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Got juice? Centrifugal vs. masticating juicers

Got juice? Centrifugal vs. masticating juicers

Pretty much everyone loves juice. Hating juice is like killing kittens — it’s wrong. The problem with juice is that while it’s touted as awesome for your body, that’s not often the case when you’re buying it at the supermarket, especially in Hong Kong. Sugar may help sweeten the mix so it’s more palatable, but if you want to get the most out of your drink, you want the fresh-squeezed stuff, and you want to be able to consume it within 15 minutes of juicing for max health benefits.

We took the plunge in my household, springing for the Kuvings Slow Juicer NS750, a masticating juicer. Most of the street-side juicers you get in Hong Kong at fruit stalls use centrifugal juicers — they’re cheaper and faster, but some argue too that they grind the cells into such a pulp that it’s not as good for you.

Slow juicers, or masticating juicers, churn your fruit into juice (much like a mother monkey chews up food before feeding it to their young), which results in more liquid efficiency (ie, less fruit, more juice) as well as a better taste and consistency. They’re also good for more random substances, like wheatgrass or spinach, fibrous veggies that don’t perform well in your run-of-the-mill juice extractor.

The downside, of course, is that slow juicers are ridiculously expensive, more expensive than a year’s supply of juice, probably, and that’s before you even buy the fruit. They start at something like $3,000 or $4,000 at Sogo. Is that too much to pay for juice? It’s certainly less than I sometimes… occasionally… often… spend on shoes, so that was my decision made. You make yours.


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  1. Oh, wow, that is a bit expensive. I hope you write about it more after you’ve used it a bit. How great is it, really?

  2. bbc

    4 August

    does this juicer work well in Hong Kong? i note from the link to the Kuvings site that this machine runs on a frequency of 60hz (vs Hong Kong’s electrical frequence of 50hz). i would appreciate your advice.

  3. […] wrote about the Kuvings Slow Juicer some half a year ago on this blog (read here), and extolled the virtues of a masticating juicer, the sole downside being the cost of the […]

  4. Christina

    18 February

    Yes it works in Hong Kong. And I love it! And you can buy it on Groupon today: http://healthyhongkong.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/kuvings-juicer-on-groupon/

    • Denise

      25 March

      Hi Christina, thanks for this post. The one on groupon right now only has a 1 year warranty, did yours come with the same? I’ve read online some ppl have had problems with it so not sure if a 1 year warranty is risky..

  5. Noho

    9 May

    I’ve been researching the different juicers in HK and just came across your site, and saw the comments. Be careful with the Hurom/Omega look-alikes. For everyone wondering about the Kuvings compared to the Omega/Hurom (Hurom is easily available in HK, but only officially from one distributor http://www.facebook.com/hurom.hk): watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mqV4AZKzsY at about the 33:00 minute mark, the Kuvings wiper stops working, then it blows the lid off. Watch from the beginning to understand the slight engineering differences that caused that.

  6. […] the difference? As Christina pointed out, centrifugal juicers use a fast-spinning metal blade to separate the juice from the pulp, often […]

  7. Juicerkit

    28 September

    Well the masticating juicer is better than centrifugal ones and worth the price in my opinion.

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