California basically gave birth to the juice trend in the 1970s, according to the website Well Pared. But, Californians’ relationship with juicers goes back to a man named Norman Walker, who invented and manufactured the first electric contraption in the 1930s in Anaheim. Although manual tools existed to extract the juice from fruits and vegetables, Walker believed these left vital nutrients behind (via The Atlantic). His machine, called the Norwalk, ground vegetables and fruits more finely than existing manual tools. Interestingly, his company was still making high-end juicers (costing around $2,500, per The Atlantic) up until 2021 when it went out of business.
There are four types of juicers, according to the website Goodnature: masticating, twin gear, cold press, and centrifugal. Most home options fall into this last category. Quick and relatively inexpensive, a centrifugal juicer allows the user to push fruits or vegetables through a tube, where a spinning blade chops them. At the same time, the pieces spin in a strainer, which extracts the liquid. Amazon has a large selection of centrifugal juicers that cost less than $100.
If you are looking for the best option, however, cold press juicers are superior, according to many experts at Tech Radar. Better at extracting juice from leafy greens and berries than centrifugal machines, they work by using a hydraulic or pneumatic press to exert pressure on the food fruits or vegetables — though, they cost about $500 or more. Oh, and the second state googling juicers the most? That’s Nevada. Must be a West Coast thing.
