Foodie Swellness: Juicepresso review

You may have noticed I’m a fan of cold-pressed juices (they make an appearance now and again on my Instagram). But, wow, do they cost a chunk of change! And so I decided that I wanted a juicer. I tested out a friend’s to see how I liked it and how fussy it was to clean (not so bad, no more work than cleaning my blender), and decided it was a worthy buy. And then I was asked if I wanted to test out the Juicepresso juicer (Was it my mere wishes of wanting a juicer that brought this about? If so, I’d really, really like to escape the rest of winter and be on a beach, SVP).

The Juicepresso (silly name, but I guess it tell you what it does…) is what’s known as a slow juicer, or masticating juicer. Masticating juicers feature a lower RPM compared to centrifugal juicers (the Juicepresso is a very low 40 RPM) and this cuts down on the oxidation of the juice (you don’t want your juice to be oxidized — this reduces the nutrition level of it). Masticating juicers also apparently produce more yield (I don’t have a ton to compare it to, but this is what I’ve read).

Juicepresso unpacked, I loaded up on veggies and fruit. I gravitate towards juices with ginger in them, so I started with a recipe for a beet, apple, ginger, carrot and lemon juice that I got from GOOP. And it was delicious, and cost a fraction of what a single bottle of the same would cost at a juice bar.

With a few months of use, here are the pros and cons I’ve experienced with the Juicepresso:

PROS

• juicing at home costs a fraction of buying cold-pressed juices (yes, there’s the initial cost of the juicer, of course!)
• Juicepresso takes up much less room than other juicers I’ve seen, which is important when you have a small kitchen like I do
• Juicepresso is quiet, important when you decide you want to make juice at 2 a.m.
• the pulp comes out pretty dry, so it does seem to extract juice well
• because the juice is being masticated instead of being whirred up in a centrifugal juicer, the juice comes out at a regular temperature (it can be a bit warm when you use a centrifugal juicer)
• Clean up is fairly simple. I often hear people saying how juicers are a pain to clean, but I don’t find it any different than having to clean a blender.

CONS

• when I juice leafy veggies, they sometimes get stuck and clog up the spout
• the tube where you enter your produce is narrow (this is typical of masticating juicers) so you do have to chop your veggies smaller than you would for a centrifugal juicer
• There are two small rubber pieces that you must remove and clean. They’re about the size of a nickel and I promptly lost them about a week after using the Juicepresso and had to have them replaced (I was sent replacements, but if you lose yours, they’ll cost $5 to replace). I think I placed them on the cutting board and then ditched them when I threw out the veggie peels and such. Doh!

All in all, I’m super pleased with the Juicepresso and my new juicing habit. It makes me happy to make a juice…there’s something oddly satisfying of feeding the veggies and fruit into it and watching the juice emerge.

Now, to do something with all that pulp. Such a waste for it to go in the bin. I’m going to need to start baking with it or something.

Leave a Comment February 25, 2015