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Juicers Comparision Have you ever experienced a product for the first time and then wondered how you ever lived without it? That is how the chefs at Parties that Cook felt when we tested juicers and juice extractors!

The dreaded days of messy juice making are over, thanks to the very handy and extremely easy to use Juiceman Pro Power Juicer ($149). The juicer has multiple speeds and a large feed tube that can fit various sizes of produce. The attractive styling will look great on your countertop and the additive-free juice will help you lead a healthier lifestyle!

How had we ever faced a morning without a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice? We fell in love with these machines after our first sips of juice, and we had not even started to consider what a juicer or juice extractor could do for our sauce, soup, and frozen drinks recipes.
We tested two citrus juicers (the Villaware Moderno and the Alessi model SG63-2), and two juice extractors (the Breville Juice Fountain Elite and the Juiceman Pro). A juicer and a juice extractor both will give you juice, but they are a bit different in how they are used. A juicer is an electric appliance that removes juice from citrus fruit. The juice is removed by pressing a halved citrus fruit onto the machine’s cone. A juice extractor uses tiny, extremely sharp teeth to separate the pulp and peel from the juice. Entire fruits and vegetables can be placed into the machine, although in the case of citrus, the peel must be removed first.
Using the juicers, we made both orange and lemon juices. In the extractors, we whipped up orange, carrot, and tomato-lime juices. Read on as we share the juicy details!

Appearance is Everything

The Villaware Moderno juicer has an hourglass-shaped, silver base with black trim at the top and bottom of the machine. The Alessi model has a quirky egg shape designed by Italian electric housewares and tableware designer Stefano Giovannoni. Its stainless-steel base is topped with a white plastic trim.
The juice extractors are very uniform in appearance. Both have a round base with a plastic top with a tall tube and a plastic pulp container at the rear of the machine. The machine bases are silver. The Breville Juice Fountain Elite continues the stainless steel/gray motif throughout the entire machine, while the Juiceman Pro has white plastic trim. We were not happy with the plastic material on the Juiceman machine because we felt that they were going to break each time we tried to secure the clamps.

Make your morning (or any time of day) citrus drinks with this easy-to-use VillaWare Moderno juicer ($49) that is so attractive you will want to leave it on your countertop. You get a choice of large and small reamers for different sizes of fruit, and a drip stop makes the juicing process less messy.

Great-Tasting Juice

The Alessi and Villaware Moderno juicers could not have been any easier to use. After a quick glance at the directions and a few minutes to slice our citrus in half, we had fresh 8-ounce glasses of orange and lemon juices. Once the citrus is cut in half, the cut surface is placed on top of the juicer cone. When pressure is applied to the citrus, the cone rotates to juice the fruit. Both machines left the citrus rinds completely free of any juice “meat.” The Villaware Moderno has two spout positions. If the spout is in the up position, the juice collects within the machine until you lower the spout. If you have the spout in the down position, the juice pours directly into your glass. The Alessi juicer had three spouts—the third one functions as a way to make sure that all of the juice has come out of the machine. The orange juice provided by these machines was equally fresh and delicious. We found that the Villaware juicer had slightly less pulp, perhaps because of the machine’s smaller filter grates. The small, tart sips of the lemon juice we took yielded the same pulp comparisons as the orange juice.
The Villaware juicer comes with two cones for different size citrus—one for lemons and limes, and one for oranges and grapefruit. While we thought this would be convenient, we did not notice much of a difference in the amount of citrus left attached to the rind.
Though the juice extractors may look complicated, we were up and juicing after 5 minutes of reading the instruction manuals. The Breville manual was especially helpful because of photos accompanying the instructions.
We loved the orange juices produced by the extractors! The frothy, creamy juice of both machines reminded us of our favorite childhood orange drink found at the local shopping mall. We could only begin to imagine how the addition of Champagne could produce an amazing Mimosa! We had similarly great results with the lemon juice. Mixed with a simple sugar syrup and ice, we could drink this lemonade all summer long.
Our favorite carrot juice came from the Breville extractor. It was smooth, sweet, and vibrant—the essence of what carrot juice should be. The carrot juices from the Juiceman machine was duller due to the fact that the juices were more fibrous. The Juiceman carrot juice still had some carrot bits in it.
There was no clear winner among the tomato-lime juice contenders. Comparing the two juice extractors, we did not find any skin or seeds in any of the drinks and there was no taste difference.

