X

Juicero home juicing system is built to squeeze your wallet dry

Juicero cold juice press demands lots of green up front and squeezes more cash from you down the road.

Brian Bennett Former Senior writer
Brian Bennett is a former senior writer for the home and outdoor section at CNET.
Brian Bennett
2 min read
juicero-press-combo.jpg
Juicero

Commoditized coffee in single-serve pods is nothing new, but fresh-squeezed fruit juice is about to get the Keurig treatment too. Startup company Juicero has just officially brought its high-tech juice press to market. Priced at $699, the countertop kitchen appliance will cold-press proprietary packs of fruit and vegetables to create individual servings of organic drinks on command. (While it's US-centric for now, at a price that converts to £472 or AU$911, the shipping charges would probably be a bit exorbitant.)

According to Juicero, the press is also Internet-connected and mobile-app controlled in order to track the freshness and inventory of your packs in real time.

The true cost of this juice system

Of course there's a big difference between buying into the Juicero system and springing for a more traditional cold-press juicer. Fancy juicing machines which claim to use the cold-press method, supposedly better for preserving natural nutrients, cost anywhere between $180 to $500. Current examples are the $180 Breville Juice Fountain Cold and Omega Twin Gear Juicer. While this is a lot of cash to spend, the $699 Juicero press has an even more exorbitant price tag.

On top of that price tag is the cost of your weekly pack subscription. Juicero says in order to use the press, customers must agree to subscribe to a minimum of five packs (called a bundle) per week. With packs priced between $7 and $10, the least you can expect to shell out (in addition to $699 for the press) is about $35 to $50 per week. That adds up to between $140 and $200 a month, or theoretically an eyebrow-raising $1,680 to $2,400 a year.

juicero-pack-combo.jpg
Juicero

And if you plan on drinking more than five glasses of juice a week, the ultimate bottom line will balloon with each additional bundle you add to your subscription plan. I suppose that's why investors are so bullish on Juicero's future, financially backing the startup to the tune of 70 million in Series B funding.

Limited availability for now

If you aren't phased by the Juicero daunting financial commitment, you can order one today, but, per the company's current policy, only if you live in California.

More details about Juicero

  • Five flavors of Juicero packs
    • Sweet greens, greens, spicy greens, carrot beet and sweet roots
  • Ingredients claimed as farm-fresh and organic
  • Stays fresh in fridge for 6 days
  • No need to add water
  • Each pack has a QR code the press scans to ensure "freshness"
  • Press connects to 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi home networks