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5 Best Juicers (2023): Centrifugal, Slow, Masticating

Posted on August 12, 2023

5 Best Juicers (2023): Centrifugal, Slow, Masticating

  • Person pouring juice into two cups
    Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images

    Centrifugal Versus Masticating ‘Slow’ Juicers

    Think about what type of fruit and vegetables you want to juice before making your purchase. There are two types of juicer technology to choose from: centrifugal and ‘slow’ masticating designs. A centrifugal juicer is designed for fast and powerful juicing but works best on hard fruit such as apples and carrots. It extracts juice by shredding fruit and vegetables on rotating blades at a high speed and grinding them up against a wire mesh to strain the pith and squeeze out the juice. While these work well for juicing a whole apple in one, softer fruits such as berries or leafy greens won’t do so well here.

    Meanwhile, a masticating juicer—sometimes called a slow or cold press juicer—takes the tempo down a notch. It will slowly chew and press fruit and vegetables to extract the juice and retain the nutrients. Slow juicers can tackle hard fruits such as apples and pears, but come into their own when used for softer fruits such as blueberries and leafy greens such as kale. The majority of juicers we’ve included here are slow designs, which seem to be far more popular and versatile than centrifugal designs. We’ve also included a citrus juicer, for simple orange, lemon, and lime drinks.

  • Photograph: Nama

    Best All-Rounder

    Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer

    Slim and stylish on the worktop, the Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer comes in a modern black or white colorway. Assembly is easy, with all the parts neatly stored and clearly labeled and a recipe booklet for drinks such as Sunshine State of Mind with grapefruit, cucumber, apple, beets, and ginger, which had me keen to get juicing. Two strainers are included—one for juicing and one for making thicker smoothies. This cold press juicer is designed to minimize froth and oxidation and keep juice fresher for longer to retain nutrients. Nama claims that it yields up to 60 percent more juice from the same amount of ingredients than traditional high-speed juicers. I was pleased with the performance—the motor works slowly and steadily and it is reasonably quiet. The J2 extracts pith into one container and collects juice in the chamber, which is easy to cleanly dispense into a container by lifting the spout lid.

    But the best thing about this juicer is the extra-wide hopper that lets you load an entire recipe at once. Unlike standard juicers, this means you won’t need to laboriously feed through one ingredient at a time. So you can turn it on, go about your kitchen business, and return to find your drink waiting. There is a hole in the top should you wish to add items as you go, too. With two kids keen to help me feed ingredients in the hopper, it’s reassuring to know that when the hopper lid is up, the juicer automatically turns off so no little hands risk injury. The hopper also fits a generous amount of fruit and veg inside it, and we managed to pack two apples, two carrots, some ginger, and a few sticks of chopped celery, which made enough for at least two servings. The results went down a treat.

    $550 at Nama
    $550 at Nama

  • Photograph: Sana

    Excellent for Soft Fruits

    Sana 868 Wide Mouth Vertical Juicer

    The Sana is a high-end slow juicer that ticks all the boxes in terms of good looks, smooth and quiet functionality, and versatile performance. Both its matte black and red finishes feel premium, with a stainless-steel pulp jug and borosilicate glass juice jug that add to its luxury finish. This juicer was a delight to use as its powerful 240 watts motor runs at a gentle 50 rpm, which means it can tackle hard fruits such as carrots and nuts but also softer ones—with limited froth clouding the juice.

    With a wide 82-mm feed chute, feeding bulkier ingredients is frustration-free, and it has a trapdoor system for safety. The Sana 868 is impressively versatile as it comes with four screen strainers to suit different tasks. The fine screen tackles whole apples, and the coarse screen is great for leafy greens and softer fruits such as strawberries and blueberries. There’s also a sorbet screen for, you guessed it, sorbet, but it also works well for ice cream and puréed recipes—new parents take note. I really like the smoothie screen here, however, as unlike a high-speed blender that could inject air into the mix and create foam and separation, this model is deliberately slow and steady. It juices and mixes the pulp slowly back into the juice to create a nutrient-dense drink.

    $600 at Amazon
    $600 at Sana

  • Photograph: Breville

    This Large Feeding Chute Means Business

    Breville the Juice Foundation Cold XL

    Everything about the Juice Fountain Cold XL is large—from its lofty 17.4-inch height, to its 3.5-inch-wide feed chute that takes a whole apple, to its XL juicing capacity that you can capture in its 70-fl.-oz. jug. I found the “cold” in its name misleading at first, as it’s actually a fast, centrifugal juicer and not a cold press or masticating design. It uses what Breville calls cold spin technology, however, which allows the juice to flow up and through the stainless-steel cutting disc and Italian-made mesh filter to ensure an “insignificant temperature increase.” What you need to know is that this helps to keep the juice fresh and appetizing. Breville also claims that the Cold XL can extract juice up to five times faster than a cold press juicer.

    On first use, I was taken aback at just how unforgivingly speedy and powerful its motor was in comparison to the slow juicer designs I’d been testing. While this makes it very effective at juicing hard fruits with ease, I did find that it wasn’t so effective at tackling softer fruits such as blueberries and kiwis—or at least I didn’t get much juice for the amount of berries I sacrificed. Its control panel is unique in that it allows you to speed up the machine in small increments. A Quiet starter setting is designed for soft fruits such as blueberries and strawberries, while the Fast and Boost settings worked remarkably well on harder ingredients such as whole carrots, apples, and a complete cucumber, which were all blitzed in seconds with satisfying results. [International note: This juicer model is named Sage the Nutri Juicer Cold XL in the UK.]

    $400 at Amazon
    $288 at Walmart
    $400 at Breville

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