All Juiced Up (and nowhere to go!) (Kenwood JE550 Juice Extractor)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Kenwood JE550 Juice Extractor
Date:	04/04/02 (1844 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fresh, healthy way of getting your five a day

Disadvantages: B@gger to clean

First it was the coffee bars that started springing up in every town. Maybe it’s only me, but I could not walk down a high street without passing at least two coffee bars, if not more, often next door to one another. Having got the nation hooked on caffeine at a couple of pounds a shot the novelty started wearing off and previously packed coffee houses were seeing trade dwindle.

Enter the juice bar! This one has far more health appeal and offered something that the coffee bar couldn’t. You can boil a kettle at home and make a cup of coffee but fresh juice is another thing entirely. Most of us could squeeze an orange (provided of course that we had one) but to get a good glass of orange juice you need around three to four oranges and a lot of elbow grease! What about carrots though – ever tried squeezing the juice out of one of those?

One such juice bar sprang up not far from my place of work. Tempting me in at 8 o’clock in the morning with Latin American music flowing from the door I was persuaded to part with £2.70 for an “Autumn Energiser” drink. One sip and I was hooked. The problem I had was that I could not justify spending £2.70 every day on a drink made of carrot, apple, orange, ginger and honey when a quick bit of maths told me that the raw ingredients cost less than 50p.

A quick trip down to Argos provided the answer. A centrifugal juicer. Which one? They all looked so similar. In the end it came down to a special offer (free book on juicing) and reliance on that well known brand name of Kenwood. I have many Kenwood appliances and they have all been reliable so £30 lighter in pocket I set off home eager to try my new purchase.

The Kenwood JE550 Juice Extractor is a simple looking machine. In keeping with the rest of the Kenwood range of kitchen equipment it is white with a blue logo. The machine itself measures 24.5 x 16 x 29 cm and weighs about 2.5kg. It is therefore o
f a size that can be accommodated in a cupboard or left out on the work top without causing too much trouble.

Kenwood clearly thought about design when they came up with this one as there is a very useful food hopper (on which you can put your prepared fruit and veg before juicing) which inverts for easy storage on top of the machine.

The juicer operates from a 200 watt motor at one of two speeds depending upon the fruit being juiced. As a basic rule soft produce should be juiced on the slow setting and hard on the fast.

So how do you use it?

1 – Prepare your fruit or veg to be juiced.

The hole into which you put your fruit and veg is not overly large and thus most things need to be cut before they can be juiced. Obviously fruit such as oranges will need to be peeled but I tend not to peel carrots and never apples! You will find that you will need to quarter or possibly eighth apples (depending on size) and possible halve carrots (lengthways). Perpared fruit can be placed on the hopper.

2 – Turn on juicer and put produce into machine!

Quite simple this one. You are provided with a shaped plunger (for want of a better name) with which to force the fruit down the entrance hole and onto the stainless steel filter. This takes very little effort but using it does stop things being spat back up the chute!

3 – Juice will magically collect in the jug below!

The jug that collects the juice is capable of holding up to 500ml. It claims that the lid is a froth separator (you do get a lot of froth from certain fruits and veg) but I have found use of the lid just to make a huge mess! The problem is that the hole which lets the juice out but retains the froth is in the middle of the long edge of the jug (imagine a semi-circle with an oval hole in the middle of the straight side). It would be far better if the hole was at a corner where it is easier to control the flow. I th
erefore, tend not to use the lid.

4 – Pour into a glass and enjoy!


I have found the juicer to be very efficient and must say that I feel really good in the mornings after having had a glass of freshly pressed juice. There is no danger of cutting yourself on the filter (although care should be taken when washing it) and there is a safety lock on the lid.

So, are there any niggles? Well, apart from the problem with the lid of the jug, not really. The top of the machine where the pulp collects (which can hold up to 900ml of pulp) can be a bit fiddly to clean and the stainless steel filter can be a little hard to remove. Sometimes, fruit gets through to the pulp container without being properly juiced although I have found this only really to happen with apples and it is not such a huge problem.

If I had one complaint it would be that the machine does not clean itself! I love the juicing but I hate the washing up (the machine breaks down into 6 parts and then there is the knife and chopping board!).


What can I juice?

I have found fruit to be the best although I regularly add carrots to my juices. You can juice veg but I am not yet that brave!

My favourite recipes are:

AUTUMN ENERGISER (as bought for £2.70!)
1 Orange
1 Apple
2 Carrots
½ inch of Fresh Ginger
1 tsp Honey

Juice the fruit and veg and then stir in the honey!

CARRIBEAN DREAM
1 Orange
2 Kiwi Fruit (peeled)
1 Apple
¼ Fresh Pineapple (peeled)
(rum to taste!)


Apples juice well but do expect “bits” in the juice – like old English apple juice as opposed to the clear variety.

I would not recommend trying to juice bananas – they do work but are better blended with a hand blender. (Strawberries, banana and raspberries with either natural yoghurt or milk is scrummy!)

One point to note is that the fruit and veg quic
kly loses its vitamin content after being juiced (through oxidisation) and you should therefore drink the juice as soon as it is pressed for maximum benefit. You will be surprised at how much fruit and veg you can eat (and I normally hate the stuff!) and so having a local market where you can buy in bulk at the end of the day helps (the fruit does not need to look good for juicing!).

If you are into cooking then you can make up individually flavoured juices and freeze them (ice cube bags are great for this) and you can even use the pulp for pies and as yoghurt flavourings (a la Muller only much cheaper!).

I think that this juicer was a great buy and I have had more than my money’s worth out of it! It is now on offer at Argos for the knockdown price of £24.25 – you can’t go wrong.

Happy juicing!

Claire

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