Clean-Up Is Easy

One would think that with all sorts of pulp, clean-up of the juicers and extractors would be involved and tedious. Yet we were pleasantly surprised that the juicers each took less than 1 minute to take apart and clean. To clean the juicers, one just lifts off the cone and filter. The extractors all twist off from the place where the motor base and juice collector meet. The Alessi, Breville and Villaware Moderno Pro machines all have dishwasher-safe parts. This was especially helpful for the filters of the juice extractors, which have very sharp teeth that could easily scrape your fingers if washing by hand. The pulp containers all emptied easily since the pulp is dry. The instruction manuals for all machines do suggest lining the pulp containers with produce bags for even easier clean-up. We were slightly puzzled by the construction of the Juiceman’s pulp container, though. Unlike the other extractors, the lid does not fit exactly over the container, which resulted in pulp flying onto the countertop during several juicings.
The Breville extractor provided a covered juice pitcher that has a cut-out slot for the machine’s spout. We found this to be very convenient to prevent juice overflow, splattering, and dripping.

Sleek design meets healthy living with this stylish and upscale juicer from Breville. The Juice Fountain Elite, at $299, has 115 individual knives to grind pulp into the tiniest pieces. The machine’s 3-inch stainless feed tube easily processes whole fruits and vegetables without pre-cutting, slicing, or dicing. The design centers the feed tube directly over the cutter, so you can process large quantities of fruit and vegetables instantly.

Weight and Storage

The Alessi and Villaware Moderno juicers are approximately the same height and diameter (10 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter). The Villaware machine weighs about 5 pounds, whereas the Alessi is a few pound heavier—approximately 9 pounds. Both come with plastic lids for the tops of the machines to keep out dust during storage. They would easily fit in most kitchen cabinets.
The extractors are all approximately 17-inches tall. The bases of the machines are about 7 inches in diameter, plus another 5 inches of depth for the pulp containers. Yet, there is a difference in their weights. The Juiceman machine weighs 13 pounds, while the Breville machine weights 19 pounds.
For storing, the juice extractors would most likely have to live on your countertop. For the most convenient juicing, the extractors need enough clearance on the top so that you can insert ingredients as well as clearance in the front and back of the machine to retrieve the juice and clean the pulp container.

Bibby Gignilliat is founder of Parties That Cook, which stages “deliciously fun” hands-on cooking class parties and corporate teambuilding events. Bibby’s experience in the professional kitchen includes hands-on training at two Bay Area restaurants: Insalata’s and Kokkari, a sous-chef to Joanne Weir for a national promotional tour, a production assistant and food stylist, and then TV guest for the show “Bay Cafe” with Chef Joey Altman, and a production assistant for Weir Cooking in the Wine Country, featuring Joanne Weir, and Jacques Pepin Celebrates, with Jacques Pepin. Special thanks to Gourmet Gatherings Chef Tracey McKeown Gertler for her contributions to this article.

Which Juicer is for You?

If you are considering buying a juicer or a juice extractor, the first thing to consider is how you plan to use the machine. If you think your juice needs are limited to citrus, we recommend the Villaware Moderno juicer. We were pleased with its performance and its price. If design is of huge importance to you, then consider the Alessi machine, but we find that a $145 price difference is pretty significant.
If you are looking to purchase a juice extractor, but you’re not sure how often you will use it, the Juiceman Pro provides good results accompanied by a moderate price tag. It would be a good machine to choose if you are not ready to commit to a more pricey machine.
If you see freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as an integral part of your diet, then we suggest you purchase the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. Its powerful motor and ability to strain almost all pulp won us over and had us imagining what other kinds of food we could turn into juice.
No matter what your juicing needs, there is a juicer or juice extractor out there for you. By using a juicer, getting your recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables has never been so easy! More Editorials