Today I thought I would share a review and how to get the most out of your juicer.
When I was learning about juicing, it seemed the majority of people recommended a Breville. So I went shopping for a Breville. 🙂 I found several on Amazon but because the moo-la is tight (when isn’t it?) I went with the Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain 700-Watt Juice Extractor, it’s $99.99 with free shipping.
Honestly, I love my juicer. But if I had it to do over I would probably fork over the extra $50 for the next price up. Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor.
Why? Because it has 2 speeds. Mine has one speed and it’s awesome for hard produce like squash, apples, carrots and beets. But, for softer fruits and leafy greens, mine spins so fast that they fly out of the basket before they are completely juiced. The result is often wet and chunky pulp.
Here is how my juicer is set up. The mesh basket in the center spins and tears apart the fruits and vegetables. This is called a centrifugal juicer. The juice goes through the mesh into the collection tank and is then drained into my pitcher. The pulp is flung over the sides into the outside container.
Get the most out of your juicer:
Today I made a juice with celery, apples, an orange, spinach and kale. The celery, apples and orange will juice nicely until the last bit and then it usually flies through in a chunk. The greens are a different story. Loose greens will all fly through in large pieces. Get the most out of your juicer when juicing greens with this one little trick.
Pack your greens in tightly. I usually put a whole (pealed because I can’t buy organic) apple in the bottom of the chute, and pack the greens in on top of it.
I turn the juicer on and then just slowly tap on the plunger. Being packed in like that the greens act more like a large solid instead of lose and leafy. Here the produce has only been ran through once. You can see how the pulp is a bit chunky.
I took it out of the outer tank and put it into the bowl. Then I ran it through a second time. Can you see the difference? It’s very dry and almost fluffy. 🙂
That works great for juicing greens. But how do you get the most out of your juicer when you are juicing soft fruits like pears, berries and grapes?
I don’t have any photos but let me tell you, they come through as mush. Most of the fruit is in the outer collection basket in a mushy wet mess. And no matter how many times you run it through it’s still wet and juicy.
Pears are easy. Buy them a bit green and put in the fridge. Hard green pears still taste great in juice.
With the grapes and berries, use this little trick. put a carrot in the center of your chute and the berries around it. The carrot helps slow how fast the berries go through the system. It also puts a dry pulp in with all the wet stuff. Then you can run the mixture through a second time and the carrot pulp helps extract more from the berry mush. If you don’t want a carrot in your juice you can use a hard green apple.
Bananas and avocados cannot be juiced, they will simply make a mess and plug it up. Put your juice in the blender and add in an avocado or banana if you want a thicker juice. Or if you want something to chew while on a juice fast, just eat a half of one or the other.
Coconut doesn’t juice either, if you want shredded coconut though, the juicer works great! lol While juicing, stick to drinking plain coconut water or if you want, add a bit of coconut milk to your morning juice.
That is how I get the most out of my juicer. If you are considering a juicer I really would recommend the next juicer up if you can afford it. Having two speeds would eliminate a lot of the juicy pulp. But, I’m still happy with my juicer. It fits nicely on my counter, and is very sturdy and does a great job on hard produce.
I had the Breville 2 speed juicer (because it was recommended as well), after giving away my commercial grade Champion!!! I too discovered that the pulp was too wet and even on the lower speed, it shot the greens into the basket. We purchased a manual wheat grass juicer just for the greens, but found that to be too cumbersome to use along with the Breville. With our tax check this year we purchased a new Champion for $200 and gave the Breville away. I LOVE my champion! The pulp is dry, including the greens. It’s a masticating juicer, rather than a centrifugal juicer, which means the juice doesn’t spin or heat up, both of which can cause a loss of nutrients. Live and learn, I guess.
Yeah, I would love to have a masticating juicer. Main problem is they’re to pricy for me right now. That and they take up a lot of room. I have such limited counter space that the one I have barely fits!
Thank you for your article. After seeing Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead I too bought a juicer for myself. I purchased the Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus from a website for only $100 and free shipping. Unfortunately when I went to look for it just now, it is no longer available, so the cheapest I found is at http://www.rakuten.com/prod/breville-je98xl-juice-fountain-plus-juicer-w-free-dvd-fat-sick-nearly/246931796.html?listingId=264423113, which comes with a free DVD as well, so that’s pretty cool.
Anyways, I love my juicer!! I lost 15 lbs from juice fasting and am now down 25 lbs total so far. But what I loved about juicing the most was the clear mind it gave me, the energy levels, and the ability to resist terrible, fake food. Once I started my fast I didn’t even want to look at a greasy burger or a processed tv dinner.
At first the juicer worked great, the pulp was dry the very first time going through. However, since I used it 3-4 times a day for 23 days straight, naturally the filter screen is now a bit worn out, so it’s unable to extract as much juice as it should be, causing the pulp to be more moist than it should. There is the option to rerun the pulp, but I usually find it doesn’t really give off much more juice.
If you aren’t fasting though, and don’t mind the fiber, you can always reuse your pulp in smoothies or to bake with. There are some delicious recipes on http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/‎
One word of advise though to the author and the readers: NEVER put produce in the juicer and then turn it on….this will damage the motor!! The juicer must be running before you put anything into it!!! Please read your juicer manual.
Happy Holidays and happy juicing!!!
Rachel Cox
“Be Confident, Be True, Be You!”
http://www.bestdailygreens.com
I agree that it’s smart to get the more expensive one first. It’s usually worth it, unless you’re not sure that you will continue juicing.
As a beginner in juicing your brevill is quite a bit expensive! But thanks for all the tips and tricks, really helpful for new juice enthusiasts.