Green Star GS1000 Twin Gear Juicer

I've been juicing since the early 1990s and more recently, as a certified raw foods associate chef, have been preparing a wider range of juicer recipes including pates and ice cream from frozen bananas. I have experience with Green Star, Champion, Juiceman, and several other juicers, and have read quite a bit about various models of juicers. If you are going to be juicing a lot of greens such as kale and parsley, the Green Star will give you a better and more nutritious yield than any juicer on the market. It far exceeds masticating juicers such as the Champion in this regard, as well as centrifugal juicers such as the Juiceman. A huge benefit of Green Star is that it juices wheat grass, so you will not need a dedicated wheat grass juicer. It's also amazingly quiet, far quieter (and a bit slower) than my Champion. And like the Champion, it does a great job with pates, frozen ice cream, and other recipes requiring a homogenizing blade, also known as a "blank." With a slower speed, the juice does not heat up as much as with a Champion and oxidizes slower.

So is there a catch? Yes. There are far more parts to assemble, disassemble, and clean than with a Champion. I'm reminded of the time when my brother was a child, he asked to borrow my father's watch, and my father said, "sure." A few days later, my father wanted his watch back, and entered my brothers room to find a bazillion little pieces on the floor: gears, springs, etc. My brother explained that he wanted the watch so he could take it apart, but not to worry he said, "I'll put it back together." My father said, "don't worry about it, you can keep the watch." When I take apart a Green Star juicer, I always think of this story because it has so many more parts than a Champion. (Although fortunately, the Green Star is far easier to assemble and disassemble than an analog watch.:-) At the Living Light Culinary Institute where I trained as a raw foods chef, when we made pates and banana ice cream, we always reached for the Champion, not the Green Star.

In deciding whether to purchase a Green Star juicer, consider whether you are going to be juicing a lot of greens and/or wheatgrass, and whether you're really going to take the time to disassemble, clean, and assemble about a dozen parts each time you use it. If you're not put off by that, then I highly recommend the Green Star. If you are mostly considering a juicer for carrot juice, fruit juices, banana ice cream and pates, then I would steer you towards the Champion. If you want to use a juicer for all of the above and can afford and have the space for both, then I enthusiastically recommend both.

Note that there are 3 models of Green Star juicers, of which the GS1000 is their most basic model. The GreenStar.com website explains the various accessories that come with or can be purchased with each. Accessories such as pasta makers and mochi makers are available for purchase with the GS1000, but are included with the GS3000.

I've been juicing for 20 years. My description of the Green Star 1000 is based on my experience with an old Champion, a new Champion, and an old Wheateena grass juicer. The Green Star spits pulp out the end so you can juice continuously just like the other juicers. The pulp discharged is always quite dry and completely shredded and it extracts a maximum amount of very high quality juice from everything it juices well. Exceptions are described below. It leaks a little juice into the pulp at the very start of juicing, like any juicer, which you can feed back through, of course. It has a nice glass pitcher. It didn't leak any juice onto the counter or spray carrot fiber out the discharge all over the counter like my Champion. It runs very quiet, unlike the Champion, and doesn't require any messy greasing before use like the other juicers. It has a convenient handle and storage compartment for the electrical cord. It never bogged down under load like my Champion does when juicing carrots. It has never gotten hot. Cold fruits and vegetables produced cool juice, unlike my other juicers. It is a refined juicer with a nice fit and finish. It has a five year warranty on the expensive motor and gears. It has a good reputation so I assume it will be very reliable like my Champion. They require the warranty to be received within 10 days of purchase, so if you purchase it online, you should use it and register it right away. You can register it online at their website.

I almost exclusively juice only four things (carrots, red bell peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce), so I'll describe those that matter to me first.

I get 2 1/4 cups of juice from 2 lbs of carrots, which is definitely better than my Champion. The juice is very high quality (as good as your carrots). The square chute is big enough for all but monster carrots. My only complaint is that carrots especially take a lot of downward force to push through the juicer. I don't really mind, but it could be a show stopper for some people. The off white plastic juicer parts stain very quickly from carrots, though this doesn't bother me. The Champion requires much less effort but doesn't extract as much juice. The Champion also is very noisy and leaks juice and sprays carrot fiber all over the counter. The Champion bogs down easily on carrots, but the commercial motor version probably fixes that problem.

