SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., January 22 — It’s not just you; sunlight and its nutrients are awfully hard to come by these (short) days. You could get a taste of summer with a big-ticket trip Equator-ward or buy a bunch of new houseplants and pretend spring is in bloom, but planes (and plants) are getting costly. Better learn to love your canned and stewed goods and wish on a swiftly turning calendar, right? Wrong.
How did apothecaries and ad campaigns put fresh, delicious juice-making in your kitchen? In the Beginning. The mortar-and-pestle design used by ancient apothecaries to grind up their prescriptions was, for many long and scurvy-pocked years, about as good as juice extraction got. Several cultures appreciated juice and had their own (painstaking) ways of getting it, but fresh juice burst into the American mainstream in the early 20th century, when citrus magnate Sunkist began its "Drink an orange" ad campaign. The market having been introduced, inventors scrambled to design better, faster methods of extracting juice for the thirsty public.
Innovations
Over the last 90-plus years, juicers have gone through many iterations, including: the high-speed centrifugal juicer of the 1920s, which introduced too much air to the juice and oxidized nutrients quickly; the Norwalk juicer of the 1930s, which grated, cut, and pressed the produce for good juice and a lot of resulting mess; and the high-speed masticating juicer of the 1950s, which produced friction and lost a lot of nutrients to heat. Today’s models, whether electric or manual, have either refined those early prototypes or combined their best qualities; the integrity of the juice is key to any design, as is easy removal/cleaning of the pulp left behind.
What’s in it for you?
Vitamins. Sure, you could pop a multivitamin — and wonder whether or not it’s dissolving enough to do you any good. Or you can get your nutrition in doses of sweet or savory goodness, turn your face sun-ward, and smile in thanks. Versatility. Lots of our machines are simply good, effective producers of delicious juice. Some include other useful kitchen functions — make smoothies, pasta, baby food, etc. — without compromising on juice quality. Volume. It’s not just the commercial models that churn out high quantities of nutritious nectar; all of today’s models, manual and electric alike, have been engineered to produce great juice as efficiently as possible. Translation: buy a crate of yummy Valencias and invite a big group to Sunday brunch.
Meet your match: | | Save |  5% off on $100!
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| Top Brand | They cover the juicer spectrum with four of the market’s most beloved, reliable products — including the 1000 Multi-Purpose model and the 8003 Nutrition Center. And the hard-working company, though not as household-name-distinguished as Sunkist, predated the ’90s juicer craze by about 40 years, then held strong as the trend — and lesser companies — faded.
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