A great juicer is a great investment!
I think that if you accept to spend some more money on higher-quality organic fruits and vegetables, you surely want to squeeze every available nutrients, vitamins and other goodness into your juice glass, right?
That’s why spending some more effort and money to get the best juicers as an investment for your long terms radiance, wellness and energy is essential.
But prior to considering which features should or shouldn’t be built in your ideal juicer, ask yourself these six questions firstly:
- What is your budget?
- How much space does your kitchen have?
- What’s more essential – the effort/time it takes to prepare your juice or its shelf life?
- How much prep time are you willing to invest in your daily juicing?
- How much cleanup are you willing to do after that?
- Are you going to be juice wheatgrass?
Now, after you already have full answers for those quests, it’s time for you to move on my first part of this article:
Features to consider
Types
In generally, for non-commercial use, there are two categories of juicers. The major differences between them lies in speed, maintenance and longevity of the juice.
While one category of juicer highlights its ability of quick working and easy cleaning, BUT, in turn, the juice it makes isn’t longevity; the other one, even though it isn’t on top-of-the-line in terms of speed or maintenance, it strikes back with more nutrients and enzymes contained in juice, which you can keep for a couple of days.
So now, you need to make a tradeoff between them! Speed + Maintenance or Quality + Longevity Juice: which overweigh due to your preference?
Still overwhelmed? Well then, let me give you a hand!
If you self-understand that you make a juicer only if it’s really quick and easy to clean, go full tilt with the centrifugal model.
Centrifugal juicer
Truth to say, this is my biased.
It’s pretty quick and easy, which mostly thanks to its wide mouth to feed your veggies and fruits into without need of cutting into small pieces beforehand, which means you’ll get some more time on your hands.
Now, how does it work?
There’s a quick-spinning mesh basket with a grated bottom right under its chute where your veggies and fruits, after being pushed through, will be shredded and spun. Then, while the pulp is moved into a separate basket, the juice is sent through the mesh and goes into a pitcher.
In turns, because of the high-speed spinning motor, it causes pretty loud in addition to speed up the oxidization of juice compared to the slow juicers or Cold press juicers. That’s why I highly recommend you to drink it within a day and avoid let it overnight for drinking later unless you can assure to keep it in a really airtight mason jar by all means and place in your fridge.
Besides, they don’t work well on leafy greens, herbs and sprouts.
Now, if you are a mamacita who truly wants to make a good investment on a killer juicer to not only serve its best for your wellness, but also help save much of your time, opt for the twin gear or the masticating juicer.
Masticating Juicers
These bad boys operate like a little pearly white – they utilize a single auger to feed into your produce and then, break down the fibrous cell walls to extract the juice. No doubt, it comes in higher productivity than centrifugal juicers and of course, release dryer pulp.
Their main characteristics is low working, which is synonymous to more nutrients and less oxidation to keep the juice last longer (up to 48 hours if being stored carefully in an airtight mason jar and placed in a fridge). Not saying that it causes less noise than the centrifugal – they purr like a cat.
Twin Gear Juicers
This comes in even a higher productivity than the masticating juicers, which means it works in slower speed in comparison. There are 2 interlocking roller gears equipped in the machine, once chewing up your veggies and fruits, they will be slowly squeezed out the juice.
And as a basic rule of thumb, the slower the speed, the less oxidation. In fact, if being stored in a sealed mason jar in your fridge, the juice can last roughly 72 hours with its fresh flavor and nutrient intact.
Though it can’t work as fast as Citrus juicer, this bad boy can work on wheatgrass and leafy greens as easily as a piece of cake. From that point, you can make nut butter in them.
Both twin gear and masticating juicers are health-producing and powerful but in turns, they have got some drawbacks:
First up, of course, its speed! As I mentioned above, you need to make a tradeoff between speed and quality juice. Both masticating and twin gear juicers work more slowly than the centrifugal machine, however, it just takes a little bit longer, about a couple of seconds slower.
Another matter that also takes time is preparing fruits, I mean with these two machines, you need to cut your fruits or vegetables into itty-bitty pieces because their mouth is pretty narrow.
And last up, the cleanup might take more time, too! It’s because they come in more parts than centrifugal juicers, which is synonymous to you taking a few extra steps to scrub and rinse.
Besides, you also need to accept the truth that sometimes, pulp is too small to be filtered entirely, which means they might slip through the juice. However, to me, it’s not a big deal at all because my glass of juice will get more fiber.
However, if you want a finer juice without pulp, kindly strain it. Easy peasy!
For such that enormous health producing, the truth is masticating and especially twin gear juicers are a little bit pricier than centrifugal machine. However, they are the favorite of many health advocates and gurus.
If your budget is on the table and you want to take care of your health, your family, particularly your children better, I think these gears are worth long-term investing.
Your budget
For the most economical choice, I highly recommend to choosing the centrifugal juicers. Though they come in countless of style, size and brand, in general, the price range is from dozens to under $200.
And don’t worry about the quality or durability, because such cheap price is coming from simple construction.
Now, if you want to make a big investment on your health as well as your budget is loose, go for masticating or twin gear juicers. They are in higher price range, roughly hundreds of dollars. Some high-end models might cost up to more than $1000.
Actually, there’s another type of juicers but I avoid talking more detail about it because of its too expensive price tag – up to $2500. It’s Norwalk juicer! It’s the slowest, but the most efficient machine. Also, might be the most expensive juicer out there on the market.
So, if you have just inherited the family jewels, robbed the bank or won the lottery, go for it. (Just kidding!) These premium juicers are usually used for commercial purpose or by many healing centers. And of course, it’s not something you can buy at a nearby Target local store but pick it in the juice bars or procure it online.
Which Juicers Brands Are the Best?
Last but not least is brand.
If you have been following my blog for long-enough time, might you notice that I rarely mention to brands. However, here is an exception because a juicer, especially a masticating or a twin gear machine isn’t a cheap thing.
You need to be a wise customer!
And I highly recommend you to dropping your money on a reliable brand which not only provides high-quality products, but also good warranty so that unfortunately, yours is broken down for some reasons, you will have chance to alter or get the refund from the manufacturer.
Two most popular juicer brands are Breville, Black and Decker and Omega. They are seniors in this field with many years of experience in producing and distributing various kinds of juicers. Though there are many new comers on the market providing high-quality machine, these two brands beat up for their affordable price. And on top of that, very good warranty!
Some other selections are Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, ninja and Hamilton, they usually release many new-style models to get a perfect compromise of function and design. Along with that, it’s their competitive price as well.
However, for the most affordable price juicers, this list can’t be completed if there’s not Jack LaLanne, Hurom and vitamix. Though their experience isn’t as much as those above, looking at their process and products, you can see how hard-working they have been up to now to build the brand.
Other than those electronic juicers, there’s another type – manual juicers or hand juicers. But the reason I don’t mention it here is because other than its cheapest price on the market, the machine doesn’t get any highlight in performance or juice quality.
It takes a lot of effort to make a glass of juice, not saying that the quality of juice isn’t as much as the centrifugal or other electronic types of juicers. However, if sometimes, you want to drink juice at home or you are a truly life-savings person, I also write a separate article about it, kindly consult here.
It’s time to consider
See? To choose the best juicer, there’re only three major elements to bear in mind: type, price and brand. Amongst them, pay closer attention to type of juicer as this factor effects directly to your habit of drinking, demands and lifestyle. If there’s anything you wonder about juicers, kindly leave the comment below, I will try my best to respond as quickly as possible.
