Would you like the best juicer?

"Which is the best?"

One of the most frequent question we are asked is: "Which is the best juicer?"

Choosing a juicer is much like choosing a car. Just as a young couple with no children will choose a sports car and a large family will choose a people carrier, so you need to choose the juicer that suits your lifestyle.

Of the many different juicers available none is perfect at tackling every type of operation with equally good results. Before purchasing any of them you should take into consideration the factors that are most important to you such as:

• quality of juice
• type of produce to be juiced
• frequency of use
• speed of juicing required
• ease of cleaning
• noise level
• budget

One of the reasons that no single juicer is perfect for every situation is that fruits and vegetables have vastly different properties and the method that works for one may not work so well for the other.

Fruits have soft cell walls, which require a gentle extraction method. Apples, pears, watermelons, cantaloupes and pineapples are some of the fruits that can be juiced complete. Citrus fruit such as oranges and grapefruits have a bitter outer rind and juice produced from the whole fruit would be too bitter.

Vegetables on the other hand have fibrous, "tough" cell walls requiring a more aggressive mechanical juicing action. Vegetable juices should be consumed straight after preparation if possible as the enzyme activity in the juice diminishes quite fast.

The reason that shop bought juices never oxidise is because the juice has been heated to kill all the enzymes which would cause oxidisation. These enzymes, and the benefits they bring to us, are one of the key reasons why making fresh juice with your juicer is so important.

Here is a short overview of some of the different juicers available on the market today:

Centrifugal Juicers

Most of the cheaper domestic juicers fall into this category. Generally they're not up to daily use, destroy many of the enzymes in the juice, and leave a lot of juice in with the pulp.

For these reasons, centrifugal juicers are not generally recommended if high quality juice is wanted on a daily basis.

They use a grater or shredder disc and a strainer basket with straight sides to hold the pulp in the machine. The shredder disk is at the bottom of the basket, which revolves at a high speed - 3600 RPM.

The produce is put into the top of the machine, and is pressed through a chute hitting the spinning shredder disc. While the produce is being shredded, juice is released. The basket spins at high speed, and the force pushes the juice through the strainer basket, and out of the front of the machine. The pulp stays inside the machine.

Generally this type of juicer can make 1-2 quarts before the juicer must be stopped and the pulp removed before further juicing can take place. This is not a continuous juicing appliance.

Centrifugal Ejection Juicers

This juicer operates in much the same way as the centrifugal juicer above, except that the sides of the basket are slanted. This allows for the basket to be "self-cleaning", so there is no need to stop the juicer and empty it out.

The pulp is ejected out of the machine, usually into a collection bin or basket, that can be lined with a plastic bag to collect the pulp, and then easily discarded. Due to the short contact time of the pulp in the basket, these juicers need to spin faster than the centrifugal juicer, at about 6300 RPM. This type of juicer is the noisiest.

They are good for producing a large quantity of juice but are not recommended for quality juice. Spinning at over 6000 RPMs causes most of the enzymes to be destroyed due to heat, shock and friction.

Masticating Juicer

Masticating juicers chew up the fruit or vegetables to extract the juice. They are usually more expensive than centrifugal juicers but last longer, produce a much higher quality of juice, and extract much more juice from the pulp.

These juicers are best for daily use where the quality of the juice is important.

The Champion Juicer, made by Plastaket, combines three operations in one. The Champion Juicer first grates, then masticates, or chews, the pulp to further break down the cell-wall structure, and then mechanically presses or squeezes the pulp to extract the juice.

The Champion uses a powerful slow-turning motor. It can juice almost every type of vegetable efficiently, including leafy vegetables. By blocking off the juice spout (with the blank or solid plate), the Champion can be used as a homogeniser to make such foods as raw apple sauce, tomato sauce and baby food. It can make peanut butter or other nut butters.

It also makes wonderful ice cream-like desserts from raw frozen bananas and other fruits.

By assembling the Champion without the blank or juicing screen, it can be used as a grater or to make shave ice.

The Champion's motor is manufactured by General Electric and its juicing parts are constructed of stainless steel and nylon; it has been manufactured since the 1950's. It is best for juicing most fruits and vegetables.

Single Auger Juicers

This juicer works with a single auger that basically crushes the produce into the walls (or screen) of the juicer, and in the process extracts the juice. It runs at a low RPM, so there is little oxidation.

The single auger style juicer has been on the market as a dedicated wheatgrass juicer for many, many years now.

This type of machine may not be as effective as the twin gear units at juicing carrots. The juice made with this machine tends to be more pulpy and it is advised to use the strainer that is included. Fruits and non-leafy vegetables need to be cut into small "cubes" for best results when using this juicer. For best results, the hard and soft produce needs to be "alternated" when feeding into the juicer.

Twin Gear Press

These machines are best for juicing vegetables since they rely on the fibrous cell wall to push the pulp through the machine. As a bonus, it will also juice wheatgrass. The quality of the juice produced with this machine can be compared to the quality of the hydraulic press.

The Green Star juicer available from Nutri-Info has two gears that press out the juice of the produce. The screws turn at a low speed: 90-110 rpm. The produce is pushed (with some force) into the two gears, which first shred, and then squeeze the produce.

This juicer truly gives "the best of both worlds".

While it is best for juicing vegetables, the Green Star juicer also has a fruit attachment included.

Like the Champion, the Green Star is also able to homogenise and make raw apple sauce, delicious fruit sorbets, nut butters and baby food.

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