Our Food and Drinks expert Jordan Lohan takes a look at two juicers this month.
Both of these juicers have the same amount of parts that come with the product (being seven, six of which require cleaning and are dishwasher safe).
This also makes both machines a little fiddly when first getting to grips with what goes where. This is pretty much universal throughout other juicers out there so those points will not be considered in the comparison.
Russell Hobbs- Aura Juice Extractor
Available from £60
Its clunky exterior means you are able to add whole fruits which reduces time preparing fruit and vegetables for juicing as opposed to the other machine.
The manual is extremely user-friendly and comprehensive, kitted with a list of certain ingredients and how to prepare them (I found this really useful), even encouraging you to utilize the extracted pulp in composting or even to thicken soups etc. 35 recipes were included which a few had nice introductions to as to why they were included (stress busting/energizing / beautiful skin etc.)
2 speed settings for the motor dependent on if you’re using soft / hard ingredients, and although I found this a bit annoying, it does mean you are supposed to get more out of the ingredients used.
This was the noisier out of the two machines tested and I found that there was more pulpy bits and less juice extracted compared to the other. The cord was a good length enabling you to position freely on your worktop.
Overall, the juices that the Russell Hobbs made came out clean and of good quality, although I felt a little “short-changed” with the amount of produce I had put into the machine.
Cuisinart Compact Juicer
Available from £70
A lovely looking compact product perfect for smaller spaces, although the cable is extremely short meaning you’re limited to where you can place it in your kitchen if yours is gadget-laden like mine.
A glossy manual, although wasted as no ingredient guidelines like the other product. Simple recipes just listing ingredients, although I do like their more innovative approach to using the machine with recipes for a dressing and even pineapple muffins.
Simple on and off function with one speed setting, although this would suggest you are compromising the quality of juice extracted, and there is also more preparation involved (chopping down in size)- however out of the two, this product produced less “waste”. I had to clean the path for the pulp as it had a lot of build up throughout juicing. This was also the more difficult of the products to clean.
Like the Russell Hobbs product, I enjoyed the juices I was able to create. Probably more so as I was aware how much less waste there was in comparison. Its good points are it’s aesthetics, size, lower noise level and less waste than the other machine tested.
In conclusion, it would appear you’re likely to see the same traits amongst budget juicers, with various pros and cons out weighing each other making it difficult to decide on the ultimate budget juicer. If you can afford it, you want to find a juicer that uses the cold-press method and one you can make “milks” out of from nuts etc for optimum nutritional / functional use.
