Riding around the border into Canada overdue this summer time, the CBC anchor at the radio introduced {that a} glut of blueberries had driven their costs all the way down to historical lows. Having introduced a complicated new juicer with me, I sensed a possibility.

The juicer at the back of the automobile was once a Hurom H-AI, a kind of Maserati of juice machines, with a formidable motor that provides it a near-unflappable skill to liquefy no matter you throw within the hopper.

This is a very efficient system, nevertheless it had a large number of convincing to do if I used to be going to love it, because the rattling factor prices $700—a host that created a hurdle I used to be fearful I could not transparent.

I dropped off my spouse Elisabeth and the juicer at my spouse’s mother’s area and headed to the produce retailer, returning with a mammoth flat of blueberries and 50 loonies value of different vegetables and fruit to throw in there.

A couple of years again, I reviewed one of the vital H-AI’s predecessors, the Hurom HH Elite, and was once curious to look what adjustments had been in retailer. The most important variations became out to be the streamlining of the system, and an additional hopper, this one a basket-like “self-feeding” quantity, permitting you to offload meals in there en masse. I additionally puzzled if the “AI” in its identify stood for “synthetic intelligence,” however as an alternative, an organization rep advised me that the letters have “no that means.”

As I unpacked those portions and equipment—13 to fifteen of them, relying on the way you depend them—they unfold out a ways sufficient to hide a whole dishcloth, with sufficient ins and outs that I began to pray the juicer got here with its personal pegboard.

Nonetheless, that new hopper was once great. I may just cut up some fruit and sell off it in there with abandon thank you, partly, to a multi-armed spindle that twirls round and assists in keeping issues transferring towards the auger. For many meals, it is a marked development over the standard chute hopper.

This comfort does no longer imply much less prep is concerned. Except it is one thing like the ones blueberries which simply desire a fast rinse, maximum of what you juice would require prep—washing, scrubbing, doing away with pits from stone culmination, and on occasion peeling. You can additionally want to scale back your juice-ables all the way down to what may well be referred to as “simply larger than chunk measurement.” This all takes some time.

I arrange the Hurom and were given crushing, observing the ones blueberries wobble round within the hopper, then emerge as liquid in the course of the strainer beneath, a wonderful coloration of violet. I used to be, on the other hand, stunned on the output—just a bit greater than part of the berries became to juice whilst the remainder turned into pulp. Is not pulp just right for you? Curious, I tasted that pulp and imagined the way it may well be unfold on toast and sprinkled with slightly sugar, or—gasp!—thrown in a blender with the juice. Nearly the entire juices I made had been downright scrumptious, however the amounts it took to make every glass jogged my memory why juice is so pricey.

I, uh, pressed on, studying that I could not cheat and put melon spears within the new hopper: cubes move down a lot sooner. The juice was once unbelievable. I tossed in some figs, and in all probability because of their not-terribly-juicy nature, they had been most commonly squished out as pulp. I peeled and pitted a mango, juiced that and—apologies for dishonest right here—however I threw the juice and the pulp within the blender with some yogurt and referred to as it a rattling wonderful lassi. Later, I chopped up some tomatoes, threw them in and, whilst I was hoping it will make one thing that I may just change into tomato sauce (alas, too skinny!), it did make some beautiful juice. Carrots went in subsequent, and I mixed their juice with the tomato, including salt, pepper, and a few of my spouse’s mother’s Mrs. Sprint seasoning, turning all of it into a wonderful mix that may be used as a base for a gazpacho, a Bloody Mary or, this being Canada, a Caesar.

Subsequent, I switched gears and attempted kale, observing the leaves get nudged round within the hopper, then slowly spun into juice with the auger, giving me the bizarre feeling like I had a front-row view of 2 stomachs of a cow.