For few years I have Omega 8006 juicer, that is quite OK. Since I always like to improve things, I recently researched more about juicers and found opinions that Angel juicer may be yet another level of quality juicing (more juice amount, better taste, better disposal of pesticides etc.). Does anyone have a direct experience in comparing those two ? (yes, I know that youtube video of the two guys measuring the results Thank you. The price is not that much issue for me, but getting something which is more or less similar that I already have would make a little sense. Getting something which would be much better, would have a big sense, of course ...
I looked at Norwalk Juicer, but that's already quite a monstrum ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2015 10:04AM by djlukasek.

I have an angel juicer and a green star (from tribest). I use both, because my angel does not have a nose piece that can be adjusted for pulp flow. The angel is definitely limited, but I use it most of the time. THere are times, when I need to adjust the pulp flow and that is when I use the green star. But the angel will extract more calcium. I also have a centrifugal juice. I certainly can't imagine having only one juicer. Make sure you know the pros and cons of each juicer first.

Why not keep the juicer you have, use it only for masticating the pulp, and buy a Welles Press to juice the pulp. That's what I do. I find it faster than juicing with the single auger juicer and I get every last drop out of the pulp. You also can use the Welles Press alone for one step operations on very juicy fruit like pineapple. It works very well, for me, to get perfectly clear raw pomegranate juice to use in recipes.

When I'm in a hurry I use my juice fountain plus which is really fast and great for very juicy stuff like cucumbers. When I use it I save the pulp in the fridge to press later and get around another 8 oz. of juice from taht.

If you bought a juice fountain plus and a Wells Press you would still be spending less than for an Angel juicer and you will gain tons of ability for versatility and creativity.

[www.youtube.com]

Wow, SueZ, I need to learn from you how to use the Welles Press, because I have one and never got the hang of it. I mainly bought it for pressing tinctures, but I wish I knew how to use it properly because I am ruining my centrifugal juicer when I juice nopal cactus fruits. Those fruits strain the motor. Also, I have no idea how Rawgosia eats her passion fruits, but I can imagine using the Welles Press for passion fruit because they are a lot like the cactus fruits...filled with hard seeds.
Well, I agree with your technique. I have the same technique! Sometimes when I juice sweet potatoes, I use the centrifugal first to save time in cutting, and then I run the pulp through the angel or green star.
THe angel truly does get more calcium and minerals out of greens BUT sometimes if I don't stop juicing in time, it can get so clogged up inside that it can take so long to clean and even get the blades out, because they get stuck with pulp (I learned never to try to juice too many stalks of celery in the angel).
My mom used to want an angel until she spent time cleaning mine and then said forget it. BUT! I think it is fabulous if your aim is mineral intake. I love my angel for the minerals.
Also, I don't like plastic, so I appreciate an all stainless steel juicer.
SueZ do you use your own screen for the Welles Press or use what it came with?

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, SueZ, I need to learn from you how to use the
> Welles Press, because I have one and never got the
> hang of it. I mainly bought it for pressing
> tinctures, but I wish I knew how to use it
> properly because I am ruining my centrifugal
> juicer when I juice nopal cactus fruits.

I have not tried the Wells press with nopals. I have some in the fridge to try with fresh aloe leaf for a Marcus juice recipe. His method uses the VitaMix and then he runs the pulp through a nut milk bag. I just blend them into soups and have no other experience yet.


Those
> fruits strain the motor. Also, I have no idea how
> Rawgosia eats her passion fruits, but I can
> imagine using the Welles Press for passion fruit
> because they are a lot like the cactus
> fruits...filled with hard seeds.

I don't know. I could only get (frozen into a block) Mexican passion fruit. I took one T. of it - it seemed to be mushed to just juice - and threw the bag away as it thickened up my saliva to slime.


