Champion Juicer Wheatgrass and Leafy Green Attachment

[Arky]

hope your doing well too arky , i seriously miss your posts / outlook !!!!

like you say its a journey , and we cant go back but rather can only grow forward faster !

and at this point in my journey / evolution i say to all " obviously the ultimate being is a plant eater thusly i am one "

heres to your speedy growth towards
eternity arky , may we speak again .......:)

Well, as they say in Star Trek, may you "live long and prosper!" (not sure if they were growing micro greens or wheatgrass on board the starship Enterprise - one can only speculate what helped them live long...) :)

The Samson does a really good job making the flax oil. We make 4 (14oz) containers of it and put it in the freezer. I make those over the course of 1 day - letting it completely cool down between batches. I can press 1 (14oz) bottle's worth in about 30=+/- minutes.

My husband did the math and he figured our savings just in pressing our own flax oil alone would pay for the juicer in about 6 months. We both take 1-2T per day and we were paying $14 per 14oz bottle through my doctor's office. We order 25# bags of organic flax (brown) through Azure Standard.

And I tell ya - we love the taste. There's something about it being freshly pressed, albeit frozen - it still tastes better than Barlean's brand that we were buying.

The only down side is cleaning the auger or grinding rod housing (not sure what it's called). Where the metal meets the plastic - the compressed flax cake gets caught up in there, so one has to be very mindful to get that all cleaned out (which I do with a turkey skewer thing, metal pin with a sharp point). That's the only design flaw that I've come across so far. But if I keep that nice and clean -- I am good to GO! *Ü*

Hmmm... you have me now (casually) contemplating again what the economics would be for me to buy flax here in the UK. Problem is, it wouldn't be worth it for me to buy an entire Samson/Matstone again just for making flax oil. I know the Omega 800x/Oscar DA 900 can be adapted to use Samson gear (and vice-versa), but it requires unscrewing the face plate and that'd be too much hassle each time...unless...I do what you do and run a whole batch through for freezing purposes...hmmm..! (rubbing my chin!)

Thanks for the feedback on the oil attachment - whether I move forwards with that now or not, I'm certain that info will come in handy to someone (perhaps me) some time in the future. Much obliged to you.


All the best to both of you.

[Aleesha Sattva]

you asked why i'd want the attachment for my champion if i have a greenstar.

cause i do mostly soft fruits when i juice and the greenstar isn't great with them... so i tend to use my champion more. so if i could get my champion to do wheatgrass and greens better... then i could perhaps rehome my greenstar and have more room on my juicing counter!

[Arky]

you asked why i'd want the attachment for my champion if i have a greenstar.

cause i do mostly soft fruits when i juice and the greenstar isn't great with them... so i tend to use my champion more. so if i could get my champion to do wheatgrass and greens better... then i could perhaps rehome my greenstar and have more room on my juicing counter!

Hmmm. I hear you, but I'm still not convinced! _ does your husband have any say in the matter? ;)


...I'm guessing the answer to that (apart from mind your own business LOL is a resounding "No, he does not!!")




I take it you mostly blend your greens at present?

[Aleesha Sattva]

no i use my champion for my greens. i cut them up like i would for a salad and it does a good job of them. i don't do wheatgrass at home so it's not an issue. i tend to only keep it here during the summer. i live in a very humid climate and it molds too much during the winter.

my hubby doesn't do juice... so the juicers are for me. he just juices for me... and definitely prefers the greenstar over the champion.

i would happily only use the greenstar except it doesn't like tomatoes and that's what i have for dinner every night when i'm fasting. tom juice in a bowl with a spoon. (other things in the tom juice... but you get the idea)

i love my greenstar, love the quality of the juice. if i could get it to love my tomatoes... i'd happily just use it. but alas... i can't seem to get it to like them - even with the larger screen.

[Arky]

Well, as someone who uses a single-auger juicer on a daily basis, I think you might be hoping too much from the Champion's new auger attachment - being completely serious now, my Omega 8006 does a good job on almost anything but really not very competent with soft fruits such as tomatoes.

