Champion vs
Jack La Lanne:
The Great-Juice Off

By Sharon Oliver

On our left - we have the juicing standard of the industry, the Champion. This juicer weighs in at 25 pounds, a masticating giant. This multi-function machine also homogenizes, making nut butters and ice creams with the change of a screen.

On our right - weighing in half as much, we have the new-comer making its cameo appearance, the Jack La Lanne juicer. Taking up a similar amount of counter space, this low-profile basket-style juicer is advertised to yield an exceptionally high amount of juice using a high powered yet quiet motor. Can it stand up to the reputation of its competitor?

Carrots. I suggested trying this one first, as both machines are white and we could juice other things afterward to wipe out any orange stains. First we turned on the Jack La Lanne (JL) juicer. Indeed the motor was exceptionally quiet. We used similarly sized and weighted carrots. The JL was slightly hesitant at first, but made fine saw dust pulp out of its prey. The Champion quickly devoured its carrot but the pulp came out mushier. There was an obvious visible difference between the two - JL definitely beat the Champ with its drier carrot pulp.

YIELD: The JL had a visibly larger amount of juice, by a couple of tablespoons.
TASTE: I found no real difference in taste between the two
TEXTURE: The JL beat the Champ hands down on texture. JL's carrot juice was thinner and clearer. The Champ's was pulpy. My sister-in-law who just happened to be on a juice fast favored JL's. So did I.

Apples. Now this is something interesting. On JL's informercial, we see Jack La Lanne effortlessly placing a whole apple down the juicer's chute. That didn't happen with us because the apple was bigger than the chute. Could Jack La Lanne's apples have been really small? We don't know, but here are the results of our apple juice.

YIELD: Champion's juice was much frothier and yielded about a tablespoon less than JL. 
TASTE: I couldn't tell a difference.
TEXTURE: JL's juice was clearer and thinner, Champ's thicker, pulpier, with more body.

Celery. I had to cut up my celery stick as the Champ tends to get the strands wound up around its cutting blade. Again, the JL yielded more juice, with a clearer consistency.

Tomato. This was the biggest eye-opener! The JL handled the tomato beautifully. The juice came out flowing like a river. The Champ dumped a frothy mass of goop out into the glass below. I didn't taste either as the smell of tomato got to me and I wasn't brave enough to try the Champ's glop of froth.

Cucumber. Again, the JL juicer beat the Champ in terms of juice yield and consistency.

Orange. We peeled 2 oranges and juiced them side-by-side. After trying JL's juice I exclaimed to my sister-in-law, "It feels like silk!" The Champ did well, but had a pulpier texture. This could appeal to someone who likes their orange juice pulpy.

CLEAN UP: Each juicer had about the same amount of pieces to clean, however JL's parts were larger and bulkier than the Champ' parts. The Champ was definitely a quicker, easier clean-up than its competitor. JL's basket had a lot of peach fuzz-type bits stuck in its sieve that took more effort to remove. JL's juicer advertises that its dishwasher safe, so just a quick rinse before placing the items in a dishwasher would be a timesaver.

Conclusion: The JL beat the Champ hands down in all tests for juice yield and texture. The Champ handles clean up faster but it would be worth the few minutes' extra clean up time for the amount and quality of juice that the JL can put out. The Champ has other features for homogenizing, however personally I prefer to make nut butter in my food processor as it is easier to clean up, rather than having to get all the butter out from the cutting blade. However, one thing I'd miss is putting frozen bananas through to make ice cream.

Note: We didn't try any leafy greens, parsley, wheat grass, beets, onions or garlic. These results may vary due to the different texture of the items.