by Mike on August 23, 2010
The Omega VRT330 is a newer single masticating juicer model from Omega than the J8006, with a smaller footprint, taller body and generally nicer looks, in my opinion.
Omega VRT330 Dual-Stage Vertical Single-Auger Low-Speed Juicer
This is also a low speed juicer that gets a lot more juice out of the fruits than citrus and centrifugal juicers, and most people like this kind of juicer because it retains the nutrients in the juice. The low speed also meant that the fruits go through less heat and oxidization in the process, and the juice that comes out tastes much better.
“When I took my first sip of carrot juice I could tell the difference immediately. I couldn’t figure out how to describe it though, it’s both juice from a carrot, how can one taste so different…The juice from the centrifugal machines taste as if it was watered down compared to the juice from the Omega Vert. When I took my first sip of apple juice, there was no comparisons, the taste was so crisp and fresh, actually like taking a bite from an apple. I was amazed at the difference.” – Jimmy Morelli
The Omega VRT330 is quite sturdily built, feels heavy and happily for its buyers, covered by full warranty for 10 years. I think that this will make more people feel better for paying the price – which is not exactly cheap – than just having a great juicer that works for a couple years.
The reason I didn’t buy this juicer is because I’m always on the go. I can’t be bothered to cut up fruits and veggies more than once or twice (so I need a larger feed tube). The washing time for this juicer is quick though. The pulp ejecting feature saves you time and running clear water through once or twice after juicing will make cleaning easier. Only one part needs to be brushed afterward.
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by Mike on August 22, 2010
Wow, if you like to drink only wheatgrass, this manual wheatgrass juicer is the best juicer to have. The Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer can juice wheatgrass like no other!
Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer
I’m not a fan of wheatgrass juice myself, but I do know that my Breville and most other juicers cannot juice wheatgrass well; you need a special kind of juicer for that. If you are into hard fruits and veggies like carrots as well as wheatgrass, then you’re better off with a masticating juicer like the Omega 8005, which cost well over $200. But what about those who like only wheatgrass? This Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer is only a little over $100.
This tiny little juicer is made of stainless steel parts, which is great value for the money, don’t you think? The compact size and manual operation makes it really portable! You only have to find a table top to clamp it on.
The very best thing about this wheatgrass juicer is that it only takes one minute to wash. So for your daily shot of wheatgrass juice, just clamp on the juicer, place a bowl under the spout, then run the wheatgrass through by cranking the lever. Catch the pulp with your hand and run it through again for good measure! Then just undo the cap, handle and gear, and rinse them clean. How easy is that?
Only one complain is found among the users and that is this juicer cannot juice hard veggies like carrots, unless you cut up the carrots into very small bits. I think this is mainly just a wheatgrass juicer, you might be able to juice leafy greens and soft fruits like tomatoes, but it is definitely not cut out for the job of juicing carrots.
So, wheatgrass lovers, get this Hurricane Stainless Steel Manual Wheatgrass Juicer for your daily juice!
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by Mike on August 21, 2010
This awesome juicer is the sibling of Omega J8005, a masticating juicer that crushes the fruit or veggie into pulp before getting the juice out of it. Do you know this means more nutrients in the fruit juice?
Omega J8006 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer
This intimidating-looking juicer is the best choice for those of you who are on a juice diet. The auger turns only 80rpm, causing less heat and oxidization to the fruits, so nutrients don’t get killed.
I remember seeing the Omega J8006 at a store and the lady was demonstrating and giving out free juice drinks. She very kindly let me try out the juicer.
First impression I got was that the feed tube is much smaller than my Breville. Only about 1.5 inches. The lady explained that by cutting up the fruit/veggie into smaller pieces, less of it will go to waste in the juicer. Well, I suppose that’s true, but maybe I’m just not the type who like to go into the extra step.
Anyway I tried out this juicer with apples. And oh boy! The apple juice was wonderful! Unlike using centrifugal juicers, there was almost no foam at all. It tasted really good (probably because without all the foam) and didn’t turn brown as soon as the apple juice from centrifugal juicers.
And really, nothing goes to waste in this juicer. The Omega J8006 squeezes every bit of juice out of the fruits. The pulp is really dry. This juicer can juice practically anything! Soft fruits, hard fruits, and wheatgrass? No problem.
The only thing I didn’t like about masticating juicers is that they are less quick to clean than my best juicer. If you don’t have a busy life like mine, this might be the juicer for you.
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by Mike on August 20, 2010
If you are really into citrus juice, and the cheap citrus juicers are just not powerful enough for you, maybe the Tribest Citrus Juicer will make you really happy.