Truly, and in all seriousness, if you wish to juice tomatoes, I think you'd be wasting your money trying to do this in any worthwhile quantity with any single auger juicer. Perhaps a press juicer might do better for you with tomatoes, but I've no personal experience with these kind of juicers so can't say for sure. Either that or get the Vitamix out and just blend the tomatoes? (with or without the skins - lots of silicon but also, potentially, lots of solanine alkaloids which aren't great for calcium metabolism, although this is, admittedly, a contentious issue - see here for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine)

Unfortunately, there's no getting away from the fact that auger juicers need some fibre in order for the auger's 'thread' to gain any purchase upon the food in order to crush and expel it efficiently. The newer 'vert' juicers are an interesting development, of course, because they additionally capitalise upon gravity to feed the food along the length of the auger. IF, and only IF I was going to try to produce tomato juice on a regular basis, and in worthwhile quantity, with an auger-based juicer, I guess I'd try a 'vert'-style one, for this reason of gravity assistance, but I feel they are currently overpriced, and certainly a lot more expensive than a $90 Champion attachment (but I suspect it may be a wasted $90 investment anyway, sorry to say. I reckon that attachment is more about Champion saving face and making a few extra dollars from their established customer base, than it is about actually accomplishing the task which the Champion has always been unable to effectively accomplish. To be honest, I feel quite sorry for employees or retailers who have to demonstrate that attachment - it must be embarrassing).

[Aleesha Sattva]

wow that's quite the opinion on the champion when you haven't even given it a try arky.

nonetheless my champion does a great job on tomatoes so i'm not looking for a new juicer. i looooove my champion. works great for my needs. it juices greens... as it is so i don't see why a new attachment won't make them juice even better. i guess i'll have to waste my money and find out!

[Arky]

wow that's quite the opinion on the champion when you haven't even given it a try arky.

nonetheless my champion does a great job on tomatoes so i'm not looking for a new juicer. i looooove my champion. works great for my needs. it juices greens... as it is so i don't see why a new attachment won't make them juice even better. i guess i'll have to waste my money and find out!

oh, no no, I'm not criticising the Champion at all - all I am saying is that I recognise that having an extremely fast spindle speed means that the Champion is not ideally suited to auger juicing of greens, that's all :)

Similarly, I own the 8006 but I recognise that it doesn't do a particularly good job of soft fruits, for example (http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=64303). I doubt any juicer does a perfect job of all produce types...


As I said, if the new auger attachment for the Champion had some method to slow down the auger, I would have an entirely different opinion.

Look again, for yourself, closely, at the video DebB linked-to in her original post. Note how, even after the second pass, the grass is still quite intact. Why? Because at 1725rpm, it would cause too much friction and heat to thoroughly grind, mash and squeeze the fibres.

So, no offence intended at all, and please don't think I'm criticising the Champion juicer itself - I'm definitely not. Just the attachment, which is plainly illogical in it's design. Places like Hippocrates etc. have Champions at their disposal - I wonder how many of these institutions will be using the new attachment to juice all their trays of wheatgrass?

As I mentioned previously, the Champion (when combined with a manual hydraulic press) is possibly the best way to get the performance of the venerable (and hyper-expensive) Norwalk, with produce such as apples and carrots, and that is a praise-worthy and respect-worthy accomplishment indeed. I highly respect the Champion. I also acknowledge that it's built like a tank and will easily outlast almost any other juicer on the market - it's properly engineered.

Back to the attachment, I'm not at all too proud to be proven wrong, however, and I absolutely will not complain if someone buys the attachment, gets fabulous results with wheatgrass, and posts here to tell me so, yourself included. On the contrary, I'll be very pleased for you &/or them, and I'll have learned something from the outcome.

Peace. :)

[Aleesha Sattva]

i'll happily and joy-fully keep you posted! and i'd love a cup of that tea you are drinking!

[evelynf]

I just heard about the attachment, Aleesha how do you like it?

[Aleesha Sattva]

Haven't picked it up yet. I've become readdicted to my greenstar and can't seem to think about using anything else LOL

[evelynf]

oh no LOL too funny!

[Aleesha Sattva]

giggling... yup. I always had a hard time getting my greenstar to do soft fruits. I've managed to get it working just fine now. So... I'm using it daily now. My poor champion is in the corner... alone... waiting for it's turn.

giggling...

[gruvdiva]

I was thrilled to receive my Champion Greens Attachment. It does not, however juice leafy greens and in fact broke my juicer. I followed the directions to a T. It might be okay for wheat grass but it definitely does not do leafy greens even though the instructions say to include the stalks. Also, my kitchen is now stained green. Just sayin'.

[DebB]

I was thrilled to receive my Champion Greens Attachment. It does not, however juice leafy greens and in fact broke my juicer. I followed the directions to a T. It might be okay for wheat grass but it definitely does not do leafy greens even though the instructions say to include the stalks. Also, my kitchen is now stained green. Just sayin'.

It broke your juicer? What did Champion have to say about that? I know that this is for the 'newer' models, mine is too old for this attachment since I've had it since the early 80s. I hope Champion makes it right for you. *Ü*

[Aleesha Sattva]

i'd like to hear what champion has to say as well. seems weird that it would break your juicer. pretty hard to break a champion...