Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What I Think I started thinking about juicing a couple of years ago. Over time I did a little reading on the internet but never thought passed the idea of juicing more than fruit (I'll get to why this important a little later). The cost was also a little more than scary - I always thought I could find a better way to spend $300 or $400 (the price of the "better" fruit juicers). I'm not a health nut, but after a short hospital stay I decided I should take better care of myself. About a month ago I finally bought the Omega 8005 Juicer. Why did I choose this model? Review after review extolled its virtues and the closest competitor, the Green Star Juice Extractor, was more expensive. This is one kitchen appliance that is well worth the expense. Why Would You Buy This If you are only concerned with juicing fruit this isn't the best model for you. It isn't so much cost, a good centrifugal juicer will cost about the same, or more. The issue lies in the straining screen. Pulpy fruits like nectarines clog the screen and you have to take the unit apart to clean it before you can continue juicing (I know this from experience). It can be done and in small quantities isn't that big a deal. But if you never plan to juice leafy vegetables or grasses I'd look elsewhere. If you want to juice leafy vegetables or grasses, then you need something like a gear juicer. The Omega fits the bill and is actually less expensive than some fruit juicers. There is also the issue of heat. Some juicers can heat the vegetables because they juice at high-speeds - thus reducing the nutritional value. Here again the Omega fits the bill because it's gear mechanism turns a low rate and is actually less expensive than many other similar units. The Omega can also make nut butters, pasta, and whole host of other things; have I mentioned that the Omega is less expensive than many of its competitors ;). More importantly, though, a glass of juice from the Omega contains more delicious vegetable nutrition than I have ever had in a single serving before. Use/Convenience I was a little concerned about having to chop up the vegetables and the reports of "lengthy" cleaning. Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Depending on how much you juice at one time it takes 30-40 minutes, from washing and cutting up the vegetables to finishing up cleaning the last piece of the juicing mechanism (not much more effort than cooking the darn things in my opinion - and I still do a lot of that for dinner). If you can clean a blender, the Omega is just as easy. I always take apart my blender to clean it, so cleaning the Omega wasn't that big a deal - maybe 2 or 3 minutes longer. Tips/Tricks First and foremost, do some research. The internet is chock-full of recipes and tips. Here are a few I picked up either through research or experimentation: 1. Use bitter or pungent vegetables and fruits in moderation - unless you just love chewing on a hunk of ginger, then go for it. Roots like ginger add a nice zing, but can overpower anything else if not used sparingly. Limes add a surprising amount of flavor; I add one-quarter of a small lime - anymore is just too much for me. 2. Peel oranges and grapefruits, but leave the white "skin" just under the surface. The rinds can be very bitter to taste and apparently contain minute traces of toxins. Grapefruits fall into the "pungent" category for me. When mixing in other fruits I only use 1 grapefruit. 3. If you want to sweeten a drink, use an apple instead of sugar, even in vegetable juice. It works. Trust me. 4. Use pulpy fruit in moderation. This is mostly a cleaning issue with me. I find that I have to take apart the juicing mechanism and rinse it off for *each* piece of pulpy fruit and this gets a little cumbersome when trying to make juice in the morning. 5. It can take a surprising amount of vegetables to make 24 oz of juice. But on the flipside one glass sets you up for the recommended daily allowance for the next day or so. 6. Start your juicing regime slowly. I found out the hard way that it can have an...uh...interesting affect on your digestive tract if you go whole hog too quickly. 7. Experiment. Some mixes are better than others, but in all honestly I haven't found one I didn't at least like.