THE best juicers should squeeze every last drop of liquid from your fruit and vegetables, leaving you with a refreshing and nutritious drink.
We explain what to look for and pick out some of the most popular brands.
6What type of juicer is best?
There are four main types of juicers: citrus, centrifugal, masticating (or cold press), and triturating.
The best juicer for you will depend on what you normally juice, how much space you have in your kitchen and of course your budget.
Citrus juicers are the cheapest and smallest, but are obviously limited to things like lemons and oranges.
Centrifugal ones usually feature a spinning mesh basket with sharp teeth that cut up your ingredients and then force it through the mesh as it spins.
These are affordable and fast but also very noisy.
They are better for hard vegetables and fruits like apples and carrots. Anything like ginger or leafy vegetables tend to get caught in the basket.
Masticating or cold press juicers use augers (they look a bit like the tip of screws) with teeth to “chew” your ingredients and squeeze out the juice.
While much more expensive, and much bigger in size, fans of these think they preserve much more nutrients than centrifugal juicers.
Finally there are the triturating juicers, which work in a similar way to masticating ones but have twin gears to produce an even finer pulp and squeeze out even more juice.
These are generally the most expensive of the bunch, although they’re not widely available in the UK.
We’ve picked out a selection of juicers that will fit every budget below.
1. Smeg retro citrus juicer
- Smeg retro citrus juicer, £126.99 from Amazon – buy here
This juicer features an anti-corrosive reamer and strainer – pretty important as it's constantly in contact with acidic juice.
The anti-drip spout directs the juice straight into a glass so there's absolutely no mess.
But the best thing about it is probably the smart on/off function: it automatically turns on when in touch with your fruit.
2. Sage Nutri Juicer
- Sage Nutri Juicer, £150 from Amazon – buy here
Sage products regularly make our best appliance round-ups and it's for good reason – they live up to expectations, and deliver time and time again.
This product's first noteworthy feature is its huge capacity, allowing you to make up to two litres of juice at a time, perfect for families.
It's easy to assemble and use and is seriously efficient thanks to its powerful motor – but it can get noisy as it's a centrifugal juicer.
3. Philips compact juicer
- Philips compact juicer, £69.99 from Argos – buy here
This compact juicer is around half the size of many other options on the market, ideal for smaller kitchens.
It still boasts a 1.5l capacity and a pretty powerful 500W motor, both big for its size.
It has just one speed setting, but it does its job well and is easy to clean.
4. ElectriQ slow masticating cold press juicer
- ElectriQ cold press juicer, £49.97 from Appliances Direct – buy here
This compact juicer is extremely efficient and will extract every last drop of the juice from your ingredients.
It can even be used for things like making your own soy milk.
The slower process means it'll take longer to get your juice, but it will retain more of the nutrients.
Compared to many other masticating juicers out there, this one is an absolute steal.
5. Nutribullet juicer
- Nutribullet juicer, £99.99 from Argos – buy here
This 800W machine is super powerful and comes with two speed settings that are suitable for soft and hard fruits.
The large chute means no pre-cutting is required and it has a great 1.5 litre capacity.
Plus, thanks to the dishwasher safe parts, clean up is easy too.
Is it worth buying a juicer?
Juicing is an easy way to get your five a day.
It can work out cheaper than buying ready-made juices and, because you're making it fresh, more of the nutrients are retained as well.
Plus, you can choose exactly what goes in it.
If you don't use the pulp for cooking, it can be quite wasteful. And some models are not that easy to clean.
A good alternative might be a blender.
What’s the difference between a juicer and a blender?
A juicer breaks down all the ingredients you put in it and then extracts just the liquid, leaving the pulp behind.
It’s great for ingredients with lots of water and fibre, like citrus fruits and ginger, which can make smoothies grainy. But it won’t work for things like bananas or avocados, which are still very nutritious.
A blender will produce a fine puree, incorporating all of the ingredients so you get all of the goodness.
Depending on what you add, the texture can be a thick sauce or a runny smoothie, so it’s more versatile if you want to use it for cooking as well. They also tend to be much easier to clean than juicers.
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