I Didn't Know It Was Possible to Love a Juicer This Much

It is hard to beat the convenience of juice that comes in a bottle. Except that you are parting with a substantial amount of money and still not getting that taste and aroma that only a freshly pressed juice can deliver. Don’t get me wrong, I do buy the cold-pressed carrot, celery, and other juices and still drop money for the convenience of it all. But for citrus and pomegranate, I will not have it any other way especially after using the Zulay.

Pressing citrus fruit releases essential oils from the peel that makes the juice more aromatic.  When you press something like pomegranates, it results in a delicious juice without the cloudiness from blending or extracting like with a centrifugal juicer. Does Zulay check these boxes? Totally! Not only are the juices bursting with flavor, the aroma is delightful and brightens my mornings.

It took me a long time to finally take the plunge and buy the Zulay Professional Citrus Juicer. I dallied because I wasn’t sure if I would in fact use it often. I grew up drinking freshly pressed juices in Northern India. Winter months were interspersed with soaking up the warmth of the sun on the rooftop, shelling roasted peanuts to eat, and consuming large amounts of fresh citrus juice from a cart that rolled by at exactly at the same time every afternoon. I bought the Zulay because its form and function were exactly like the juice vendors of my languorous childhood days—slow and unhurried. But unlike the ‘juicewala’ I was not ready to give my arm a workout every time I wanted fresh juice.

Since the Zulay lever presses down effortlessly, I needn’t worry about the arm workouts. It sits on the kitchen counter and gets a workout almost every day. I batch-process lemons and limes to have juice for salad dressings, lemonades, or simply for adding to my water or tea. If we are entertaining, having a large batch of freshly squeezed citrus juice always comes in handy for making cocktails or for serving as-is. My in-house mixologist, aka my husband, also agrees that fresh juice elevates his craft cocktails, and he has more control on flavorings and sugar content.

The only difficult part about using Zulay is knowing when to stop. It’s so effortless and fun. What’s not to like about citrus aroma filling the air as you work on a box of oranges. Juicing pomegranates takes slightly more effort than the citrus, but it’s still easy. Plus, I extract more juice with this press than with any electric juicers.

I also love that when it’s time to clean-up, it takes two minutes at most. I just remove the stainless-steel detachable parts, drop them in the dishwasher, and wipe down the juicer with a damp cloth. At almost 16 inches tall and 15 pounds, I happily have allocated some precious real estate to Zulay. It makes me smile the moment I see it, like when people smile when they see a pot of coffee, warm and ready to greet them. If juice is your thing, you need this love affair.

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Renu Dhar is a personal chef and Instructor and is passionate about making cooking approachable, developing easy and nutritious recipes, and finding tools that help make cooking fun and easy for everyone. She integrates her professional kitchen expertise, knowledge of ingredients and world cuisine to research and write for The Spruce Eats.