Meet ‘Le Duo’; my long lasting reliable, quiet yet powerful French partner……..
The thought of drinking your own freshly prepared
juice squeezed from a variety of common and exotic
fruit or vegetables according to your choice, packed with
vitamins and full in taste sounded very appealing; it is then that I decided to invest in a
juicer; Le Duo by
Magimix.
There is whole variety of juicers, extractors, blenders etc available on the market today; the list of manufacturers and brand names is endless. Some of the extractors available allow; citrus fruit extraction only, some allow all fruit and vegetables; some allow juice collection straight into glass or container of your choice, whilst others have an attached juice container. This opinion is on Magimix’s Juice extractor and will analyse its merits and features and any drawbacks. I will also mention some other juicers you may wish to consider at the end.
Magimix is a reputable French company that was one of the first to make the
food processor. It is well known for its reliable, robust, and long lasting quality products. Today, Magimix makes a host of other products in addition to food processors; such as;
ice-cream makers and juice extractors. With this information at hand I had no doubt I was about to start a long lasting relationship with my French partner; Magimix’s Le Duo.
Magimix - Le Duo
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On first impressions; Le Duo looks neat, compact and very sturdy. The outside is made of high quality plastic, has a sturdy base and seems to weigh a tonne! Unlike some juicers I had seen it did not appear flimsy or easily breakable.
The juicer comprises of a commercial grade 250W induction motor housed in the base of the extractor. The upper part of the juicer contains a stainless steel juice extractor basket with tiny teeth that sits on top of the motor spindle; it will ensure extraction of the last drop of juice. On top of the stainless steel basket sits the plastic lid with a feedtube this slots easily on top of the basket; one turn anticlockwise ensures it locks into place. There is also a pusher to help feed the vegetables or fruit in through the feedtube. Also included are 2 cones for citrus fruit juice extraction; one small for lemons etc and a larger one for grapefruits, oranges etc. How many times have you bought appliances and are figuring out where the On/Off button is? (as quite often it will be a small obscure switch hidden at back of the machine!) Well on this machine you cant miss it! It’s on the front of the extractor; it is one large black coloured oval On/Off button that softly switches on or off. One of the best design features on ‘Le Duo’ is the ‘anti drip’ metal spout; push this spout up and it locks into it’s closed ‘anti-drip’ position, push it down and it allows juice to flow again. All the parts have snug tight fit and click into place effortlessly, making assembly very quick and easy. Before you use the juice extractor for the first time, you must wash all the parts.
To ease cleaning and retrieval of pulp and so on, a shaped plastic spatula is also supplied. As explained all the parts are easily removed and another bonus is they are also dishwasher safe.
Right now for preparing, your very own home made juice; an
easy one to start with is
carrot juice; I bought about 1kg of carrots (as they are high in Vitamin A content and much cheaper than 1Kg of apples!)Remember to buy your
fruit/vegetables as
fresh as possible. Now there is no need to peel the carrots if you don’t want too, but remember to chop off the head as it may get stuck in the motor. There is no need to chop the carrots; the feeder tube is wide enough to take small-medium size carrots. If your carrots are too wide, at the most you will just have to half them. However, I did peel the carrots and once I ensured the lid was clicked into place, I placed a glass under the spout, switched the machine on and gently guided the whole carrot into the feeder tube and voila! I got clear carrot juice flowing in the glass, glowing vivid colour, enriched in goodness and full of Vitamin A. It is advisable to drink the juice as soon as possible and avoid storage as pure raw juice has an extremely short shelf life. Home made juice is devoid of preservatives, pH acidity regulators and so forth as is commonly found in commercial
fruit juices. If you were to store large quantities I would advise storing in a clean airtight container for no more than 36 hours.
Unlike some juice extractors, the Magimix Juice Extractor gives a clear juice with no scum on the top, so there’s no need to chew your carrot juice! The juice is extracted by centrifugal force and leaves the pulp in the stainless steel extractor basket. If you are extracting large quantities of juice, be sure to empty the pulp from the basket if it gets too full. Throughout operation, the machine was silent and just had a gentle hum to it. It didn’t vibrate as it solid machine that stands firmly on its base with the aid of 4 rubber feet for added cushioning.
Now if you’re wondering what to do with all that carrot pulp, worry not nothing is wasted in home preparation! You can make a wonderful carrot sweet, you can either use the shreds of carrot pulp in a cake or make an exotic Indian carrot dessert (called ‘Gajjar ka Halwa’.
Connoisseur Haggler’s Recipe for ‘Carrot Dessert -‘Gajjar ka Halwa’
made from left over Carrot Pulp~
Take the carrot pulp collected in stainless juice extraction basket and lightly fry it and then cook it in milk, add sugar and cook until it condenses and gets thicker for about 30 minutes, add roasted nuts and raisons and serve. (If you want less fat omit the frying the pulp just cook in milk).
There are numerous possibilities of preparing your home fresh juice; such as Passion Punch, just use the citrus press attachment extract juice from oranges and lime (use the small citrus cone) add the passion fruits and blend.
Ok, so is there a downside to this fruit extractor.. well no, not really;
it works efficiently and effortlessly, the motor is of supreme quality has a 5 year guarantee and the operation is smooth.
The only minor thing I would like to change is to make the feeder tube hole a bit bigger so whole large vegetables or fruit could be fed, but that really is a minor point and it takes seconds to chop a vegetable into two. The only real downside of using a juice extractor is cleaning the parts after use, but you will have to do that with any juice extracting machine! All the parts are removable, right down to the anti-drip spout!
If I had to think of anything, I’d have to say this machine is expensive it will set you back £99.95. I managed to buy mine in a Sale at House of Fraser at £84.95 but its standard price RRP is £99.95. It is available in white, yellow, green and orange colours, though most Stores stock the white one. There is also a Chrome finish one, at a staggering £120, (I honestly didn’t want to pay an extra £20-£30 just for Chrome as that happens to be the current colour trend, but if you need to be Chrome co-ordinated then you have a choice.) This machine will last a very, very long time and is extremely well made.
Other choices:-
The only other juice extractor that is in the league of this machine is Anthony Worral Thompson’s Breville extractor that costs £89.99, though my reason for not buying is I didn’t like Anthony’s signature all over the product; the Magimix is far more sophisticated with ease to use product! If your budget wont stretch till £99 there are many other juicers starting at £19.99 such as Kenwood, but none of them have the build quality and efficient motor as the Magimix, I would seriously watch for this Product in Sales or if you like Anthony Worral then consider his juice extractor (that’s available at Argos) Magimix is NOT available at Argos, it is available at leading good quality stores such as House of Fraser, if you require further details please contact Magimix at the address below.
Overall
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Overall, the Magimix offers supreme build quality, powerful yet quiet motor, produces pure clear juice, no scum, and is very easy to assemble and use, a true long lasting french companion to add to any kitchen!
Further details on Magimix products
in UK contact:-
Magimix UK Limited
115A High Street
Godalming
Surrey GU7 1AQ
Tel: 01483 4274111
FRESHLY SQUEEZED- Long Lasting French Relationship 