> Well, I agree with your technique. I have the same
> technique! Sometimes when I juice sweet potatoes,
> I use the centrifugal first to save time in
> cutting, and then I run the pulp through the angel
> or green star.
> THe angel truly does get more calcium and minerals
> out of greens BUT sometimes if I don't stop
> juicing in time, it can get so clogged up inside
> that it can take so long to clean and even get the
> blades out, because they get stuck with pulp (I
> learned never to try to juice too many stalks of
> celery in the angel).


Yeah, It's best to cut celery into 2" pieces for all juicers, IMO.. I don't like unwinding and cleaning off the strings. Plus it makes for a quicker cleanup even with the Brevel.


> My mom used to want an angel until she spent time
> cleaning mine and then said forget it. BUT! I
> think it is fabulous if your aim is mineral
> intake. I love my angel for the minerals.
> Also, I don't like plastic, so I appreciate an all
> stainless steel juicer.


None of them are perfect, that's for sure. I stay far away from juicers with too many topographical surfaces and finicky parts to clean.


> SueZ do you use your own screen for the Welles
> Press or use what it came with?



I hate the cloths that came with the Welles Press. I immediately replaced them with a set of Norwalk cloths, which I love. I bought them on eBay.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2015 02:30PM by SueZ.

SueZ wrote:
I have not tried the Wells press with nopals. I have some in the fridge to try with fresh aloe leaf for a Marcus juice recipe. His method uses the VitaMix and then he runs the pulp through a nut milk bag. I just blend them into soups and have no other experience yet.

Tai:
I was shocked by his method. One day I will write about the virtues of doing it another way. Suffice it to say, all you have to do is flay open the aloe and scoop out the gel and blend with or without fruit juice or coconut water. Blend just to break apart the chunks but not to create a total froth. Maybe 6-10 seconds max in the vitamix.

youtube videos show how to use a serrated knife to clean the nopal leaves. I can understand him, as a gringo, using the nutmilk bag for the nopal leaves, but not the aloe vera. Yes, the mexicans are experts at cleaning nopal leaves in just seconds with no thorns stuck in them. White people should learn too because the calcium in nopal is amazing. SOmetimes mexican markets sell the cleaned nopal leaves from mexico, but that is a no-no for a rawfoodist (too many germs from the handling--the mexicans expect them to be cooked).

I have a passion fruit vine and it is not easy to eat passion fruit, because of the seeds. I am curious if Rawgosia spits them out or what. It is a very medicinal fruit, as are many astringent fruits.

Thanks for the Norwalk cloth tip.

Tai. Marcus uses the Vitamix for aloe alone. The recipe I'm talking about combines the nopals with the aloe and other ingredients. The use of the nutmilk bag for the next stage is, I guess, to homogenize all the ingredients together better or something. I'll try it both ways and get back to you on it.

I am lucky enough to live in near an area with a large Mexican population with enterprising very hard working people. They have grocery stores that do a lot of the grunt work for you in house. I buy my nopals professionally shaved of thorns and cut into pieces. Not only is it a bargain but they use their best and freshest nopals to process in this way, it seems to me. I want the freshest plumpest ones!

I don't know what the problem was for me with the block of SEEDLESS Mexican passionflower fruit but it was awful and I didn't know enough to know if I should trust it as being ok to keep and eat. I'll try a raw one if one ever becomes available here.

I can't imagine the Welles Press having trouble with passion fruit as it does a perfect job getting all the juice out of pomegranate arils. I press them then rearrange the seeds and press again. That's all.

I will watch the nopals videos and try my hand at shaving them. As I'm sure you well know all new skills are transferable and sometimes more useful down the line than for the purpose they are originally learned for. Happens to me all the time. And, who knows, maybe one day some big plump fresh nopals with thorns will show up instead of the rather shriveled floppy ones I'm seeing around me now.

