Reddit reviews Norpro 523 Stainless Steel Citrus Press Juicer, One Size, Silver

This one.

Of the five I've owned it was worth the $20. It's lasted 2 years of continual use so far. I broke 3 of the $5 model the week before I broke down and got it.

We have the one from Cocktail Kingdom. Functionally it's very good, but because it's aluminum, I think there are better options out there. This Norpro is the best I've used. It can handle larger lemons than the CK one, and is only a few dollars more expensive.

If you want them to taste good, it's a bad idea. If you want them to taste bad, it's fine.

If you were to use the Jeffrey Morgenthaler (aka /u/le_cigare_volant) batched margarita recipe, you'd need 5 cups / 40 ounces of lime juice, which is around 40 limes. If you cut them all in half before you start juicing, it's really not too much of a pain in the ass to juice them, assuming you've got a hand press juicer or something. If you're doing it totally by hand, it's sort of a pain in the ass but still worth it.

It depends on your juicing volume. We use a Sunkist J1 Commercial Electric Juicer but we juice a lot; 4 bars, dining room, 3 meals/day in a hotel. The Breville CPXL is an alternative for 1/3rd the cost; though I don't have any first-hand knowledge as to longevity. If you're squeezing grapefruits and oranges, you'll want a manual press at the very least. The Hamilton Beach 932 is the industry standard but other much less expensive options exist. The 932 is faster and easier to use but may wear out faster due to its gearsets, requiring replacement parts. Considering the minimal cost, it is imperative that you keep a hand press or two around in case your primary juicer commits harakiri. Norpro and Amco both make excellent units. For less than the cost of the Norpro, you can get both Amco's orange and lemon/lime presses.

We juice daily. We also have a centrifugal juicer for pineapple and other harder fruits/vegetables. We mix 1 part fresh pineapple juice with 3 parts canned, unsweetened, not-from-concentrate pineapple juice. Except for the fancy bars primarily, few have switched to fresh pineapple juice. The good canned stuff is generally perfectly fine.

~Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002IBOAK?cache=11258ab7facfac4e03e5f26e49d744af&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1410236276&sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2

All right here goes. I adapted the oil recipe from an old post on /r/treedibles by a guy who claimed to be a biochemistry student. I had it saved but it looks like it may have been deleted because I can't find it anymore.

Anyhoozle...

Ingredients:

• Coconut oil: You can look around on the internet for reasons that coconut oil is preferred, but basically it comes down to it being almost 100% saturated fat, which is the best for cannabinoid absorption.
  
• Cannabis: You can really use whatever form you want. The batch I had the best success with was 1oz of trim/shake and ~1/4oz of AVB. I like trim and shake because it's cheaper and it came pre-ground, so it meant less grinding for me. Note that this was before the closing of SR, so whatever you can get will work just as well. Also, keep in mind that trim/shake and AVB aren't nearly as potent as nugs. If you're using whole nugs, you'll have to break them up or grind them before you start.
  
  I used just enough coconut oil to cover the AVB/trim mixture, with about 1/2cm extra oil on top. If I remember correctly it came out to somewhere between 1.25-1.5 cups. My suggestion is to add just enough to cover your cannabis, then round up to the easiest fraction for baking (i.e. if you add a little less than a full cup of oil, add the rest of the cup so it's easier to make the brownies.)
  
  
• Optional-Soy lecithin: Soy lecithin is an emulsifier that improves both the extraction process and your bodies absorption after consumption. Not totally necessary. I've never made it without it, but supposedly it makes a marked difference in potency. I've seen some sources claiming soy lecithin may have adverse effects on heart health; if you're really concerned, do some research and make the decision for yourself.
  
  
  Tools:
  
  
• Coffee grinder and a small brush: You want to get the decarboxylated cannabis as finely ground as possible. The coffee grinder is perfect because it'll get it really nice and fine, and you can use the small brush to get all the stuff left behind. I had a friend try to use a food processor because he was doing a big batch, and although it got it pretty fine it was a bitch and a half to get all the stuff left behind.
  
