Masticating Juicer Buying Guide
Juicing has become a huge trend throughout the world over the past few years. Juicing is a healthy way to ingest vegetables and fruits. It has revolutionized the health industry and is being embraced by most households as a means to a healthier lifestyle. If your looking to improve your health or control your weight then juicing is the way to go.
This means more and more consumers are opting to purchase juicers for their homes as this is a cheaper and more viable way of getting what juicing has to offer. There are a variety of juicers to choose from, one of them being the masticating juicer.
Buying Guideline for a Masticating Juicer that will Help You Meet your Exact Juicer Needs in Terms of Price and Features
First things first, what is a Masticating Juicer?
Masticating juicers have a unique way of accurately stimulating a natural process in order to extract the maximum amount of juice from fruits and vegetables. This sets them apart from other juicers. It derives its word ‘masticating’ from a Latin root verb that means ‘to chew.’ While you use your teeth to chew and break down food into digestible particles, masticating juicers have a crushing element that breaks fruits and vegetables that release a juicy pulp that is then driven under pressure against a screen that separates the juice from the pulp.
Masticating juicers grind vegetable and fruits at a much lower speed compared to centrifugal juicers, this ensures that almost every drop of juice is separated from the pulp, resulting in far higher yields from expensive organic produce. The slow crushing also reduces heat and preserves the vital nutrients and enzymes in the juice and what you end up with is a much thicker and more nutrient-dense juice.
What can you do with a Masticating Juicer?
- Masticating juicers can be used to make high volumes of juice from a wide variety of vegetables and fruits quickly and with ease. It is very effective even in yielding juices from fruits with low moisture contents like bananas or even soft, leafy veggies like spinach without clogging.
- Masticating juicers are excellent baby foods making machines owing to their superior extraction technology. Using their modified filters, they can not only crush but also homogenize a variety of vegetables and blend them together impeccable to make natural and wholesome baby foods.
- Most masticating juicers have high torque auger systems that can easily make excellent pureed parfaits from frozen fruits. A lot of other masticating juicers are very capable of crushing harder stuff like nuts to produce rich and creamy nut butter. These miscasting juicers can also extract the liquid content and rich nutrients from nuts like soy or almonds.
- Masticating machines are very versatile machines especially with the right attachments and can be used to extrude pasta into different shapes. Some can go as far as mincemeat, crush coffee beans, spices and a whole lot of other food.
Why go for a Masticating Juicer
If you are torn and caught up in the debate between masticating juicer and a centrifugal juicer, and without saying which between the two is better since they both serve their unique purposes here are a few reasons why you may want to go for the former.
- A masticating juicer is favored for its ability to extract all of the enzymes of fruits and vegetables. This is often a herculean task for other juicers like the centrifugal.
- Guarantees undiluted taste. This is because a masticating juicer extracts nearly all of the food materials in a micro-molecular form. And since it has no rush in terms of speed, you are guaranteed the full original taste of the vegetable or fruit. This is unlikely for a centrifugal juicer.
- Still, on the merits of its slow speed, a masticating juicer produces very high yields of juice from expensive organic produce and also significantly reduces heat damage and oxidation to the juice. Not to mention that the same speed helps it to extract all of the nutrients and enzymes to give you an almost ready to drink juice.
- A masticating juicer can crush frozen foods to make instant smoothies; juice extracted from a masticating juicer has a much longer shelf life
- Talk of a perfect multi-tasking machine. A masticating juicer can be a food processor, spice grinder, and pasta machine; can also be used to make all-natural baby food.
- They are also very durable and are often covered by multi-year warranties
Factors to consider when shopping for a Masticating Juicer
Single Auger or Double Auger
Single speed or auger masticating juicers are less expensive and less complex. They have a single gear mechanism they use to extract juices from mainly small fruits and vegetables. They come handy when you are looking for a good juicer to use occasionally with a low-workload. There is a caveat though, compared to a double auger masticating juicer, they are less durable.
Double speed or auger masticating juicers have two gears for a more effective juicing process. They are also more expensive than the single versions. If you want to open a juice bar, café or are looking to juice more frequently at your home then this is the juicer for you. With a double auger machine, you can simultaneously throw in leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts and have your juice. Double geared juicers are also able to crush at slower speeds when tasked with thicker pulp, allowing them to greatly reduce the friction load on the motor, enhancing its longevity.
What Material is a Masticating Juicer made of
It is very important to consider the material your masticating juicer is made of while taking into consideration whether you will use it for low tasks or otherwise. Some juicers can break down when subjected to thorough tasks because their construction material is weak. But a juicer with a tougher motor and body like steel or carbon can withstand the pressure.
Ease of Cleaning and Maintenance
A masticating juicer has many parts and cleaning it is not an easy task. That is why you must consider going for one that is easy to clean. While centrifugal juicers have removable parts making it easy to clean, the same does not hold for masticating machines. Go for one that contains reverse motion which will allow you to unclog the gears and clean them out with more ease.
Size and Form of the Juicer
All masticating juicers in the online market come in important size measurements. This means that if you are looking into a small-sized compact juicer to use at home or large-sized juicers to use commercially, a masticating juicer has you covered. It is important that you also consider if you have enough space to operate the machine.
Some customers prefer a portable juicer that they can use at home, bring along to the office, or on a trip so that they always have fresh juice on hand. In the same breath, you can make a decision based on whether the juicer will have a permanent place on your kitchen countertop or whether you will store it only to use once in a while. In such a scenario, a larger masticating machine will be ideal for a permanent spot on your counter. Smaller ones can be used and kept in storrage when not in use.
The downside of a masticating juicer
- They are more expensive than centrifugal juicers
- They take more time to produce juice
- They have more parts which mean they require more detailed and thorough cleaning
- They tend to have smaller pulp reservoirs which results in more clogs
- Given the above guide, you now know there is more to consider than just outlook and price when buying a masticating juicer.
Happy Juicing!