The best citrus juicer is the Fluicer
I love this juicer from Dreamfarm, and also their collapsible whisk, the Flisk.
I've tried uh... [ticks off fingers...] at least six different kinds of citrus juicers over the years. Oh, and already I'm remembering a few more. They tend to have trade-offs, mainly between ease of use, ease of cleaning, and effectiveness.
Thanks to my brilliant bartender friend Jeffrey Morgenthaler, a couple of years ago I learned about the Fluicer by Dreamfarm. "Fluicer" is short for "flat juicer." Dreamfarm is a kinda kooky kitchen gadget company out of Australia, and all of their product names are a bit goofy like that.
Jeffrey Morgenthaler's review of the Fluicer
When I saw Morgenthaler's review, I was intrigued by the way you squeeze the handles in toward each other instead of pressing down; that looked like an easier way to apply force. You’re using your forearm muscles more than your finger grip. So I ordered one for myself.
Ooh, it's a nice juicer. No trade-offs here. It ticks all of the boxes.
It's super effective. It gets all the juice out. Definitely more juice than the common clamshell type I usually reached for before (that's the kind Morgenthaler is comparing it to in the video above). I've maybe gotten more juice from the motorized attachment on a food processor, but those can be too aggressive and dig into the bitter pith.
It's easy to use. I don't have a strong hand grip, which slows me down when using a clamshell-type juicer. The change-up of direction with this juicer, squeezing in from the sides rather than vertically, makes a massive difference. This takes as little pressing effort as the bulky double-jointed citrus press setups I've used. There's no setup, as with something motorized, or with a larger press that needs to get pulled out from some high shelf and needs a not-to-tall-and-not-too-short glass to capture the juice. You just grab it and go.
It's easy to clean: a quick rinse and you're done, or it can go in the top rack of the dishwasher.
Morgenthaler had understandable questions about how the Fluicer would hold up in a professional setting, but in my very non-professional home setting I can happily report it’s the same as the day I bought it. It’s holding up fine so far.
They make it in three different sizes: orange for oranges, yellow for lemons, and green for limes. But that doesn't totally make sense, because the orange one can handle any size of citrus just fine. I don't see the benefit of getting the smaller sizes unless you live in an RV, or you want to fit it into a portable toolkit, maybe. But since this folds up flat, even the largest size is easy to store. So buy the orange one and don't look back.
When I bought the Fluicer from the Dreamfarm website, I loaded up the cart with a few more of their products to get free shipping, and that's how I found another product that I absolutely love, the Flisk. That's short for "flat whisk" and it's ingenious. It has a little dial in the handle to collapse the whisk wires into a flat plane, which is great for storing in a drawer, but also great for scraping off all of your batter. That sold me on the idea, but once I had it in my hands I found my favorite setting: the middle one, half open. That leaves a partial opening on the sides, which lets big clumps of half-mixed batter fall out of the whisk instead getting trapped inside. Genius!
The Flisk comes in two sizes, and I bought the Mini Flisk, the smaller one. It's supposed to be dishwasher safe, but I only ran it through the dishwasher once, and I could tell some water got caught inside the handle. So now I only hand wash it, and that right there is a big tell for how much I love this thing, if I'm willing to wash it by hand. It helps that it's super easy to clean thanks to the collapsing. It's the whisk I reach for most often. I should probably try the full-size Flisk, too.
Dreamfarm has all sorts of other wacky products that have me intrigued, but I haven't tried them yet. If I didn't already have a microplane grater, I would be up for trying their Ozest grater, and I suspect the Supoon could become a favorite tool.
(If Dreamfarm is reading this, hi! Thank you for making weird, good stuff! Please don't send me freebies. Sincerely.)
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