If you don’t luck out at thrift stores, eBay, or Craigslist, getting started in juicing can be a serious investment. One easy practice to start with can be adding fresh lemon and water to your morning routine.
Method 1: your hands
The cheapest and messiest way to do this is to cut a lemon in half and squeeze it over a glass with your bare hands while making Hulk sounds. The Hulk sounds are not optional.
Pros: Cheap, hands readily available, get to sound like the Hulk.
Cons: Messy, doesn’t get as much juice as other methods.
Method 2: citrus reamer
Next up is the simple citrus reamer, which is basically a roundish grindy thing on a stick and looks like this:
I’ll confess, I’ve never used one of these (I skipped right to method 3,) but it seems just about as messy as the bare hands method, and I don’t think you get to make Hulk sounds.
Pros: You can feel superior for using simple tools.
Cons: Still messy, no Hulk sounds.
Method 3: citrus juicer
There are a lot of variants to this one, but here’s what I grew up with:
You can get handheld squeezer versions, motorized versions, and even attachments for your food processor, but I always liked the manual style as shown. They can be a little hard to find if you don’t want the motorized type (I think those are overpriced for what they do and take up too much space) so Amazon’s a good friend here. Here’s a link to a bunch of them
Pros: Simple to use, efficient.
Cons: Does not look like R2D2.
Method 4: The Juice Press
This brings us to where we’re at now in our home, with a full-on juice press:
Come on, am I the only one who sees the R2D2 resemblance? The one we use at home is a vintage Juice King model from the ’50s or so (I think,) which is a little battered but works great. I think of it as R2 during the Battle of Yavin, and the one pictured above is the polished version for the medal ceremony at the end, but I’m a bit of a geek.
Like I said, ours is really really old and it still works great. Sure, you can use the same massive juicer that you use for your apple carrot juice etc., but the cleanup time is way higher – we basically just run the removable cup under the sink when we’re done. Sorry to be all commercial and stuff, but the one pictured is only $5o at the time of this post on Amazon
Pros: Easy to use, fast cleanup, looks like R2D2.
Cons: Takes up counter space.
No matter what method you end up using, fresh lemon juice and water is an incredibly healthy addition to your routine. Your tastes will vary, but here we typically mix 1 litre (or quart) of water per lemon in a pitcher, or if I’m in a hurry I’ll have half a lemon in a pint glass of water.
I’ve heard recommendations to add cayenne pepper to the mix, but haven’t gotten into that yet. Limes also juice well with these techniques, though they’re smaller so you may need more of them.
{ 3 comments }
