Friction causing heat is scientifically proven to destroy the nutritional composites of fruit and vegetables. The Retro Cold Press Juicer masticates whole fruit and vegetables, which basically means it crushes them and squeezes out the juice within them without using sharp blades. Admittedly we're fond of making juices in our high performance Blendtec Designer 725 and Optimum 9200 Next Gen blenders. One of the things that anchors us to keep using them instead of a dedicated slow juicer like this, is the cleanup and preparation we’ve often found other juicers require. That’s where the Retro Cold Press Juicer endeavours to be different, by claiming quick juicing and hassle-free clean-up for £300.

Design

A 1950's image is fabricated with the use of chrome branding, a curvy body and the selection of colours. You can choose from black, cream and pastel blue, which is the colour of our Retro Slow Juicer. It leans away from the current trend to cover kitchen appliances in glossy blacks and stainless steel. In doing so it adopts a quirky image, which we admire a lot. The plastic exterior body isn't substantially thick. However, all the translucent BPA free plastics used where the juicing action happens are noticeably rugged and hard wearing, particularly when judged via our high stressed juicing, which included a 8x5cm stem of broccoli that it gobbled up without any sign of plastic fatigue or cracking.

Its bias towards an image of an era gone by, makes it a kitchen appliance that’s timeless within the environment. A disadvantage is that the 49cm height of the Retro Juicer means it won’t fit under most kitchen countertops. The rest of the body measures a snug 24cm x 17cm and the total weight is 4.9kg, so not a particularly hefty appliance, just really tall.

Setup & Ease of Use

We’re early-bird morning juicers and we appreciate that the Retro Cold Press Juicer is quick to get going. The two supplied 1.5L jugs need positioning underneath the juice tap and pulp exit point, with an optional filter that can sit on top of the juice collecting basket if you desire no pulp at all.

Then a flip of the only control will initiate the juicer to spin; with the same switch it can also be ordered to spin in the opposite direction and this effectively unscrambles any jams very easily. The juice tap (a bung-like device that remains attached to the machine) is greatly admired, as it enables automatic mixing of the juice and control over portion size.

Adding to this ease, whole fruits and vegetables can be inserted into the chute and, as they’re pushed down into the juicer with the tamper, bigger produce like apples will pass a blade which slices them on the way into the juicer. We rarely found ourselves needing to manually cut any fruit or veg because they wouldn't fit within the chute, and this ability to feed almost all produce into the juicer whole undoubtably saves time.

Juicing Performance

The flagship ability of the Retro Cold Press Juicer is that it slowly extracts the juice so that the liquid doesn’t get heated. Making this possible is a low induction 240w motor spinning at a constant 65rpm, as opposed to something like the previously reviewed 44,000rpm that the Optimum 9200 Next Gen blender can reach. However, don't let this mislead you, because it doesn't translate literally to slow juicing in time terms; it’s an equally speedy approach to blending and a great deal quieter too. As a consequence of this procedure we’re apparently retaining the nutritional values of the ingredients, and what’s more we found that if we keep the fruit and veg in the fridge the juice retains the coldness, unlike when added to a blender. So here’s a visual and contextual understanding of our juicing results:

Orange juice: We started with the most well-known of all the juices, orange. What’s really important about orange juice is that you need to peel them before juicing, otherwise the juice is bitter. Two peeled oranges are turned into juice via the slow cold press method in a surprisingly quick 15 seconds. We never used the filter, as we like orange juice with bits in it. The yield, as seen, is excellent and the pulp is always exceptionally dry.

Spinach, Cucumber, Carrot, Apple & Lemon Juice: By entering the spinach first, we were able to witness just how effective this slow masticating process is. We were delighted to see the dark juice immediately appear from the two cups of spinach, really highlighting how well the juicing process works with the Retro Cold Press. Likewise the carrots and apple were nimbly crushed and juiced. What’s really worth noting is that this juicer doesn't slow down or stutter with harder produce like these either, the considerable torque is fantastic.

Ginger Not Beer Juice: A recipe of 1 inch ginger, a quarter lemon, a few mint leaves and 2 apples is a regular favourite at the studio. It’s a fiery ginger drink that makes a fantastic healthy and quick to make replacement for the real thing.

Frozen Raspberry & Apple Juice: For frozen ingredients a separate internal frozen fruit sieve is supplied in the box. We haven't yet used this and found that once fruit, such as raspberries, had thawed, they could be juiced with no issues to report. What we were very happy with, is that the seeds from the raspberries were entirely removed, leaving a smooth and rich sharp fruity cool-down beverage, superb for those long hot summer days.

Broccoli, Celery, Lemon & Apple Juice: We have repeatedly made this one with our left-over broccoli stems. We’d rate the stems as the hardest produce we’ve made the juicer masticate; nevertheless, the stress of the dense stem proved to be of no problem for the motor.

Orange, Radish, Lemon, Apple & Carrot Juice: This was a truly delicious and refreshing concoction that we threw together one day to see if radishes actually contained much liquid. According to the Retro Slow Juicer, they do. It’s a nice blend of flavours, which leans on being more savoury than sweet, great for a lunchtime pick-me-up.

Cleanup

Our previous experience with juicers is that they're a menace to clean, due to restricted crevices and fiddly filters. The Retro Slow Juicer is a fresh breath of air, because the filters, which are referred to as internal sieves, didn't clog and nothing jammed either. After every use we cleanse the juicer by running two cups of clean water through it, and this is perfectly satisfactory for daily use. Nevertheless, this won’t completely clean the juicer so, to be safe, we always dissemble the juicing components and clean separately if it’s left idle for more than a day. Washing these for a spotless clean in this manner isn't a headache; a supplied brush with a hook on the end rids the pulp exit point from left-over waste. The rest of the parts can be left to soak and dry, and reassembly takes only 15-20 seconds. Parts are not dishwasher recommended safe, but we always wash our jugs in the dishwasher with no problems to report.

Overall

The Retro Cold Press Juicer makes juicing as much of a hassle-free experience as possible. The ability to juice whole fruit and vegetables, without having to cut them, is quite simply brilliant! The easy daily clean, by passing just two jugs of water through this 1950s designed juicer, is an equally enormous advantage for the user. What’s more, the cold press, masticating slow juicing process is quick, powerful and effectively extracts juice from vegetables and fruit to leave behind dry pulp. Finally, throughout all our use, we found the motor doesn't stutter under stress from the hardest solid produce, which reflects well on the design. £300 is a decent chunk of money to spend on a juicer, but this one is backed up with a five year parts warranty and a significant 25 year motor warranty.