JR Ultra 8000 S
RARING TO GET STARTED ON A POST-XMAS HEALTH KICK, claire davies trieS out A WHOLE SLOW JUICER
price £339.99 URL juicyretreats.com WEIGHT 7kg POWER 240-watt, high-torque, near-silent motor CHUTE WIDTH 7.5cm AD ITIONAL ATTACHMENTS
Sorbet, smoothie
EXTRACTION SPEED 60rpm
Since joining T3, I’ve often been the butt of “Captain Health” jokes in the office. While I don’t preach, I’m always keen to share new wellness tech.
One of my favourite areas is juicers. For me, juicing is a way to get vital nutrients into my body without having to chew heaps of fruit and vegetables with each meal. Juices are also a great ‘fast food’ for when T3 is on deadline and I need sustenance quickly.
That’s why I was keen as a mustard-covered celery stick to put the JR Ultra 8000 S Whole Slow Juicer through its masticating paces. It’s a beautiful-looking machine, with a heavy base and a suite of accessories, including a juicing screw (the bit that juices and pulverises), a smoothie strainer, a pulp container and a plunger (to push ingredients through).
When I unboxed the juicer and set all the parts out on my kitchen counter, it looked complicated compared to my existing juicer’s set-up. However, the JR Ultra 8000 S is a masticating juicer, so it’s fair that a little extra assembly of the chunkier parts is needed. It turned out that, thanks to a series of colour-coded dots guiding me through which part slotted in where, assembling the juicer was quick.
For £340 (you can buy it for £199.98 using a discount code mentioned on the company’s website), this gadget offers a solid slow-juicing performance. With my old, centrifugal juicer, I’d find mountains of wet pulp in the pulp shoot at the end of each juicing session. Not so with this machine – when using fresh ingredients, the pulp created was drier and there was less of it, meaning the machine had extracted more nutrients.
The juice I have most mornings consists of kale, celery, cucumber, pineapple, spinach and wheatgrass. It was this recipe that I first tested out on the JR Ultra 8000 S – being aware of what quality of juice my old machine produced. As expected, the 8000 S produced a juice that was vibrant in colour and rich in taste. There seemed to be more ‘texture’ to it, too (not stray bits of pulp), so it felt like I was drinking something with more substance.
Using the juicer is simple, with just one switch at the back of the machine. Pull it towards you and the 8000 S juices ingredients in a ‘forwards’ position – ie it pushes them down through the shoot. Push the button away from you and the machine juices them in a ‘reverse’ position, pulling the ingredients back through to juice again if you think they have more left in them – great when you’re juicing tougher veggies.
There are two plastic containers included: one for pulp and one for juice. Both are easy to clean, with the juice container sporting a subtle spout to make pouring easy. Also in the box is a smoothie strainer and a plain strainer, perfect for making sorbets.
My one complaint? The plunger has a strange sloping base, so I can’t stand it upright inbetween popping more ingredients into the shoot. That criticism aside, the JR Ultra 8000 S is a simple-to-use, great-looking juicer that will suit anyone looking to add nutrientdense juices to their diet.