Wait, if you can get cleaned local nopal from the grocer or farmer's market, then don't listen to my advice. I grow nopal, and it is nice to go pick a leaf or two whenever I want and it is easy to clean them when the leaves are large. But when the leaves are small, there are more chances of getting pricked. It requires a lot of practice, and the fact is I have seen many people give up after cleaning their first leaf.
I met a local mexican lady that I sometimes take my nopal to for cleaning. If I have a lot leaves, then I don't have time to clean them and I take them to her.

My remark really came from seeing that Markus grows his own nopal. He seems really agile, so I said it more for him. But the reality is most people will never clean nopal. It did take me numerous hours to get it down. And I had a good pair of tweezers for removing thorns from my fingers, which is inevitable when learning. Now I hardly ever get stuck by a thorn.

SueZ, I don't want you to have another raw food incident! Proceed with great caution, a sturdy pair of tongs, and don't hurt yourself. Abandon ship if it's too much.

Going back to juicing...I only juice nopal in the centrifigal juicer. It won't go down in any other juicer, except we did see Markus squeeze it through nutmilk bag, so a press could work.

I am reminded of a lady I once helped who fell on her friend's cactus and had major thorns dug into her finger nail. One doctor made her paranoid about cactus thorn poisons. So then the insurance company had to pay her for her injury.

If someone is not impeccable in handling nopal cactus, they should not attempt to clean it themselves and eat it. God forbid they leave some thorns on and try to swallow that. I regret my gringo remark.

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wait, if you can get cleaned local nopal from the
> grocer or farmer's market, then don't listen to my
> advice. I grow nopal, and it is nice to go pick a
> leaf or two whenever I want and it is easy to
> clean them when the leaves are large. But when the
> leaves are small, there are more chances of
> getting pricked. It requires a lot of practice,
> and the fact is I have seen many people give up
> after cleaning their first leaf.
> I met a local mexican lady that I sometimes take
> my nopal to for cleaning. If I have a lot leaves,
> then I don't have time to clean them and I take
> them to her.
>
> My remark really came from seeing that Markus
> grows his own nopal. He seems really agile, so I
> said it more for him. But the reality is most
> people will never clean nopal. It did take me
> numerous hours to get it down. And I had a good
> pair of tweezers for removing thorns from my
> fingers, which is inevitable when learning. Now I
> hardly ever get stuck by a thorn.
>
> SueZ, I don't want you to have another raw food
> incident! Proceed with great caution, a sturdy
> pair of tongs, and don't hurt yourself. Abandon
> ship if it's too much.
>
> Going back to juicing...I only juice nopal in the
> centrifigal juicer. It won't go down in any other
> juicer, except we did see Markus squeeze it
> through nutmilk bag, so a press could work.
>
> I am reminded of a lady I once helped who fell on
> her friend's cactus and had major thorns dug into
> her finger nail. One doctor made her paranoid
> about cactus thorn poisons. So then the insurance
> company had to pay her for her injury.
>
> If someone is not impeccable in handling nopal
> cactus, they should not attempt to clean it
> themselves and eat it. God forbid they leave some
> thorns on and try to swallow that. I regret my
> gringo remark.


Lol! But you know, me being me, NOW I just MUST try it.

I've been in the kitchen all afternoon - and I have more I want to do there. I'm just taking a break from that now and I wanted to tell you that I used my juicer/press system to make a batch of garlic juice. Since I thought you might be interested I weighed everything. The peeled ginger weighed 266 grams. After juicing and pressing the debris left only weighed 34 grams. I got 7 oz. of ginger juice.

That is impressive...only 34 grams left of pulp. Okay, I have to practice with the press. I was intimidated by the warning that you could break the whole press by turning the handle wrong. Everytime I used it, I didn't get that much out, but you have encouraged me to study it and practice.

I was not suprised when I read from Dr. FLora's pdf that TSM shared with us that ANn Wigmore used nopal in her smoothies. It truly is one of the best raw vegan living foods I have ever tried, in terms of healing and repairing the body. My gardener was too careless once with picking cactus apples for me and now he won't go near them. I myself have to do that job. It is easy when you are impeccable and stay focused, but you will regret it if you are tired and try to clean them.

