she was floored by the amount of pepper that dispensed into the Cannon’s bottom caddy each time she twisted the top.
But there’s more to the Cannon than just speed. The grind size comes in a larger range than that of any other model and, as López-Alt said, is highly consistent. Oines says other mills’ burrs wobble, causing unevenness in the pepper’s texture, so he added a support. He also made it easier to refill the grinder without unscrewing a tiny knob like with the Peugeot or funneling peppercorns into a hole on the side, like with the Unicorn.
At $200, this pepper mill is extraordinarily expensive, which Oines says was unavoidable given high production costs. The only other downside is that the indents at the top aren’t quiteBaz has nonetheless fully replaced her Unicorns, while Music has found another solution. “The Unicorn is now on the table where we eat,” she says. “It’s the table pepper, and the Cannon is the kitchen pepper.”