WELLSPHERE On Juicers and Juicing
Happy new year to all the HV blog readers! We hope your New Year has gotten off to a great start. Things are chilly but beautiful here on East Third Street – lots of sun, and no snow… yet. We’re looking at getting some new cool products in and there are a few awesome items on sale – scroll down for more!
But first, there’s been a lot of queries at the shop about the different kinds of juicers we sell here at High Vibe, so we thought we’d get a little more info out there. Basically, there are two different kinds of juicers: hydraulic press and masticating centrifugal. We stock the Greenstar juicer, which is hydraulic, and the Breville Elite, Juice Fountain, and Compact which are centrifical masticating.
Let’s start with the hydraulic Greenstar. It presses whatever you’re juicing between two stainless steel gears. There are a lot of advantages to this technique. There’s no friction and no heat, which makes for an extremely high quality juice. It’s also very efficient – the pulp comes out quite dry, because you’re getting more juice out of your material. The Greenstar can also juice wheatgrass and create nut butters! The disadvantages are that it has more parts to clean, and it also works relatively slowly.
These issues are neatly matched by the masticating Breville. These juicers work by shredding the material and spinning the juice out. They work quickly and are really easy to clean, and they do most vegetables and fruits just fine. However, they’re not as versatile – no wheatgrass or nut butters – and the pulp is still damp, so there’s some juice that doesn’t get extracted. Within our three models, the Elite is the best – it’s made of stainless steel and is equipped with a reset button, so if it gets jammed you can just reset it. The other two (the Compact is essentially a smaller version of the Juice Fountain) have a lot of plastic components. I must say here, though, that I’ve had my Compact for several weeks now and make a juice virtually every morning, and it’s never showed any sign of jamming.
Actually, let me take a second to sing the praises of my lovely little Breville, just for the record. I timed myself, and from the time I start pulling produce out of my fridge to the time I’m propping the last rinsed component (of four, all of which are also dishwasher-safe) out to dry, I clock about 15 minutes to make a super fresh pint of gorgeous green juice. Here’s how it usually works out – I grab my kale (lacinato, easiest to rinse), celery, parsley, cucumber, lemon, ginger, carrot or beet if desired, maybe an apple… plus or minus whatever I feel like, or whatever’s in season, or whatever looked good at the co-op that week. Rinse ’em all off – though some debate whether that’s really necessary, since everything’s organic and if it’s grown in pesticide-free soil, there’s only good bacteria to be gotten from a little dirt. Well, call me timid, you can also get great probiotic action from Innate or Bio-Culture.
Anyway, I put the pulp catch onto the base, pop on the mesh, put the top on and latch it together. I’m ready to juice! I run everything through my Brevilleand the juice pours into a cup that comes with the juicer, and is fitted with a top that not only keep the juice from splattering, but also has this spout that skims the foamy stuff off the top, in case I’m juicing something that creates a lot of foam. Now I’ve got my juice. I pull down the latch and rinse the top, the mesh and the pulp catch. The mesh requires a little scrubbing, but Breville includes a scrubber whose handle doubles as a spatula that fits the pulp catch, so it’s easy to scrap the pulp out. (You can compost it, although I’ve been thinking about what one could make with it in a dehydrator. That’s a whole other story, though.) Voila – totally fresh organic juice, just how I like it. Marvelous!
Great books on juicing,
Juicing for Life by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane
Power juices and Super Drinks By Sproutman Steve Meyerowitz
The Juice mans Power Of Juicing By Jay Kordach
Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of healing Juices by John Heinerman
Furthermore, we’re selling out of our Sensuous Beauty products – 50% off! Especially check out the sultry scents – we have Come Hither and Gypsy Jasmine, but we won’t for long! These are super quality and absolutely heavenly products – we have some lotion, cleanser, bath scrubs and anointing oils on the site. Surprise someone for Valentine’s Day!
