I decided a long time ago I really didn’t NEED a juicer. For one thing I like the fiber and nutritious “pulp” to stay in the juice. Second, we have a Vita-Mix and a Blendtec and they pulverize anything that goes in them. They make a mean smoothie for sure and for less pulpy juices or nut milk I just use a strainer or cheese cloth. When straining juice there were still some bits in it but that is okay with me. My kids, however, were used to super smooth juices in a bottle and did not like stuff floating in their juice.
When we started eating more raw and less processed and pasteurized I stopped buying processed juice…not even organic. I knew it had added ingredients that were less than savory because how else could juice sit unrefrigerated for weeks or months before you need to drink it? Sooo…I decided to buy a cheap juicer and see if we would like using it. I was curious to see if it was faster, smoother, and more efficient than my high powered blenders for making fresh juice. I want a Green Star juicer but since this was an experiment I decided to keep it at no more than a $100. We got a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. For every 5 star review it has on Amazon it also has a 1 star review to match but I decided to take a chance. I may end up telling you it burned up after 3 months.
So far we have made fresh orange juice and apple juice. The machine worked well except I had to clean the filter out once in the middle of juicing the apples…there was too much pulp. Since I have never juiced before I cannot tell you if this is bad…but I think it might be a bad sign.
The juice was outstanding though! All my kids loved the orange juice which was perfectly sweet on its own and I even cut the sweetness with the addition of one grapefruit. The apple juice was super sweet and my oldest insists it is the best apple juice he has ever had. My daughter liked the taste but she doesn’t like the film that collects on the top…it is not smooth enough for her. But you can’t stick fruit in there and expect a bottle of Welches to pop out.
The clean-up takes about 5 minutes so all in all I would say juicing is slightly more efficient than blending and straining. Juicing is also great for detoxing which I REALLY need to dedicate to in the coming months…I am positive I still have all kinds of Chemo nasties still in my cells even though I quit before my round was complete and two years have past. I can’t wait to try some green juices and do a juice fast. I also plan to make some juice popsicles as well…yum!
So far I think it appears that having a juicer is worth it but the next few months will tell me for sure. If this juicer doesn’t last I already have its replacement picked out.
We put our juice inside seal-able glass bottles and drink them within two days to get the most nutrition out of them. The bottle below that we used for the orange juice is a Sesen glass bottle and really quite awesome. The stopper is BPA free plastic with a stainless steel sealer for a tight close. It comes with an ice blanket too that has water and no chemicals, that way we can freeze it and take the juice to the park for a picnic. The stopper and the blanket are also recyclable so it is a very earth friendly, reusable glass bottle. If you are looking for a nice juice jug/bottle check into them!
