With rising health concerns and increasing awareness about the importance of consuming fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, juicing has become a way of life. To get the maximum benefit from drinking juice, you must drink your juice as fresh as possible. You must use methods that help retain the nutrients of fruits and vegetables.
Why Drink Juice?
Many people seemed to have jumped on to the health bandwagon by exercising and opting for a healthier diet. Juices are the best way to get raw liquid nutrients into your body.
Nothing beats the taste of a chilled glass of juice but the main objective of drinking juice has always been to take advantage of all the vitamins and minerals in fruits to enhance your health.
“A juice cleanse can reset the system by clearing the body of toxins and acidity to reduce cravings and promote lasting weight loss and improve overall health”, according to the authors of the book ‘The Juice Cleanse Reset Diet’.
Note: Always drink freshly prepared juice because even when it’s stored in the fridge, it can turn brown – a mere indication that the nutrients are oxidising.
What is a Juicer?
A juicer is basically a kitchen appliance designed to extract juice from fruits and vegetables, a great way to get your 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day. Pretty much all juicers have at least two basic jugs that come with it, one to collect the juice and one to collect the pulp.
Be aware that a good juicer doesn’t come all that cheap, because juicing is very hard on the motor, and a high-quality juicer is built to last.
There are in fact, 2 main types of juicers – masticating juicers and centrifugal juicers. This guide will tell you the difference between types of juicers, how much you need to spend to get a great model, and what other features to look out for.
- A centrifugal juicer is the most common type of juicer, and definitely a more economical option. The blades spin fast in order to grate fruits and vegetables quickly. They work by grating the produce into a pulp and then spinning the liquid out of it. However, centrifugal juicers do not work as well with leafy greens.
- A masticating juicer is more efficient than a centrifugal juicer, and more expensive too. It extracts extra juice while retaining more fiber as well and can also be used to make fruit sorbets, nut butters and baby foods. It tends to run slower though, since it extracts as much usable material from the food being fed into it. It also works well with leafy vegetables. Of late, a new juicer is on trend – a triturating juicer in which the fruit or vegetable is exposed to minimum heat, almost zero oxidation, making cold-pressed juice that is more fresh, pure and nutrient-rich.
Citrus Juicer
Part of the healthy diet is also fresh juices with orange juice being the most popular choice. However, making this healthy citrus juice is not as easy as it seems, you need the right machine and for that you need a good citrus juicer.
A citrus juicer is a great way to make all your healthy citrus juices which include lemons or grapefruits apart from oranges. It is easy to use and also time saving. But how do you know which one to buy? We have listed down the features that make for a good citrus juicer. Have a look and you will get a fair idea about what to look for when you go out to buy one.
Buying a Juicer: Factors to Consider
It Needs to Have Power
The most important and the basic feature to look out for is the power of the motor of the juicer. Meaning, how fast or how slow the motor works is of key importance because that indicates how well the juicer works in extracting juice from your citrus fruit.
Needless to say, juicers with lesser power in the motor should be avoided. An ideal power would be 20 watts, so make sure you keep that number as a benchmark.
Needs Adequate Capacity
If you live in a large family set up and if you have a juicer with a small capacity, you will end up doing many rounds of crushing and juicing in the juicer. To avoid that, you may want to consider buying a juicer with a bigger capacity so that it meets the quantity requirement of all the members in your family at one go.
You may live alone, we still recommend to opt for a juicer with more capacity, just in case you have couple of unannounced guests come over.
Construction Quality
You want a juicer that lasts long. But there are many juicers in the market that are made of plastic or come with plastic parts. Now, we are not against these brands, but the fact is plastic doesn’t last long and tend to degrade faster. So, keep an eye out for such models.
There are some models that don’t use plastic on visible parts but some of its internal parts may be made of plastic. In such cases, you may not know exactly what it is made of and the manufacturers are not always transparent about it either. Reviews will help in such situations. You can check for user reviews and see what users have to say about the durability of the model. Having said that, not all plastic parts make for bad juicers. There are some which may work for a long time even.
Things to Look For
Design: The simplest machine can be the best machine, with no complicated features to make it irksome to use. If your juicer is compact and only has a few simple parts, it will be easier to assemble and also, motivate you to use it more often.
Juicing Yield: You obviously want a juicer that extracts a good amount from fruits and vegetables. Note- Wet pulp is an indication that the machine is not effective in extracting a high yield of juice.
Speeds: Centrifugal juicers come with variable speeds so you can select a slow speed for soft fruits like berries and fast speed for harder fruits and vegetables like carrots. The slower the basket spins, the more juice is extracted from the fruit or vegetable, which makes this a definite advantage of these types of juicers.
Cleaning Time: There are many plus points for juicing, but cleaning a juicer is definitely not one of them. When purchasing a juicer, consider the cleaning method and the amount of time it would take to clean the gunk off after juicing.
Juice Level Indicator: A see-through container is great, but nothing beats visible markings to indicate the amount of fruit or greens that has been juiced. A feature which is not universal amongst the products we have tested, it is one that you must look out for.
Feeding Tube: The larger the size of the feeding tube, the larger pieces of produce that can be juiced. This feature makes the preparation easy because the food doesn’t require cutting and chopping. A good size for the spout of a centrifugal juicer feeding tube is 3 inches or wider.
