Gourmia GJ1250 Review
Our Verdict
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Gourmia scored a few points less than the Cuisinart, but also costs about half as much. It matched the performance of the Tribest Slowstar, which costs about six times as much, making the Gourmia a much more preferable option. However, the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth outperformed all of these models, including the Gourmia, and retails for the lowest price.
Performance Comparison
We bought the top juicers available on the market today and pitted them head-to-head to score their performance. We conducted over a dozen different tests, distributed across five weighted rating metrics, with the performance results of the Gourmia highlighted below.
Juice Quality
Earning the highest weight out of all of our metrics, our Juice Quality group of tests comprised 40% of the overall score for the Gourmia. We used a trio of tests to judge performance, making a different mixed juice cocktail for each one. The Gourmia delivered an average performance, receiving a 5 out of 10 for its efforts.
The Gourmia actually did a little above average in the first test of this metric, a beet juice mixture that also included apples, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and ginger root. The taste of the beverage produced was quite nice, but there was a ton of pulp, deteriorating the overall quality.
For the second test, we used a romaine, apple, and orange juice recipe. The Gourmia did about average, again creating a decent amount of pulp, but this second drink wasn't as relatively flavorful as the creations by other products. For the final test of this group, the Gourmia's performance dipped below average. This test was producing the “Sunset Blend”, a juice cocktail consisting of beet roots, apples, carrots, oranges, and sweet potatoes. The texture was not very consistent, with the Gourmia creating a very watery drink that was interspersed with tons of pulp. The taste was also off, with the beets completely dominating the flavor and overpowering the other ingredients.
Soft Produce
Next, we looked at the yield and quality of the juice produced by the Gourmia when juicing soft produce, such as cucumbers, celery, carrots, and oranges. The Gourmia again gave a mediocre performance, meriting a 5 out of 10 in this group of tests, which account for 20% of the final score for each appliance.
The Gourmia started off with an acceptable showing at juicing cucumbers, generating about 12 mL more juice than average. However, there were moderate amounts of pulp and a mild amount of foam produced. This product continued this performance into our second evaluation: juicing celery. It had an average yield of juice, but this time with mild amounts of pulp and moderate foam generated. The celery juice also separated out relatively quickly.
Continuing its average performance, the Gourmia scored right in the middle in terms of orange juice yield, with only minimal pulp produced. However, there was a bit of foam created. The Gourmia finished out this metric with a relatively poor performance when tasked with juicing apples, producing a below average juice yield. The juice also rapidly separated and there was tons of pulp in the final drink, as well as a decent amount of foam.
Hard Produce
Similar to the Soft Produce metric, our Hard Produce metric evaluated each juicer on the same criteria and also accounts for 20% of the total score. We tested carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets on the Gourmia, which received a disappointing score of 4 out of 10.
This product did an alright job at juicing beets, yielding an average amount of juice with only mild amounts of pulp and a bit of foam. The story was the same with carrots, with the Gourmia producing just a bit less than the average amount of juice with mild to moderate amounts of pulp.
This product struggled to successfully juice sweet potatoes, generating much less juice than the average and made mild to moderate amounts of pulp. It also created a small amount of foam.
Leafy Greens
For our next metric, we evaluated the performance of the Gourmia at juicing leafy greens. The criteria from the prior two metrics applied to the trio of tests — wheatgrass, spinach, kale — that made up this metric, which is worth 20% of the total score.
The Gourmia yielded a slightly above average amount of wheatgrass juice, creating 3 mL. The average was 2.5 mL, with the top performing model, the Omega.
Performance dropped a little in the next test: juicing kale. The Gourmia generated about 5 mL less than the average amount of juice, but it was free of foam. Finally, this product delivered an acceptable performance at juicing spinach, generating an average amount of juice, though there was a decent amount of foam.
Cleaning
For our final metric, we assessed the hassle in cleaning out each juicer after use. This accounts for the remaining 15% of the total score, with the Gourmia earning a 5 out of 10 for not being the easiest to clean. This model does have parts that are safe to clean in the dishwasher — a good thing, since some of the parts can be a difficult to clean by hand. The lid, strainer bowl, and pulp container all had some small nooks and crannies that were prone to trapping food and are a bit of a pain to clean. This model also does not include any sort of cleaning tool.
Value
The Gourmia isn't really a great value, as there are other models that cost less and performed much better.
Conclusion
While the Gourmia didn't do a terrible job in our tests, it is hard to find a reason why you would select this model over other products, like the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth, a Best Buy award winner that costs less and performs much better.