Juicers

Anyone on here like making their own juice? It can be a bit time consuming however during the summer I love to do it. My favorite is a bit odd sounding but it's honestly delicious: mango, carrot, strawberry, cucumber. I generally use around 4 or 5 mango's, 3 or 4 carrots, maybe 10-15 strawberries and 1 or 2 small cucumbers.

The outcome? Absolute deliciousness. So what odd or delicious juice combination's have you all managed to come up with? I can't be the only one here who owns a juicer!

 

I've heard that you can't get the same nutrients out of juice that is not fresh. Like hours old it loses everything. Is that true?

I buy a polish juice that is carrot apple raspberry lemon and it is fantastic.

No juicer though. Is it worth it?

 

If you have the time, it is worth it - IMO.

However, go for a screw type juicer - I've had a Green Power for about 10 years. Slow, but IMO makes the best tasting juice by far. Will properly do everything - including wheatgrass.

I'll juice enough for two days all at once. I do mostly a carrot and apple mix, with a bit of ginger for a change. Every so often I'll do others including beat, parsley, etc. I'd like to grow and juice my own wheatgrass, but have never got started with it.

It takes a lot of time to do - and some time to clean up. You will not get better juice anywhere.

 

Absolutely. If you're going to be making juice, make enough to last you more than simply a glass or two; otherwise you're just going to end up continually being frustrated at all of the work that goes into it.

If you can afford a "professional" grade juicer, I'd recommend it - specifically the ones that are capable of making almond butter and the like.

 

I have both a Breville centrifugal juicer and a Breville citrus juicer. Freshly made juice is by far better tasting and better for you! I would highly recommend it. When you buy store bought juice most of the time you are way overpaying for cheap "filler" juices and high-fructose corn syrup and a little bit of the actual type of juice that is being sold to you on the label. With your own juicer you control exactly what goes into your juice so you always know exactly what you are drinking. If you plan on making a lot of citrus based juices I would recommend a separate citrus juicer because it's much faster in that you don't have to peel the skin off of the citrus fruit. (If you have ever tried to peel a lime or a lemon, you know what I'm talking about- limes and lemons don't exactly peel like oranges peel.) Juicing takes some time and preparation, the clean up is sometimes a little daunting, and it's expensive compared to commercially prepared juice, but the end result is well worth it. You will never go back to store bought juice of any kind once you taste the difference with freshly juiced juice. I would agree with the sentiments of some of the other posters too- freshly made juice does go bad a lot faster because it doesn't have any of the preservatives added to it that commercially made juices have. Most types of freshly juiced juice won't taste right after about three days, and probably will be spoiled after about five days.

Last week I was playing around with some different flavors and stumbled upon a winner-
Juice 10 oranges, 6 grapefruit, 4 limes, 4 mangos, and 1 large papaya = tropical juice bliss! (I think adding a pineapple would work well with that mix too, but I didn't have one.)

 

Coolhand, that sounds like a delicious one I'll have to give a try. I too have a citrus juicer which works amazingly well on lemons and the like. It's easy enough to peel an orange though and quickly toss it into the juicer rather than having to then clean up both of the juicers.

I'll definitely be making a run to the grocery store this week to give that juice recipe a try though.

 

Though I'm not big into juicing, my wife is and has a "Green Star" that she has used for about 5 years. I'm not a fan of the vegetable juices, but the fruit stuff is great. She also runs frozen fruit through it and makes some great sorbet.

 

Not every fruit/veggie will lose their nutrients once picked/harvested. Most shouldn't.

The only food I know that loses it very quickly is peas. That's why frozen peas are the only way to get the most nutrients from them as they're flash frozen very quickly after being picked. I learned that from Alton Brown.