If I ever experience teeth sensitivity, I force myself to make cactus smoothies frequently. I feel the calcium and minerals heal my teeth (after consuming enough, I really start to feel it a lot after 7 pounds...spread over days). I am not sure if the baby/small nopal has the same mineral levels, but I tend to use the medium to large leaves.

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is impressive...only 34 grams left of pulp.


I used my single auger juicer with the blank plate in it to masticate the ginger I had cut into 1" pieces previously. Since the fibers were so short most of the juicing was already done in the first step of the process as most of the juice came out the back hole anyway. It wouldn't surprise me if it would have been just as efficient to run that juice through a fine sieve, and to have squeezed the fiber out of the remaining pulp from the front and inside of the juicer with my hands. I probably could have skipped the pressing step altogether. I'll try it that way next time I need a lot of ginger juice. I'll let you know how it goes.




> Okay, I have to practice with the press. I was
> intimidated by the warning that you could break
> the whole press by turning the handle wrong.


Turn the knob all the way to the right - which you have to do anyway or the platform won't lift at all. Now pump the platform up with only your other hand on the platform and stop pumping when your hand touches the top. Remove your hand from the platform and turn the knob 1/4 turn (from 12 o'clock to 9 o'clock) and then push the platform down with both hands to gauge how hard it is to push back down. Now repeat that process only this time turn the knob 1/2 turn (from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock) to gauge how hard to push down the platform that is. For me, with my Welles Press that is all I need to know. I never have had need to turn the knob more 1/2 turn to easily push the platform down so that's all the further I ever turn it.

I doubt there is too much variation from press to press but in case there is, and your platform doesn't pull down easily with the 1/2 turn, just keep trying it with smaller increments until you find the sweet spot on your own press.

Sometimes, especially when it is new, the platform can get stuck in the uppermost position. To avoid that hassle don't jack the platform up really tight against the top. Instead stop just shy of forcing it up with more elbow grease and just release the pressure, lower the platform, remove the pressing package, rearrange the load, and press again to your hearts content. Having had most of the moisture removed with the first pressing and simply pressing twice has worked the best for me once I figured out to do that. You don't want to get in a suction situation to fight.


> Everytime I used it, I didn't get that much out,
> but you have encouraged me to study it and
> practice.


If your press's plate is not completely level (it isn't on my press) do a second pressing with the package switched around so each side can be equally squeezed.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2015 10:49PM by SueZ.

Hi SueZ,
Thank you so much. I will follow your instructions carefully. I used it before, but I wasn't precise. Thanks again!

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi SueZ,
> Thank you so much. I will follow your instructions
> carefully. I used it before, but I wasn't precise.
> Thanks again!


You're welcome!

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi SueZ,
> Thank you so much. I will follow your instructions
> carefully. I used it before, but I wasn't precise.
> Thanks again!

Tai, one thing I like to keep on hand for hydraulic machine maintainance is a container of Boeshield T.9 bicycle lubrication. My Wells Press has not need any gunk cleaned of it's mechanism yet but it's good to have the T.9 around for the eventualities.

Ok, good to know. I do plan to use it a lot after I get those Norwalk cloths you mentioned.
Thanks again.

Tai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ok, good to know. I do plan to use it a lot after
> I get those Norwalk cloths you mentioned.
> Thanks again.


As I was pressing pomegranate juice today I remembered that I forgot to tell you that for juicy fruits that don't require mastication first, like pineapple and pomegranates, I do use the press cloths that came with the Wells Press just because they a little tougher and I get a bit more juice out due to the higher height variation in the weave pattern (I think).

Thanks SueZ.
I am definitely going to practice using it with both cloths. I realize that i will have a chance to meet with the distributors in a couple of months to iron out any questions I have left. And if we hadn't shared together, I would probably have kept procrastinating with it. Thanks again.