• Crock pot: Crock pots will give you low, consistent heat, which is what you want. If you don't have a crock pot, you can use an oven set at 200°F. Note that consumer ovens can be inconsistent temperature-wise, so I recommend the crock pot. Plus, crock pot food is fucking amazing, so it's a win-win.
  
• Oven/freezer safe dish: I used a souffle dish, but you can also use an egg dish. Theoretically you can just put the oil straight into the crock pot, but I wouldn't advise that unless you are making some serious bulk. It'd be a pain to get all of the oil out of there every time you have to freeze it and at the end.
  
• Sheet pan and aluminum foil: This is for decarboxylation. There are about as many different methods for this as there are strains of cannabis, so if you have a method you prefer that you have had success with, you can try that if you wish. In any case, decarboxylation can produce quite the aroma. Sometimes you can just cover it up with an air freshener/smoke eliminator spray or by cooking another especially aromatic food at the same time (like sauerkraut). Some people have had success in containing the smell by placing the cannabis in a lightly sealed mason jar when you bake it. I've done this once before when making a tincture, but I was doing it with a very small amount (~1/8th) of cannabis, and I can't really attest to its effectiveness.
  
  Steps:
  1. Decarboxylation
  
  Note: If you're using AVB, you can skip this step. The vaping process took care of it for you, albeit at a loss of potency.
  
  A lot of people don't decarb before making oil, thinking that the heat from cooking the oil will accomplish the same thing, but that is not the case. When you are decarboxylating, you are converting THCa to THC. THCa is found in much larger portions in raw cannabis, and is far less psychoactive than THC. That's why eating straight nugs won't accomplish anything unless you eat a huge amount. When you decarb, you are converting the carboxyl (COOH) group on THCa into carbon dioxide and water, which are released into the air. That's why sometimes you'll see decarbing referred to as "drying," although that's not quite accurate. Carboxyl groups are released at a much lower rate in the oil, so you won't get the most out of your oil unless you decarboxylate beforehand.
  
  First, preheat the oven to 225°F. If you're using whole nugs, either break them into smaller pieces or grind them in your grinder. Spread the cannabis evenly in your oven-safe dish, cover it with foil, and put it on the sheet pan for ease of removal. Put it in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool for ten minutes or so.
  
  2. Grinding
  Take your time with this step. The finer the consistency, the more effectively the THC will be absorbed by the oil. Be prepared, there will be powder in every nook and cranny in your coffee grinder. Take your time and get all of that powder out with the brush. There's no reason to waste cannabis because you're too lazy to get it all out. My ground cannabis was kind of clumpy, but the clumps will dissolve when you put it in the oil.
  
  3. Adding the Oil
  After getting the powder into your oven-safe dish, it's time to add the oil. As I said before, you just have to add enough oil to cover all of the powder with at least 1/2 cm extra. If you want to add a lot more, that's fine, you'll have to eat more of the finished product. If you're using the lecithin, the ratio is about 3/4 tsp lecithin for every 1 tbsp of oil (1 cup=16 tbsp).
  
  4. Cooking
  Now comes the long part. Put the dish in your crockpot on low (or the oven) for 3 hours. Keep in mind that crockpots and ovens take a little while to get up to temperature, so I recommend you turn them on while you're grinding. Keep the lid on your crock pot or, if you're using the oven, keep the door closed the whole time. Every time you open the lid/door you're letting heat escape and cooling down your oil, which will affect the efficiency of the extraction.
  
  After the 3 hours is up, take your dish out and let it cool for 30 minutes or so. Wrap/cover in foil, then put it in the freezer for 2+ hours (I did it overnight just for convenience). The foil isn't entirely necessary, but it helps if you spill any to keep you from losing it.
  
  Not many recipes include freezing. I'll try to explain what it does based on what I can remember from the other guy's explanation.
  