The Green Star also does an excellent job on bell peppers. It takes a fair amount of pressure to push them through, too, but I get 2 cups of juice from 1 1/2 lbs of peppers with very dry, shredded pulp discharged. There is a little pulp in the juice, but that's ok with me. The Champion is not very efficient and produces quite a bit of foam. My grass juicer doesn't extract as much juice as the Green Star.

I juice lettuce because it is thirst quenching and is a nice milk substitute with meals and for taking vitamins. Lettuce is also somewhat hard to push through with the Green Star, but chopped chunks and leaves, that are awkward on the other juicers, feed through conveniently and without spilling into the juice pitcher and counter. It spits dry, shredded pulp out the discharge and puts very little foam in the juice. It is superior to my grass juicer and far superior to the Champion.

The Green Star was extremely impressive on cucumbers. Both my Champion and grass juicer backup very quickly, becoming unusable, and spitting out very wet pulp. Cucumbers had to be quartered lengthwise like the other juicers but pushed through easily and juiced with very little foam and produced very dry, finely ground pulp out the discharge.

The Green Star does an outstanding job on these juices which I make all the time, but I have found it to be significantly worse than my other juicers on other fruits and vegetables.

It is usable for celery and juices it easily and doesn't wind the fibers around the cutter and clog up like my Champion, but it does produce some foam. I would use a dedicated grass/greens juicer for celery.

It produces lots of foam and very little juice from spinach. I would stick with a dedicated grass juicer for spinach and other leafy greens. Wheatgrass would also probably juice very badly on the Green Star.

It backed up, becoming unusable, after only a couple of oranges. The grass juicer was almost as bad. The Champion is excellent for citrus, especially if you like the rich, heavy Orange Julius type juice.

Grapes backed up even worse than oranges. My grass juicer is very efficient with grapes, spitting fairly dry pulp out the discharge.

The Green Star was usable for apples but is significantly worse than the Champion. The feed chutes is obviously small in the case of apples. Even medium size apples will have to be cut into six pieces. Foam isn't too bad if you juice very slowly and start juicing the apples before anything else, like carrots, that will start clogging the filter. There is lots of pulp in the juice (probably more than you want) and apples are hard to push through.

For my juices the Green Star wins easily. It works equally well on hard carrots and soft cucumbers, bell peppers, and lettuce. I don't have to compromise juicing ability by using the wrong juicer for some juices or use and clean two juicers at the same time. The Green Star is easy to assemble, but it is a real chore to clean up all the parts, especially scrubbing the semi cylindrical filter screen inside and outside. I drink juices daily so I make all my juices about twice a week, which keep very well in the frig. The Champion is significantly better for most fruits and is much easier to clean. A grass juicer will be far better for spinach, other leafy greens, and grasses.

Which juicer you choose will depend on which kinds of fruits and vegetables you will be juicing. You may have to buy more than one.

Green Life juicers are about the only models recommended by my nutritionist. He shuns centrifugal juicers that use air in the extraction process, which he says leads to oxidation. Instead, the Green Star has a "close-case-crush-press" system, which crushes your food between two counter-rotating steel gears. You're left with juice that zings.

But nice has a price. My biggest let-down with this juicer was finding out that it doesn't go through veggies as fast as my garbage disposal. At its fastest, the Green Star gives you a thin stream of juice that takes quite a while to fill the collection bowl.

The other let-down in versatility. It does all right with flaccid, stringy, leafy foods like parsley and cilantro. But if there's any firmness to them--anything from cucumbers to celery to lemons--the juicer needs help. So before using the juicer I do a lot of pre-chopping.

The clean-up is bearable. After making juice, there are about seven parts that disassemble easily. You don't need to reach into crevices in the main unit. All the parts clean easily but one small screen, which needs some serious scrubbing. The specialty brush supplied with the juicer helps out.

Although this is my first juicer, I'm sure there are faster models out there. But I'm health-conscious too, and the twin gear system seems to leave a small "oxygen footprint." Plus my body craves the juice!