Tribest Citrus Juicer
This could have the most powerful motor I’ve seen on an electric citrus juicer yet. Me and my girlfriend, we were very into citrus juicers when we were in college, because poor college students like us couldn’t afford expensive juicers like centrifugal or masticating juicers!
The Tribest Citrus Juicer can juice an orange quite fast, which is good because you know how fast citrus juices oxidize due to their very high vitamin C content. I saw this juicer in a sale and the salesman was demonstrating how to juice. He juiced an orange in a few seconds!
I remember the time my girlfriend held a party and she tried to make lemonade for 20 people. I bet she’d wish she had this juicer instead of her Black & Decker then, though the B&D is half the price of this one.
The stainless steel strainer keeps the pulp and seeds away from the juice, but some pulp still gets into the juice, which is nice because eating some pulp is good for your body fiber content. And pulp is what makes the juice tasty and natural!
The reamers come in two sizes for different citrus fruits – the smaller one for lemons and limes and the bigger one for oranges and grapefruits. And there’s an attachment on the spout that stops the juice from dripping when you want to change glasses. However, I note from other reviews that this feature tend to break easily.
I guess at this kind of price you can’t get everything to be perfect. It’s more powerful than others, fast, easy to use and clean, and it’s only $39! So what more can you ask for, really?
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
Have you ever heard of the Noni fruit? Or the Himalayan goji? How about the mangosteen (Tried this one before though!)? Well, neither have I. Until I was surfing online for juice recipe ideas, and found these fruit online. Apparently they have super nutritional benefits and are gaining popularity the world over.
This is Himalayan goji. They are small berries that grow in the Himalayas (duh!). Anyway, these berries are so prized because they are very high in antioxidants, which reverse the effects of saturated fats in our diet. You can find these in various forms in Asian supermarkets, as Asians have been aware of their health properties for quite some time. Add goji to your homemade juice for an antioxidant boost like no other!
Noni grows in tropical climates and can be found in Tahiti, Indonesia and other tropical countries. It’s also known as the cheese fruit and tastes bitter. However, it’s really high in vitamin C, and is really good for you. If you’re bored of normal juice, add Tahitian noni juice into your juice concoctions for that tropical twist.
My last strange fruit is the mangosteen. My girlfriend says it looks pretty cute, and I personally have tried it in Asia and it tastes really great. Very sweet and tangy. I haven’t been able to make juice out of them myself because you can’t just feed these into a juicer, but I have bought mangosteen juice before and mixed it into my normal juice mix. Reminds me of holidays under the sun! 
So go ahead and try adding some strange fruit into your home made juicer juice. Nice.
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
Every day we’re bombarded by messages on how to keep ourselves healthy and fit. Every day we look at those messages; sometimes we heed them and sometimes we don’t. Often times, the ones we listen to are the ones that are the easiest for us to achieve. After all, lifestyles as busy as ours cannot be taken lightly. But you know that for you to keep up with all those activities that take up your day, you need energy. And what better way to get that boost of energy from a simple glass of delicious juice?
Juice bars are popping up everywhere now, it seems. But of course there’s nothing like the home made stuff. Made fresh in your own kitchen, with fruits and vegetables you handpicked at the market to ensure optimal nutrient content, freshness and taste. Not to mention all the funky flavors you can come up with in the comfort of your own home that you wouldn’t be able to request for at an ordinary juice bar.
What do I do?
Okay then. You’re ready to take the leap. To juice. Instead of not to juice. Your first step would be to look at juicer reviews and check out juicer models in stores. Maybe take them for a test-juice to see if you like the final product. After all, you’re a discerning customer with discerning taste. And why waste time trying to manually press an orange through a citrus juicer, when you can buy an electric power juicer, which will be a citrus juicer and a vegetable juicer all in one? You can’t juice celery manually.
Drink Up Baby!
Once you find something that you like and it fits your lifestyle, by all means make that purchase and take your new baby home. And of course, proceed to give it the juicing of its life! Why not come up with delicious concoctions of apple, orange, lemon and celery juice with some mango added in for that tropical zing? Or go au naturel if it pleases you and have good ol’ apple juice whenever you desire.
It’s really wonderful what the right juicer can do for your lifestyle. After drinking juice regularly, you’ll soon see the positive effects in the way your body responds. You won’t get sick as much, you’ll have more energy to spare and you’ll look better. So what are you waiting for? Juice!
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
My girlfriend always says that I totally juice like a man. And I’m inclined to agree. However, even as we were talking about how I always seem to push fruit down the chute too hard for its own good (in the long run, it spoils the juicer), I bet her 50 bucks that the inventor of the juicer was a man. Needless to say, we got onto Google pretty fast and I made some quick money.
