Does This $550 Juicer Live Up to the Hype? We Tested It to Find Out (2024)

Our reviewer was sent a sample of the Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer to the test in their kitchen. Keep reading for our product review.

I grew up in a home with a Norwalk cold press juicer, which has now long been out of production. Today, the 1980s behemoth resells for up to $2,000 and requires you to first place the produce into a chute, which grinds out a pulp that you collect in a flexible screen, then fold that into a complex envelope and place into the other side of the juicer, where it presses out into juice. To me, juicing is synonymous with the health-food culture I grew up in, and while I never used my dad’s Norwalk, I’ve owned an assortment of juicers as an adult, including centrifugal and masticating. My dad once drank so much carrot juice he turned orange, so I figured I had a legacy to uphold.

The most intensive juicer I’ve owned is a Greenstar Original Basic Twin Gear Slow Masticating Juicer. It was a hand-me-down from my father, and no matter how often I used it, I never managed to successfully put it back together after cleaning on the first try. The masticating arm setup was far too complicated for me, even as someone who made healthy food for a living. Long having given up on home juicing because I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay the astronomical prices juice bars charge, I wasn’t particularly in the market for one because I find the cleanup process to be too laborious. But when Nama offered me their new J2 Cold Press Juicer, with the top selling point being its ease of use, I decided to give it a try.

#1 The way you add produce

If chopping vegetables and fruit into itsy bitsy pieces and then feeding them one…by one…by one into a juicer sounds purgatorial, rest assured it is. This is the first juicer I’ve come across with which you don’t have to do that. You fill this up all at once—a revolutionary change to the world of home juicing.

Cold press juicers are usually a two-step process and are so complex and cost-prohibitive that they’re used more often in commercial settings versus in the home. A two-step Pure Juicer, for example, retails for $2,500: It’s enormous and complicated. Nama has changed the process entirely for cold pressing, using the weight of the produce itself to help it compress downward, where it’s ground and extracted internally so that only juice comes out. It makes cold pressing into a single step for the user, with everything happening on the inside of the machine.

#2 The yield

The quantity of juice you get in relation to produce and pulp is similar to a masticating juicer, but at the speed of a centrifugal one (if not even faster than that). While I wasn’t particularly blown away by the yield of leafy greens, which are notorious for turning into a smidgeon of sludge, I was very impressed by what both citrus fruits and hard foods such as beets, carrots, and apples yielded in juice.

This is a particularly intuitive and easy-to-use juicer, and the pitchers for juice and pulp are just the right size in relation to the center well for produce, which is particularly nice. When juicing a combo of foods that included high-yield ones like oranges or grapefruit, I experienced a full pitcher of juice. The pulp side never got overfilled from one round of juicing, so I was able to leave it for at least two rounds, which I found to save time.

The Nama can also make nut or seed milks or smoothies. Because people often buy nut-milk makers as their own appliance, this is an easy way to avoid doing that. And if you’re used to making nut milk in a blender and squeezing it out through a bag, this will save your hands the effort. I don’t find the smoothie function particularly useful because you can make a smoothie even in a single-serve, low-powered blender, but the nut-milk function is a definite plus.

#3 The cleanup

Touting itself as time-saving, I had high hopes for the Nama juicer. Fortunately, it lived up to them, because cleanup is a breeze. After you’ve emptied your pulp, rinse everything in hot water and scrub if needed. Also, I like that the juice pitcher comes with a lid, so that you can store any extra juice directly in the container in the fridge. So, essentially, I saved time chopping and loading the machine, considering all produce can be added at once, in addition to cleaning and storing it.

The only issue I had with the cleanup was that when you put it back together, you need to make sure that everything is very dry. If certain parts are left damp, such as anything that is rubber, it won’t go back together properly. I resolved this by letting it air dry and putting it back together and away later, and that seemed to work fine. Otherwise, you’ll want to use a cloth that won’t get lint on it, and be extra cautious with the rubber gasket.

One final note...

I was skeptical of how family-friendly the marketing for the Nama juicer was, but this really is something that your kids could help with. I appreciated the recipe book the juicer came with for its varied uses of assorted produce, and I imagine that kids could easily be enthused by the bright and colorful juices it can quickly whip up.

Price is certainly a big factor here—this is an investment piece—but if you're serious about your juice and consider the money you'd spend on expensive juices from the shop, you will eventually get your money's worth.

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Ariane Resnick is a certified nutritionist, bestselling author, and private chef. She’s thrilled to be in love with juice all over again.