Most all-purpose juicers fall into one of two types. Centrifugal juicers or masticating slow juicers that are also known as “cold press.”
A centrifugal juicer offers speed and a lot of power. In essence, it operates a bit like a blender with an added mesh screen to separate juice from pulp. A fast-rotating blade shreds fruit and produce and grinds them up against a mesh screen, often at a speed of thousands of revolutions per minute. Whatever passes through the mesh is the juice.
The power and speed mean centrifugal juicers are often whizzes at processing roots, pineapples, and other harder or dense-fibered produce that might pose difficulty for a slow-press auger. Softer fruits such as berries or leafy greens won’t do so well here, offering lower juice yields or even clogging up the mesh screens. Centrifugal juicers also tend to produce frothier juice, given the high agitation. That said, rotating quickly also makes them quick.
A masticating juicer—sometimes called a “slow” or “cold press” juicer—is both the newest trend in juicing and a much older technology. Basically, slow juicers operate on the same principle as an old-fashioned cider mill, slowly “chewing” and pressing fruit at a much lower rate, which some believe subjects fruits and vegetables to less oxidation and heat and thus preserves more of their essential character.
More verifiably, slow juicers tend to net higher juice yields and less waste than centrifugal juicers and are more effective in particular on leafy greens, soft fruits, and berries. They also add less froth and aeration to the resulting juice and produce more evenly textured results.
Masticating juicers were once loaded into a horizontal grinder and chute, which took some effort and required you to attend to juicing during the whole process. More recently, the advent of vertical masticating juicers from South Korea changed all that—with big hoppers one can load up, shrug, and depart from as the juicer does its work. The majority of juicers we’ve included in our guide, and all of our top picks, are now slow, masticating juicers.
We’ve also included a classic citrus juicer for simple orange, lemon, and lime drinks. These are quite simple devices and mostly the same as each other aside from style and ergonomics. Basically, you press a halved citrus fruit onto the ridged dome of a reamer and turn on the device. The reamer will twirl till the juice is juiced.
Masticating and centrifugal juicers can, of course, juice unpeeled citrus—and the added zest can be quite flavorful in lemon and lime juice. (Actually, this is my preference.) But to avoid such zestiness, you’d otherwise have to peel your citrus before loading into a juicing chamber. The easiest way to juice an orange will always be to halve it and press it against the ridged dome of a citrus juicer.