Norman Walker was an Italian. A minister’s son, their entire family migrated to America when he was 24 to become a naturalized American citizen 8 years later in 1918. He was an astute businessman and one of the first founders of that art we now know as juicing.
Raw Food and Juice?
As a vegan, he recommends drinking raw fruit and vegetable juices as being beneficial to one’s health, particularly the colon. He’s credited with making the first juicer, called the Norwalk juicer, and was one of the first people in America to open a juice bar and offer a variety of different juices to cleanse, detoxify and provide nutrition.
He ate a raw food diet supplemented with lots of juice every day of his life and died peacefully at the age of 99, in Arizona. This bet was a bet I’m so glad I won, because now I know that if I keep up this healthy habit, and live a healthier lifestyle (still have to work on that though!), I could leave earth just like Norman Walker, peacefully, in my sleep, at a ripe old age!
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
I’ve been writing on and on about what juicing is and what kind of juicer to buy, and I completely forgot about giving out practical tips and tricks when actually juicing. Well, I’ll do so right now! These are tips that my girlfriend and I picked up in our time as avid juicers.
1. Don’t use sugar syrup to sweeten juice, use an apple instead. Fruit sugar, fructose is so much better for you and the nutritional content of an extra apple in your juice mix should be a welcome addition.
2. When juicing mushy fruit like nectarines, strawberries or raspberries in a centrifugal juicer, use a carrot or a beet or other fibrous, hard fruit or vegetables to push out the rest of the mushy fruit at the end. This will ensure less wastage and more yummy juice.
3. When you want clear or pulp-free juice, strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth to get rid of foam and extra pulp.
4. Never leave juice out and drink it immediately after juicing to fully benefit from all the nutrients in the juice.
5. Beets, spinach, parsley and watercress all make very strong-flavored juices (hated them the first time I tried them!) so you have to mix them with sweeter fruit or vegetables to make them more palatable.
6. The juice from mushy fruit like apricot, nectarines and strawberries is called nectar and should be blended with a more watery fruit like apples or oranges to dilute it.
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
As I have a busy lifestyle, I don’t have the time to deal with all the mess of a huge clean up when the time comes. After I finish juicing my morning juice, I drink up and then I’m out of the house faster than you can say Tropical Fruit Juice.
Manual juicing – A thing of the past
I think technology has come a long way from the days when my mom used to use a citrus press to make fresh orange juice in the morning. Not only a time-consuming chore while she was juicing, but messy to clean up after as well. And watching her as I used to, inevitably the clean up process went directly to me.
I vowed that when my turn came, I would buy an electronic juicer, one that was dishwasher safe so I would never have to waste time cleaning up after the juicing was done.
And I did.
Yes. So wonderful it is to have a juicer with compartments that are dishwasher safe. Saves me so much time. I’ve realized that even when looking for juicers that are easy to clean, there are good and then there are better ones. The better ones are the ones designed with ergonomics in mind, and ease of use. Those with easier to remove parts that don’t require much fiddling around to get loose.
So my advice is to get a juicer that is easy to clean, like a dishwasher-safe juicer, especially if its parts can be easily removed and the pulp quickly thrown away. After all, my girlfriend likes it that way too.
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by Mike on February 3, 2010
For a guy, I have a pretty sweet tooth. Also, even though I like vegetables in general, the first time my girlfriend tried to put celery in my morning juice, I balked. It tasted so weird!
Anyway, she tried to make it a more palatable experience for me. And I’m glad she did, and she persevered because I was like a little kid who literally wouldn’t drink his vegetables.
How do I start?
First things first. Make sure that your juicer is able to handle veg. Normal citrus juicers aren’t designed to handle juicing leaves, so investing in a good juicer is really important. A good veg juicer will likely use a grinding mechanism or centrifugal force to squeeze as much juice out of your veg as possible.
What veg?
Carrots, beets, celery, cucumber, ginger, dandelion leaves, kale, parsley, tomatoes, pumpkin, turnip and garlic are all used for juice. Take note that some combinations taste weirder than others. Trust me, I know. My girlfriend made me try them!
Only these veg can be used for making juice, as not all veg can be used, unlike fruits. Seriously, can you imagine drinking potato juice? Not good at all. So use common sense when buying veg for juicing.
It tastes really gross. How do I get it down?
You have to get used to the taste, and it really is an acquired one. I’d say you should start with carrot juice, and tomato juice and see if that grows on you. When drinking veg juice, always bear in mind that they’re veg so that your palate is ready for the surprising taste.
Work your way up, and soon you’ll be drinking celery, cucumber, beetroot concoctions in no time!
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