The Southern Thing: What Type of Juicer Should You Buy: Centrifugal vs Masticating

Deciding what type of juicer you should buy can be tough. With so many options, how do you choose?

A few days ago, my new best friend in the kitchen arrived. Friends, meet Breville. Breville, meet the blog. I have a feeling you'll be mentioned quite often around these parts.

Eeek!! I finally have a juicer! After more research than I'd like to admit to, I decided to get the Breville Juice Fountain Crush. One of the main deciding factors was the type of juicer it is. The one I got is classified as a masticating slow juicer.

There are different types, but basically the two most common types of juicers you'll find are centrifugal juicers and masticating slow juicers. Centrifugal juicers are usually cheaper and range in price as low as $50 and masticating juicers usually start at the $200 range, but there's a reason!

To sum up the main difference between the two, centrifugal juicers spin at a high rpm and the masticating juicers spin at a low rpm. The high rpm of the centrifugal juicers causes heat which in return destroys nutrients and enzymes in your fruit and vegetables, making them less beneficial for you. The juice produced in a centrifugal juicer also oxidizes, which isn't good. You have to drink juice from a centrifugal juice immediately after juicing due to the oxidation, where as with a masticating juicer, the slow rpm for pressing preserves your juice much longer. You can juice a day or two ahead and keep it in the fridge with a masticating juicer.

I plan on drinking my juices in the morning, so realistically I knew I would want to prep a lot of juice ahead at once as opposed to every morning (no one ever said the clean up was fun), so I knew a masticating juicer was the right choice for me. And since I'm juicing for the health benefits of the fruits and veggies, I figured why not get a juicer that will produce the highest quality, so the Breville Juice Fountain Crush won the battle! I've always heard good things about Breville and when I saw it was on sale for $200 (which was only $50 more than the original centrifugal juicer I almost considered) I couldn't pass it up. It seems a little pricey but I look at it as an investment piece for my health.

For those that know me, know this is a huge step for me. Believe it or not, I've never eaten a salad (go ahead, judge me!), I only eat a few select veggies (so bad, I know), and only care for fruit in smoothie form. But when it comes to juicing, I'll juice and drink just about anything! Call me a twenty something stuck in a childhood state of mind, but I find it much easier to drink than eat those specific items on a plate, so juicing it is! Gotta get those nutrients somehow!

Now for the taste. If you read the paragraph above and I can do it, then so can you! I was nervous about getting a "pulpy" juice masticating juicers are known for, but in all honestly, it really wasn't that pulpy and I hate pulp, so if that's your main deciding factor then I would suggest not worrying about that part too much!

I hope this was helpful for you. Obviously juice is better than no juice, so if a masticating juicer is out of your reach right now, don't let this post change your mind about juicing. I just thought I'd share what I found was helpful for me when choosing since it can be overwhelming with all the products out there!