To juice or not? Is a juicer worth it/easy to clean?

veggieblob

I am really, really lucky in that I have a Vitamix. I use it every day to make my breakfast smoothie. I used to use a Phillips juicer, which was very good, but I hated all the washing up and throwing away the fibre. As well as the smoothies, I make a mean pure fruit icecream with frozen fruit and yoghurt (takes about 5 minutes from taking the jug out of the cupboard to eating the icecream, mixer all clean and ready for next time. It obviously still does the usual blending and can make a really smooth sauce/juice out of quite hard and fibrous fruit & veg.
They are very expensive and are really only worth getting if you will use them most days. Mine was my birthday and Christmas presents to myself for 3 years!

WLM21

I am thinking of buying a juicer, in order to help with my five-a-day.

I live near several apple trees, which are now full of apples and ready to pick. Surely having a decent juicer would enable me to have some great drinks, if I store the apples well.

I may be getting an allotment soon, so next year (all being well) I'll have plenty of fruit and veg. with which to make my own smoothies.

I've seen o the shopping channels juicers, but they tend to use all the prime fruit 'n veg to make a shake, which would probably work out at a ridiculous price per drink, but surely there are cheaper alternatives.

Thank you for any input.

For those folk who already have a juicer ... was it worth it, or was it just a passing fad .. like the breadmaker we have in our cupboard

Westin

A passing fad! Our's gets little use although we had the same idea as you have. The problem is the fruit needs to be cheap enough to make the juice and often it's much cheaper to buy the ready made stuff.

You can of course use the apples you have for now although the juice doesn't last long, often turning an off putting brown within the hour.

redfox

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bossymoo

I'd say no, as well. The apples won't be available year-round, cleaning juicers is annoying, and you get mostly juice (!) which can only count as 1 of your 5 a day. The fibre of most fruit is in the pulp and skin, so (sadly, I'm not a fruit lover myself) really the healthiest thing is to eat the whole fruit.

I've had a juicer in the past, and like most gadgets, ends up being a dust magnet and not much else.

Just my opinion.

I really do "get" your question though - tried it myself and it just didn't work out. My advice would be to save your pennies, eat an apple and think about making some crumble. Or maybe a nice spiced apple and sultana cake

Need2bthrifty

I got mine with Nect@r points at @rgos - so didnt cost me anything.

It now only gets occasional use but I do enjoy making a variety of juices using a mix of fruit & veg, particularly the super 6 otherwise it would be a costly use of F&V for the amount of juice you get.

darrensurrey

I'd agree that it's a waste of money. To get your "5 a day", have a side salad with your lunch and dinner, have a fruit as dessert and another portion of fruit as a snack. You've hit 5 without even trying! :j

anniemf2508

I'd say no too....we bought one with my husbands birthday money last October, it's been sat on top of a cupboard since December gathering dust.

darrensurrey

anniemf2508 wrote: »

I'd say no too....we bought one with my husbands birthday money last October, it's been sat on top of a cupboard since December gathering dust.

On the plus side, the top of that cupboard is clear of dust.

Lucyadams184

I think they are like bread makers and smoothie makers, you go through phases of using them and then they will hide in the cupboard for a few months.