The seed was planted by a patient a couple of weeks before I left for my USA trip, he is super fit and healthy and of course this provided endless discussions on health themes... which inevitably, juicing comes up (yes, I admit, it is popular and trendy!). He mentioned a "slow" juicer, and it sounded interesting enough, What made me pay attention was that it was a lot better for you because it preserves the nutrients and enzymes because it literally "presses" the ingredients and not have it smash through a blade. But granted at the time, I commented, "bah! Sounds nice, but I have enough kitchen gadgets considering I'm not a cook nor have any interest in cooking." To which we laughed and that was that conversation and the last I thought of it.
Until I met up with my good family friend in Chicago, Jelena. She is a macrobiotic and is a super super nutrition expert. She really takes care of herself, and really does look fab, no wrinkles and beautiful skin. So I was super happy that it worked to visit her at her Cafe during my short week in Chicago. Somehow we got to talking about juicers, and the next thing I know, my mouth is dropping as I'm listening to her talking about the benefits of this "cold-pressed slow masticating" juicer (it can go by all of these names). I almost gasped out loud when it seemed like these last couple of years since I discovered juicing were going to waste because the blade of the Centrifugal juicer (the one that most people have) emits heat but this heat releases the oxygen in the ingredients and kills a lot of the enzymes. WHAT?!?!! Now the seed was deep into my brain because got totally obsessed. Next thing I know, HOURS (really not kidding), HOURS later, and this includes youtube videos, internet searching, reading on all these juicing websites, hemming and hawing "is this worth it?" I decided to get one. Eek! The one thing anyone will tell you is that these things are EXXXXXXXPPPPEENNNSIIIIIVVEEE!!!! Literally, almost 3x more expensive than a regular juicer. BUT, this wasn't a spontaneous spur-of-the moment decision, it was a few weeks process AND, as mentioned above, HOURS of research. It's hard to hold back on health things, you know?
According to Jelena, and actually many online resources, the best brands are Huron and Omega. Huron originated S. Korea and pioneered this whole concept of "slow" or "cold"-pressed juicing. And then supposedly Omega, after seeing the success, "copied" it, made their own little changes, and somehow now it seems to be more popular than the Huron. Anyhoo, Jelena said they are more or less the same and recommended them equally. Well, after spending HOURS just researching about the benefits of the cold-pressed juicer, next up was HOURS of figuring out which brand to get. How overwhelming! It's not just the brand, it's the different versions, the generations, you name it. Well, the decision came more out of logistics, Omega isn't really available here in Dubai! Versus Huron has a supplier here AND they are sold on this Dubai online website. So once I chose the Huron, then it took more HOURS to decide on which model. In the end, if you are investing sooo much, might as well go for gold, right? So I ended up going with the Huron 700, 2nd generation:
Comes with this little book
AND here they make us feel better in describing WHY you put so much money into this thing :-)
Now, although I like talking about this stuff and you would think the opposite, I am really no juicing expert or fanatic. Why it works for me is because "drinking" veggies, especially ones you would not eat by itself, it a LOT easier and smoother. It's so nice first thing in the morning, really gives me a zap and energy for the day. I feel as if I am getting heaps of nutrients (or so I thought) without having to eat stuff you don't necessarily like and wouldn't eat on its own. Although with my old centrifugal one (that's what it's called if it has a blade and you can pretty much put anything through it, whole apples, beetroot, anything, and it will liquidify it) I would put in all sorts of stuff, you can nullify the taste by putting in lemon and/or ginger (I would do both). And then it doesn't really taste like anything!
Anyhoo, I have ONLY used it once, but here are my impressions so far and the pro's and con's:
1. Set-up: Probably a bit more time-consuming with the Huron because there are more parts, and the parts seem to be more specific and sensitive (or maybe I'm just more paranoid because it cost so much?). Everything really needs to "sit" properly before using.
2. Preparation: The Huron is more time consuming because the hole is a lot smaller and all the instructions say to feed it slowly AND to cut anything hard (celery, apples, cucumber) into small pieces and likewise with anything leafy... so that takes more time as with the Centrifugal one you just wash it and throw everything in.
3. Noise: The Huron is MUCH quieter than the Centrifugal one, which is very LOUD. Funny enough, you can actually hear it squeezing the items, much more soothing (you can just "hear" the enzymes and nutrients being preserved, ha ha) than the grinding noise of items being bladed through the Centrifugal one. That one is just plain LOUD.
4. Pulp/juice content: This was probably the biggest difference i noticed, the leftover pulp on the Huron was very very DRY.... and not so much! Hardly took up a 1/3 of the container versus the centrifugal when it is busting with that leftover pulp. Also, the juice content definitely seems more with the Huron because you can close the cap and let it circulate, than open it and it pours into the container, felt I got the same juice using 1/2 the amount of veggies. BIG PLUS!
5. Clean-up: Ahh... the clean-up. Well, again, first time so still learning, what most people said is the biggest plus is that on the Huron you can close the cap and run water through it when you are finished juicing, and it almost self-cleans ("almost"). Well, I already started dismantling it and then realized I forgot to do that, and just hand washed it. I guess the Huron has more parts so maybe takes a wee bit longer, but I think once i do the water thing, that should help and it would be more a less a rinse than a scrub like I do with the centrifugal one.
Also, the Huron is good because it provides a little cleaning rack to let some of the parts dry. I thought that is nice!
6. Taste; The Huron has two strainers, which is a big plus. One is for more "fine" meaning liquid juice, and the other if you want more pulp. I started with the "fine" strainer, which really is liquidity and almost exactly like the Centrifugal juice. I actually like pulp, just "feels" healthier, so will the other strainer thing. But it's great to have both options. I just had a sip of it, and to be honest, used more or less the same ingredients I normally do and was really expecting a lot more of a stronger taste, but it tasted fairly similar to me. Hmmm!
7. The "separation" of the juice: I probably wouldn't think about this if I didn't watch 203482038 videos and read all these articles about it, but if you notice, the color in the juice above is uniform, which is what you want and is GOOD. The centrifugal juicer, after less than a minute (if that) you see the liquid separate, like darker at the bottom, etc. Which is NOT so good because it shows the variability of the enzymes and nutrients, like it doesn't "settle" properly. For example, I do what you are NOT supposed to do, and that is NOT drink the juice right away... I usually like to drink it the next couple of days. Gasp! I know, I know... can't do anything right, huh? :-) But all these juicing fanatics really commented on how with the Centrifugal juicer that is particularly NOT good, and I do see a lot of separation, BUT with the Huron, or the slow-pressed juicers, it is actually OKAY to drink it the next day or so because it preserves 35% more nutrients and enzymes and you can "see" that with just the uniformity of the liquid. Of course ideally it should be drunken right after making it. Ideally!
8. Looks: Hehe, I do have to admit, comparing the two, the Huron is much more compact and has a nice design. My old centrifugal one (which yes, I am still going to keep!) looks so chunky and old now. Haha.
Soo.... these are my initial observations. I definitely need some time to play and experiment some more!
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