There was a time when my kitchen was packed full of one-trick appliances. There was the air fryer that never crisped potatoes quite right, the pizza oven that never fully cooked the dough, and the once-used ice cream maker that was nowhere near Häagen-Dazs quality. My attempts to be an innovative, DIY home chef never made it far, as my homemade fare never resembled restaurant-quality cuisine.

Letting the experts do it for me was just fine, until a global pandemic forced me back into the kitchen. During the long months of 2020 and 2021, I became quite the home chef, making indulgent dishes I never would have attempted before, like tikka masala and cinnamon rolls, as well as more health-focused fare, like fruit smoothies and vegetable-forward entrées.

Appliances that once sat collecting dust in my kitchen were suddenly all the more appealing to me now that I was a chef in the kitchen again. All this newfound culinary interest got me thinking about what else I could add to my appliance collection that would actually serve a meaningful purpose.

I’ve long loved fresh-squeezed juices, but because these refreshing, healthy beverages are often very pricey at dining establishments, farmers' markets, and grocery stores, I typically forgo the splurge on them. But after reading about some success stories with the Hurom Slow Juicer brand, I thought I would give one a try to see if I could create my own fresh-squeezed juices for weekend brunches, after-work margaritas, and days where I’m trying to eat less heavy.

I’m not mechanical or engineer-minded in the least, so I was worried when I got the Hurom HP Slow Juicer that I wouldn’t be able to assemble or operate it without some help. Thankfully, there aren’t an insane number of parts to piece together to make the juicer go, and the assembly itself is somewhat intuitive, but I still read the directions to find out how the magic works.

The Hurom HP Slow Juicer is sleek and not too tall or wide for sitting on a countertop space. The juicer comes with a recipe booklet, and while it isn’t anything super fancy, it does inspire you to consider what produce you can transform into nutritious, vitamin-packed juices, like carrots, kale, spinach, and cucumber. I immediately grabbed a bag of navel oranges in my fridge, cut them up into pieces, fed the pulpy fruit into the juicer, and watched the Hurom slowly but surely produce an incredible amount of liquid from just four oranges. The other side of the machine discarded the waste—i.e. the smashed fruit—into a plastic container that was easy to toss in the trash.

The industrious machine is surprisingly quiet and spins very slowly, which in the end is what sets the Hurom HP Slow Juicer apart from competitors of its kind. Whereas other juicers I’ve used before are obnoxiously loud and spin fast but yield very little, Hurom presses every ounce out of its incoming fruits and vegetables. You can even make nut milks, like cashew milk and almond milk in it, but I haven’t tried this just yet. Cleaning the machine is a bit tedious, yes, but the juicer comes with two brushes that make cleaning up much more efficient, so no need to worry about any lingering pulp in the machine.

Though Hurom makes an array of advanced juicers, the HP Slow Juicer is the best for the home kitchen. It’s the smallest one in their lineup, but it does just as an efficient job as their more pricey ones. And while I’m forgoing any diet-driven resolutions in the New Year, I’m already excited about what juices I can make next after investing in some bulk pomegranates and apples.

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