Nama J2 Juicer Review: I Hated Juicers Until I Tried This One.

By Lukas Volger

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Juicing can be not only expensive, but inconvenient too. Lots of juicers are clunky, loud machines that can set your whole kitchen rattling. Hard-to-clean compartments and crevices might conceal razor-sharp edges on their juicing blades. Manual-feed designs demand more of your attention than you ever wanted to spend on this whole juice thing. And on top of that—some of these juicers don’t even make very good juice.

That’s why the Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer was such a revelation during an otherwise messy and cumbersome round of juicer testing. This new model is a machine that, yes, makes top-quality juices, but it also tackles those long-standing juicing hurdles head-on, with a design that’s easy to use and safe to take apart and to clean. It’s also go some innovative new features that turn juicing into more of a hands-free process than it’s ever been before.

The Nama J2 is what’s called an upright masticating juicer. That means all its components stack on top of each other, locking into place vertically. You load fruits and vegetables into the machine from the top, where they funnel down through the hopper and feed into the juicing compartment. “Masticating” here refers to the auger-style juicing implement: The auger (a large corkscrew) turns at a rate of 43 rotations per minute, slowly and steadily crushing the raw fruits and vegetables and pressing them through a metal filter to extract the juice. On one end of the machine, juice pours out; on the other, the dry fruit and vegetable solids.

The major advancement of the Nama J2 juicer is the machine’s self-feeding hopper, which looks like a big blender pitcher. Most other juicers have manual-feed hoppers—typically a narrow feeding tube through which produce users must add a few ingredients at a time. With the Nama J2, you can add all ingredients at once (it works best with soft fruits or leafy greens on the bottom and hard items like carrots or beets at the top). When you turn on the machine, a processing blade trims down large pieces and funnels them down into the auger, which transforms the fruits and vegetables into juice.

The key advantage of this feature is that it makes juicing hands-free: Turn it on and turn away. Larger leafy greens can sometimes get caught and need a little extra push, but that’s about it. With most other juicers, you’d have to trim produce into small pieces for it to even fit into the hopper. With the J2, in addition to the self-feeding design, the hopper also has a wide mouth, which can cut down significantly on prep by allowing large and sometimes whole fruits and vegetables to be loaded in.

The wide mouth doesn’t eliminate prep work entirely. You’ll still need to cut celery into 4- or 5-inch segments, core and then halve apples, and trim off tough melon skin or citrus peel. But more than any other juicer we’ve used, the Nama J2 is incredibly effective at streamlining and simplifying this process.

Finally, the Nama J2 is very quiet. It hums gently, like a desk fan set on low. You won’t worry that you’ll wake up your whole house while getting your 5 a.m. jolt of liquid nutrients.

There are two styles of juicers, masticating—also called cold press or slow juicers—and centrifugal ones. The masticating ones work just like they sound like they would, slowly crushing the fruits and vegetables to extract the juice.

Centrifugal juicers could be called fast juicers, because after you force your produce through a feeding tube, it shoots through a rapidly spinning juicing blade, which shreds it on contact, spitting the solids one way and the juice another. Because of the high speed of centrifugal juicers, some juice enthusiasts have worried that heat generated by the machine kills some of the nutrients in the juice and speeds up its oxidation. I’d note that this logic (as well as, it must be said, many of the claims when it comes to the health benefits of juicing) isn’t settled science.

Still, after testing both types, I think masticating juicers are better for a couple reasons. One, they’re easier to clean—the parts usually separate easily and can be quickly rinsed. Centrifugal juicers make much more of a mess with the solids, which look like they’ve been shot through a paint sprayer. Centrifugal machines also have a very sharp juicing blade and I have cut myself on them more than once.

But more important, you can see the difference between the two styles of juicers in the juice itself: Centrifugal juice usually has a thick head of foam, can be murky in color, and starts to separate immediately. Masticating juicers produce much less foam, are typically brighter in color, and have a more even, velvety texture.

This is the most important question. It’s delicious! In addition to the smooth, even texture and vibrant color, its flavor is bright and fresh—the best we tasted in our tests. As with all juicers, a small amount of pulp ends up in the finished juice, which is something that I don’t particularly mind, but if it bothers you, Nama also offers a custom pulp strainer that makes it easy to filter out those lingering solids.

The Nama J2 comes with a smoothie strainer, which has larger holes to allow more solids to pass through. It works well enough to make smoothies, but isn’t as straightforward as using a blender. The looser, more juice-like part of the smoothie comes out the juice spout, and the thicker solids, which are about the consistency of sorbet—especially if you use frozen fruit—come through the pulp outlet. So to then make a proper smoothie, you’ll have to stir the two components together. Obviously, you wouldn’t buy a Nama J2 just to make smoothies.

Additionally, you can use the Nama J2 to make nut milk. Simply soak the nuts overnight and then, with the motor running, pour the nuts and measured water through the hopper lid. The milk solids that come through the pulp outlet are pretty dry, and the nut milk is smooth and creamy, though not quite as creamy as if squeezed through a nut milk bag or made in a dedicated nut milk maker. Again, I wouldn’t recommend getting the Nama J2 primarily to make almond milk, but you certainly can and it does an admirable job.

The Nama J2 retails for $550, which is a lot to spend on any appliance, and especially a juicer that’s essentially a single-use one. And while juicers are always pricey, the Nama is even more expensive than most. But if you regularly buy little bottles of green juice at the store or have been put off by how time-consuming and messy home juicing can be, the Nama is worth considering. It streamlines the process, will probably make better juice than you’ve tasted before, and it’ll can save you money in the long run (green juice is not cheap). Even if you’re already into juicing the Nama J2 may be a worthwhile investment, because more than anyone else, you’ll be primed to appreciate its innovations. No other machine that we’ve used has ever given us such a juicy thrill.