The ins and outs of citrus juicing with the right juicing equipment
It doesn’t matter if you’re juicing at home, in a café, in a restaurant, cocktail bar, juice bar, fitness center, hotel, or grocery store – the principles of citrus juicing remain the same:
- Use high-quality fresh fruit
- Wash your fruit
- Use the right equipment and/or kitchen tools
- Keep your equipment and juicing area clean
- Enjoy your freshly squeezed juice
Depending on the volumes you will be juicing, you’ll need to pick the right equipment. Many kitchen stores supply great options for smaller kitchen tools. As volume demands increase you’ll need to look at different equipment options to help you remain efficient. With citrus juicing, you’ll need to cut and squeeze the fruit. For lower juicing volumes, small devices can be extremely helpful. As volumes increase, so too do demands for higher juicing speeds, ease of operation, speed of cleaning, and equipment reliability. When juicing, you’ll also want to consider how to get the best taste out of your citrus fruit. Click here to learn why freshly squeezed orange juice tastes so good.
MANUAL CITRUS JUICING
The best manual citrus juicer is the one that gets the job done for you based on the fruit you’re juicing and the volume you need. A basic hand reamer is the best option for juicing very small volumes of fruit. A hand press is an excellent option for juicing a few more fruit for recipes, cocktails, or making small amounts of juice. A manual press is the next step up in terms of volume.
For manual juicing, you’ll need to cut the fruit, so you’ll need the following:
- A sharp serrated knife to get a well-cut fruit
- A clean cutting board
- Your choice of manual citrus juicer
AUTOMATIC CITRUS JUICING
If you’re juicing higher volumes of fruit, for example averaging more than ½-1 box of fruit per day, then you should start considering a fully automatic commercial citrus juicer. Some customers juice about 1 box per day, on average, while others juice more than a full pallet, or 56 boxes, of oranges per day. This is more than 2,200 lbs of fruit every day and can mean millions of fruit juiced every year on one machine.
If you’re juicing 1-5 boxes per day, you’ll want to consider a smaller fully automatic juicer. If you’re juicing more than 5 boxes per day, then you should consider adding features or peripherals that will help you juice more efficiently, for example manage the peels better. Customers regularly juicing more than 8 boxes of fruit per day should consider investing in a higher capacity citrus presses to handle their juicing needs more efficiently.
HYBRID MANUAL AUTOMATIC CITRUS JUICER
Citrocasa recently launched a fully automatic integrated citrus juicer, the ECO, that cuts and squeezes the fruit without electricity. The unique feature with this integrated automatic citrus press is that there is no motor and no electricity required. This is a high-quality, stainless steel, hand-cranked citrus juicer designed with higher volumes of fruit in mind. The ECO allows for maximum mobility without sacrificing performance. This hybrid citrus squeezer, the ECO, has many uses.
When is a hybrid automatic citrus press most useful?
- Food truck applications where electricity may be limited
- Table-side applications where using an extension cord is inconvenient
- Art shows and street fairs where electricity is not available
- Juicing at farm and produce stands with fresh oranges
- Investment efficient option for lower volume juicing locations
In terms of manual, non-electric, citrus juicers, the ECO represents the most elegant manual citrus juicer available. It offers the most efficient way to cut and squeeze citrus fruit in an integrated process and does so without electricity and with an incredibly beautiful piece of equipment.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COMMERCIAL CITRUS PRESS
Daily juicing for a business requires high-quality reliable equipment to get the job done. Hygiene, efficiency, and juice quality are extremely important factors to consider when investing in such equipment.
Back in 2010, when Citrus America was getting started in the citrus juicing business, we reviewed all the major citrus squeezers available and determined that TMP GmbH, an Austrian company, supplied the best citrus juicer on the market. We looked at commercial manual citrus juicers, commercial automatic citrus juicers, plastic citrus juicers, metal citrus juicers, and many combinations of materials with different juicing strategies.
We determined that the Citrocasa citrus juicer press was the absolute industry leader due to the high-quality materials used, the special cutting process, other special design features incorporated, the innovations being introduced, and the quality of technical support provided. TMP GmbH had designed a stainless steel citrus juicer that was years ahead of any of the competitors on the market.
Back in 2011, Citrocasa had the best citrus juicer for sale. Citrocasa already offered juicers constructed using the highest quality polished 304 food grade stainless steel for nearly all the parts. The gauge of metals being used were designed for long-lasting reliability. Some juicing parts were not out of stainless steel, rather used a high-density co-polymer to ensure high-quality juicing and the purest juice possible. In addition, all juicer parts were removable for easy cleaning and sanitizing. The fastest juicer juiced at 40 fruit per minute and the newly launched Fantastic Series was able to juice at 30 fruit per minute.
Since 2011, Citrocasa has continued to innovate. New versions of machines are launched every year. The ADVANCE Series was launched in 2015, the Revolution was launched in 2018, and the ECO was launched in 2019. With our commitment to continuous improvement, Citrus America has worked closely with our customers to better understand their juicing needs and we’ve worked with Citrocasa to improve quality, develop new features and improve juicer performance and reliability.
Learning how to use a citrus juicer means understanding what your juicing needs are, developing the right juicing strategy, and selecting the right equipment to get the job done.
Contact Citrus America to discuss your citrus juicing needs.