Product Review – Juicespresso

 

Recently I was asked to trial the “Juicespresso” cold pressed juicer and at the time, I wasn’t even sure what a cold pressed juicer was or had even tried using a juicer before, having had nightmares about putting things together properly and even worse, cleaning them up afterwards.

In fact, I’ve never been a big fan of juices – the only types I’d been exposed to up to this point were bottled juices and juices from juice bars, such as Boost, where the juice is prepared in machines using blades and a blender like motion.

When I read the press release enclosed by the company, I was informed that blender style, centrifugal style models of juicers destroyed many of the enzymes and nutrients in the juice from rapid crushing due to the resultant heat generated from the blades of the juicer.  The Juicespresso uses a cold pressed method, meaning the juice is gently pressed out of the unit and thus retains more enzymes as there is no chance of nutrient degradation through heat.

I’ve written in the past about my green smoothie disasters and how I’ve never been able to make a vegetable juice from scratch that I actually enjoyed, and lately have been seeking ways of how to ingest larger volumes of vegetables and gain the benefits of the nutrients that are in them.   Focusing on the nutrient profile of foods as a strategy for better health is known as a nutritarian approach and I was keen to see if I felt better for it.

Thus the opportunity to trial this juicer came along at just the right time!

I played it safe and started with fruit juices first and whipped up a snappy apple, peach and pear juice within minutes.  I was concerned that there would be no fibre or pulp in the juice once the discards had been separated, but the juice was luscious, full of fibre and had a beautifully smooth texture.   It was a winner with my two children.

 

My next challenge was to make a vegetable juice from ingredients I’m not usually keen on in commercially available juices – celery and carrots!  Plus I wanted to test the effects of adding a big whack of spinach in as well.   I decided to use oranges as a ‘base’ and I soon whipped up this beauty…

 

We all had a glass each.  My littlest Lucy, who is a fussy eater, thought it tasted brilliant.  So did the bigger Lucy who grabbed the discards and mixed them back into the juice.   My thoughts?  I was sold – it was a subtle balance of orange, carrot and celery, but none of the ingredients were the least bit overpowering – and I couldn’t really taste the spinach at all.   It was indeed a successful experiment for the Last Chance Training family.

Then it was time for cleaning up and I have to say that it was a cinch.  I hate cleaning things with a passion and I was able to take the Juicespresso apart in less than a minute and clean all of the components very easily.  It went back together like a dream and my kids were begging me to keep it.

I wasn’t expecting much of this product – as I’d never juiced anything, rather blended it all but I’m pleased to say that I was blown away by how good it was and wished that I had used a juicer such as the Juicespresso when the kids were a bit younger and more vegetable eating challenged!   That said, however, I’d seriously consider buying one as I would much prefer the kids to be drinking fruit and vegetable juice that is raw and fresh than to be chowing down on something out of a packet.

To sum up:

Quality of appliance:   A – beautifully put together and no complicated parts

Ease of Use:   A – easy to use

Taste:   A+  I didn’t think there would be any difference in taste but there was a marked difference and it was amazing.

Cleaning Up:  A +  Took me less than three minutes all up, a winner in my book.

Best Use:   For kids who are fussy eaters and don’t eat enough fruit or vegetables,  for big kids who are looking to improve their vegetable intake (likely to be everyone).

Last Chance Training Recommended:  Yes

You can find out more about the Juicespresso and  purchase the machine from Matchbox kitchenware stores.

 

 

 

 

Tagged as: Juicespresso Juicer review, kids and vegetables, organic juice, product reviews, raw juice, reviews, vegetable juices