  Picture the cannabis plant cells in the oil. Inside of these cells are all the cannabinoids that we want. When you freeze the oil, the liquid inside the cells forms crystals that pierce the cell walls and release the cannabinoids into the oil, further increasing the potency of your final product.
  
  After your 2+ hours are up, take the oil out of the freezer and let it reach room temperature. I remember the recipe said it would take around 15 minutes, but I found it took a little longer. If you want, you can put it in the crock pot before you turn it on and let them both come to temperature at the same time, after roughly 25-30 minutes.
  
  Cook the oil in the crock pot another 3 hours, starting the countdown after the oil has liquified again. The recipe ended here, but I found that my oil didn't quite look as dark as promised. If you want, you can do what I did and repeat the freezing/cooking process 1-2 more times. It can't hurt. When it's done, it should be black. Like blaaaack. Like you just struck oil in your kitchen. I'll update with a picture of mine once I get on my phone again.
  
  5. Straining
  This is the bitch part. I still haven't found a method anywhere that works as well as promised. I usually just use coffee filters and strain it into an old mason jar or salsa jar. Unfortunately if you just wait for all of the oil to strain out you'll either be waiting for a long time or leaving oil behind in the plant matter. One thing I tried that worked pretty well was using one of those lime/lemon juicers (like this) and putting the balled up filter inside. Whatever way you do it, just try and get as much out as possible.
  
  And that's it for the oil recipe. Now, for the brownie recipe, I used this. They were ridiculously delicious. I used a slightly different baking pan, but it came out to about 2 batches from the recipe. With the 1 oz of shake/trim + the ~1/4 oz of AVB, it takes maybe a 1.5"x1.5" piece to get me to a good spot. They are poooootent. I actually kind of wish they were less potent because the brownies taste so good.
  
  And that's it. Let me know if you have any questions or if I missed anything (which is very likely.)

I own this: http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Stainless-Steel-Citrus-Juice-Press/dp/B0002IBOAK/ref=sr_1_20?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1457980020&sr=1-20&keywords=citrus+press

In avid home bartender use for 3 years. Good press. Would buy again.

I'll give you some alternatives that are beginner friendly, and in some cases cheaper:

• Regular pub pint glass for stirring ($1-2)
  
• Oxo angled mini measuring cup ($5)
  
• Oxo Hawthorne strainer ($8)
  
• Iced tea spoon ($1-2)
  
  I'd definitely add a citrus juicer. My favorite is the Norpro stainless, http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Stainless-Steel-Citrus-Juice-Press/dp/B0002IBOAK ($23). And you'll need a sharp paring knife and a small cutting board.

I'll add a mexican elbow to the must haves. Also, the guy apparently likes Old Fashioneds, a stirred cocktail, so I'll add a mixing glass as well. That also puts a bar spoon in the must haves. :)

Edit: You'll need a julep strainer for the mixing glass.

There are many good hand presses. You may have to spend in the low tens of dollars. I like and use the Norpro stainless steel.

I have 3-4 juice presses that I use, most of them are extremely old cast iron because I tend to use a lot of antique items, though my modern one is a norpro citrus juicer which has held up quite well. Unless you're going to be doing massive amounts of juicing the hand press will probably tide you over for a while. At this point, I'd say spend the money on quality spirits and ingredients over an huge table top juicer.

I have a bottle of Velvet Falernum that I use, though I'm looking toward making my own when I can come up from air at my day job. There was a great reddit thread here that talks about making your own from a recipe vs the JDT bottle.

Tiki farm stuff is really big especially here in Orange County, CA. They have great stuff. Some friends of mine designed the Meihana mug for the cocktail of the same name.

Good Luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Stainless-Steel-Citrus-Juice-Press/dp/B0002IBOAK
I have this one. It's all metal, I don't think I will ever break it. I bet that plastic one will eventually break.

I have this one and it seems pretty sturdy.

Most juicers are made so that you don't have to peel it.