Pulp Container: Look out for a juicer with a large pulp container because you don’t need to stop and empty it if you want to juice large amounts.
Safety Switch: Almost all juicers have a safety lock lid. This means the juicer won’t work unless the lid is clicked into place securely.
Drip-Stop Pout: An added feature, but very useful. This prevents any remaining juice inside the machine from dripping out onto your kitchen counter, when you’ve removed your glass or jug from underneath the spout.
Noise: Before buying a juicer, get a demo and make sure it isn’t noisy.
Storability: A juicer that is compact and takes limited space is ideal, so you can store it in your kitchen cabinet easily or even display it on the counter.
Customer Service: It is best to choose a juicer that offers you aspects like a long-term warranty, or exchange or return of the item in case it is faulty.
Maintenance Tips
Now that you know a lot about juicers and probably have a good quality one at home, here are tips to take care of your gadget.
- Most of these juicers come with basic safety features but as a practise, make sure you switch it off after use.
- You must always clean up as soon as you have finished making the juice, or rather drinking the juice. It will easily rinse off with warm water if you do it there and then.
- In case you got busy or lazy – you will have to use hot water and scrub till you get the dried pulp off. Clean the pulp container with a spatula, keep scraping and you’ll succeed. Needless to say, the most difficult part to clean is the sieve so use a toothbrush for the job.
- Do not place the base of the juicer in water.
- Once you’re done, allow all the parts to dry up, then reassemble the juicer and store it in a convenient place, until you need to make juice again.
Now there are some things that user manuals and product descriptions won’t tell you, like how long the juicer will take to produce a full jug of yummy juice, how noisy it is and whether it’s a nightmare to clean and store. Fret not, we’ll make sure you won’t end up wasting you money on a model that ends up gathering dust in the kitchen cupboard. Because ultimately, you want to own a machine that adds value to your everyday life, simplifies the process and gives you quality service and the satisfaction of money well spent.
After several trips to retail stores, connecting with brands and analysing products available online, we realized that the first thing that pops up once you ask about a juicer is a centrifugal juicer. Why? Because it’s the easiest to assemble and not too tough on the wallet in comparison to masticating and triturating juicers. It’s easier to find on shop shelves and the most common too, which is why we decided to find you the best centrifugal juicer in town.
Cold Press Juicer
In today’s world, people are becoming more aware about the benefits of including fresh fruits and raw vegetables in their daily diet. They are aware of its unlimited benefits such as weight-loss, lowering blood pressure, providing increased energy, clearer skin, stronger immune systems and much more.
People are looking at more healthy options and moving away from the ready-made packaged, canned and chemically processed foods and prefer making their own meals. The focus is on whole grains, organic, herbal, natural and fresh homemade food.
Appliances in the modern house-hold kitchens include microwave ovens, non-stick utensils, hot air fryers, slicers and dicers, electric grills and various types of juicers.
Centrifugal Juicers or Mixers
But in the haste of gulping down healthy juice, people often forget that the richness and goodness of a juice is lost by using the commonly found centrifugal juicers or mixers to extract the liquid as the spinning of high-speed metal blade produces heat, thus damaging the vital enzymes and nutrients in the juice.
Also adding water during the juicing process, and the air that gets inside the jars during the spinning process makes the juice foamy and has to be immediately consumed, preservation is not an option here.
A cold-press juicer is the only solution to retain 100% nutrients and preserve any kind of juice for a longer period of time.
A pure juicer is the ideal companion for modern health conscious people as it preserves essential nutrients and enzymes from the fresh fruits, raw vegetables and leafy greens while extracting the juice, thanks to its slow squeezing mechanism which does not use any blades nor water.
Advantages of the cold-press method:
- Yields 50% more juice compared to conventional juicers and mixers
- Extends the shelf life for upto 72 hours
- Retains the natural taste.
Now this product should be a definite addition to any household, be it the kitchen or the dinner table; a healthy option at very reasonable cost.
Watch: PURE Juicer – Innovation In Cold-Press Juicing
Australia’s Boost Juice (Joost Juice Bars in India)
Australian retail chain Boost Juice Bars (operating in India as Joost Juice Bars, because Boost is already associated with another health drink brand) is excited about the growing health awareness scene in India.
As a result, the company has chalked out some aggressive plans in India, as it hopes to woo health-conscious consumers with cold-pressed juices, smoothies, low-fat wraps and sandwiches in metros and smaller cities. The company already has outlets at various airports, hospitals, shopping malls and gyms in India.
The company introduced the natural juice and smoothies bar concept in India through a master franchise agreement with NatureU Enterprises.
Janine Allis, Founder, Boost Juice Bars Australia, said: “In India, there are challenges due to lack of infrastructure, cold chains and it takes time to build a supply chain. Through the past few years, we have now understood the market. If one looks at the demographics and the potential, I believe India could be one of our fastest growing markets, now that the foundation of the business has been established.”
To ensure Joost delivers the best quality (and to combat food adulteration, prevalent in India), Joost ensures they use only high quality fruits in their smoothies and juices. The company sources blueberries and raspberries from New Zealand; Sweet Charlie, a more appropriate Strawberry, from Mahableshwar-Panchgani belt; Mangoes from Ratnagiri and Apples from Kashmir.
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