Much like the rice cooker dilemmas detailed in an earlier post, wading into the juicing waters (or wading into the juice, if you want) can be a bit confusing. There are a number of types to choose from, including small handheld models that can look like a fish, larger handheld models, lever models, ones that fit on your food processor or stand mixer, and then the larger motorized models usually called juice extractors. What’s a juice-lover (or someone who wants to drink more juice at home) to do when faced with this array?
Well, first off, let’s agree on a couple points. Fresh juice is good for you (this is a pretty recognized fact). Fresh juice tastes better, and is an awesome addition to food and drinks (especially the latter--cocktails are instantly better with fresh juice). Finally, buying fresh juice everyday is a pricey proposition. All of which means that having a juicer is a fantastic idea, once you know which type is right for you. To make it easy, I’ve broken juicers out into four groups.
1. Handheld Juicers
These are those that you can store in a drawer, those that can be cute in shape, but also can be sturdy and handy. The top products in this area (if you want to use your juicer, and not solely have it for decoration) tend to have two arms, and squeeze the juice out, such as the Oxo juice squeezer. They’re a good bet if you are mostly juicing limes and lemons (oranges can get too large), and not planning on squeezing a lot of them--say, squeezing enough to make a glass or two of limeade a week. If having a party, or going through a lot of juice, you’ll want to step up.
2. Lever Model Juicers
These are counter sitters, because they’ve got decent-to-large size, and tend to be fairly tall to accommodate the lever that you pull when juicing. Models such as the Hamilton Beach juicer are sturdy, and can handle some heavy-duty citrus juicing, including oranges, lemons, limes, Clementines, and more. They’re great if you’re going to juice a lot of fruit, and aren’t hard to use at all, though operating the lever can wear out an arm after a while. But they’re definitely a step up from a handheld model. Be sure to pick one you like the look of as they don't always store easily.
3. Juicer Attachments
These are juicers that use the power of another appliance to do their work (which means you can’t use them without that appliance), such as the Cuisinart stand mixer attachment. They tend to be able to handle all the citrus fruits, and don’t take much muscle power to use, and can deal with a large amount of juicing at once. The only downside is they tend to also be plastic, and are dependent on the appliance they attach too. But if you have a stand mixer, food processor, or (in some cases) blender already, they can be an easy upgrade.
4. Juice Extractors (or, Professional Style Juicers)
These are the true workhorses of the juicing world, and really what’s needed if you want to juice more than citrus fruit. As opposed to the above, which squeeze the juice out, these juicing machines spin, masticate, and do whatever it takes to extract all the juice from a fruit or vegetable, and then discard the pulp. Let’s take the mighty Omega Juicer 8006 as an example. It has a serious commercial motor (with a gear reduction equal to a 2 horsepower motor), and can extract juice from really any fruit, vegetable, or leafy green (the list covers everything from apples to yams). These types of juice extractors are for the user who really wants to juice a lot, and understands the benefits of fresh juice (really, it was the perfect pick for someone like me, who bought a lot of those Naked juices and wanted to cut down on how much money I spent, because you can make the same juices, cheaper, with a juice extractor). Some of the more advanced juice extractors (such as the 8006) can even double as a pasta, nutbutter, and frozen dessert maker, adding a bit or versatility. This is a plus, because when picking up a juice extractor, you’ll probably want to leave it on the counter so that you use it as much as possible.
There you have it: fresh juice is good, tasty, and, with the right juicer, easy to have at home. Now all that’s needed is to find a reliable grocery store, farmer’s market, or farmer to get your produce from on a regular basis.
--A.J. Rathbun
