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April 12, 2016
The Diary of a DIY Juicer
The Trials and Tribulations of DIY Juicing at Home (or in the Office)
Our spunky co-workers Erin and Josh volunteered for what seemed to be a pretty straightforward task: making juice from scratch at the office (full disclosure: we have a pretty tricked out kitchen). They made juice using two different juicers: a centrifugal and a slow press.
We knew it’d be a time consuming job to shop, wash, chop, set up, juice, and clean up. But we weren’t prepared for exactly how excruciating DIY juicing actually was. We must’ve forgotten. After all, we’ve grown accustomed to taking a Pack out of the refrigerator, hanging it in the Juicero Press, and pushing a button. Easy.
Here’s the breakdown of what goes into making a DIY glass of the equivalent to our Sweet Greens:
9am-9:10am Drive to the store to pick up Sweet Greens ingredients (all organic kale, pineapple, apples, spinach, and lemon).
9:10am-9:40am Shop, pay the $20.24, schlep to the car, and drive back.
9:40am-9:50am Unpack, realize that we forgot lemons, curse.
9:50am Send Josh to the store for lemons, regroup, and keep going. There’s no time to waste, and we’re already 50 minutes in.
9:51am-10:15am Start prepping: find cutting boards, knives, countertop space, etc.
10:15am-10:20am Wash each and every item, then rinse and rinse again.
10:20am-10:31am Chop each and every item. (Wish for this to be over already—91 minutes in.)
10:31am-10:45am Take a break and apply first aid to a few cuts. (Side note: consider knife skills classes.)
10:45am-11:00am Assemble the juicer.
11:00am-11:20am Measure ingredients and make juice.
11:20am-11:50am Disassemble juicer, clean it, and pack it away. (For good, we hope.)
11:50am-12:05pm Clean cutting boards, knives, and countertop.
12:05:01pm Drink the juice.
Total time: 3 hours, 5 minutes and 1 second
The juice was good, but not 3-hours-in-the-making good. It definitely wasn’t as vibrant and delicious as what we’re used to drinking from the Juicero Press. According to our juicing duo, the juice was “fresh, delicious, and a complete pain to make.” On top of that, since you can’t buy the perfect amount of produce tailored to a specific juice recipe, there was an awkward amount left over that was too little make more juice, but too much to feel good about just composting.
Lesson learned: You can’t get those hours of your life back, but you can vow to find an easier way. This is where Juicero comes in.