Fresh squeezed made easy: Cuisinart Citrus Juicer CCJ-100

One of the great things about living in California is being able to have citrus trees in our yard. When we first moved here from Oregon nearly 14 years ago our orange tree was still young and we ate all the fruit it produced without any trouble. Now it is quite large and even with 2 kids, it is very hard to consume all the fruit. So we decided to purchase the Cuisinart Citrus Juicer CCJ-100 so that our precious oranges wouldn't go to waste and we could enjoy fresh juice in the process.

Product Features

The Cuisinart Citrus Juicer is a very simple appliance. Its brushed stainless steel housing stands 7 inches tall and features a cord wrap inside the bottom of base. Three pieces sit on top the housing: the juice collector tray with snap-up spout, the reamer, and a clear cover. The juicer is very easy to use: plug in, cut your citrus fruit in half, and press down on top of the reamer.

This juicer is actually listed at $45 on the Cuisinart web site. Please don't pay that much. At Bed, Bath, and Beyond it is priced at $29.99, but fortunately I had a $5 coupon that brought it down to $24.99. It is such a simple appliance and in my mind, if it weren't for the Cuisinart name, I don't think I would pay more than $20 for it.

A recipe book is included and includes recipes for smoothies and mixed drinks using citrus fruit juice. So far I haven't used it as we primarily are using this for orange and lemon juice.

Actual usage

I normally use about 4 medium naval oranges when I make a glass of juice. After slicing an orange in half I push a half down on top of the reamer. The auto-reversing reamer spins easily, extracting juice as I hold the orange half down. The pulp is caught in the reamer and the juice flows into the juice collector tray directly beneath it. After juicing about 2 oranges I push down the spout and drain the juice into a glass, snap back up the spout, and juice about 2 more oranges to get a full cup of juice. On average it takes about 10-15 seconds to ream one half of an orange, or about 2 minutes or slightly less for a full glass.

Since the pulp gets caught in the reamer, I recommend rinsing out the reamer for each glass of juice you do. The pulp will slow down the flow of juice otherwise and get quite messy.

Speaking of mess, other than the pulp in the reamer, juicing oranges is not as messy as I expected. I see a few splatters as I juice, but nothing too bad.

The juicer produces quite a bit of torque when in use and you might notice the juicer move a little bit. However, if you operate it with the spout up, this shouldn't be an issue. When I press down an orange on a reamer I am able to pretty much hold the juicer in place and any movement is quite insignificant.

We also have lemons and it does a wonderful job with these fruit as well. I use lemons primarily in cooking so I will usually juice a few every week and store the juice in the fridge so I don't have to take out the juicer every time I need lemon juice.

Cleanup is a cinch. I put the reamer and collector dish in the dishwasher (top rack) and wash every day. If I plan to use it several times during the day, I just wash by hand. The pulp rinses out very easily.

Final Thoughts

This juicer has proved to be a very useful appliance for our family. While there are fancier, the Cuisinart Citrus Juicer CCJ-100 gets the job done and is quick and easy to clean up. Solid 4 stars.