Orange juice is a popular drink and tastes best when you squeeze it fresh yourself. There are several ways to squeeze juice, including with a juicer or with a hand press. Whereas one option calls for an expensive purchase but is easy and quick, the other is much more economical but takes a little more work. Below we list these two and three more ways to squeeze oranges so you can enjoy a delicious glass of fresh orange juice.
1. Easy and fast with a juicer
The easiest way to make juice is to use a juicer. You put the desired amount of oranges in the centrifuge, set the machine correctly and then all you have to do is wait for the juice to come out. For optimal taste, you peel the oranges first, which does take a little more time. You do this to prevent the bitter taste of the inside from getting into the juice. Also, oranges are sometimes chemically treated and you want to avoid ingesting these substances.
2. Little trouble with an electric juicer
One of the most popular ways to make juice is with a juicer, electric or otherwise. To do this, you cut an orange down the middle and push the inside onto the press. An electric press will rotate automatically, squeezing the juice from the peel. Many citrus presses rotate once counterclockwise and then once clockwise, extracting most of the juice from the peel. The juice drips into the jug and the pulp is filtered in between, giving you delicious juice without bits.
3. Economical with a manual press
An inexpensive alternative to a juicer or a juicer is the manual press. Before you can use the manual press, you cut the orange in half. You then clamp the half orange between the press and squeeze it shut. This squeezes the juice out of the orange. With a manual press, it is slightly more difficult to get all the juice out of the oranges and also the pulp is not filtered. Optionally, you can do this yourself using a strainer. We recommend you use a press made of stainless steel, as it is sturdier and lasts longer than a press made of plastic.
4. Use a glass or plastic bottle
Don’t have a juicer, electric press or manual press handy? Then you can also use a glass or plastic bottle. You put a glass upside down in a bowl and squeeze the half an orange onto the glass by turning the orange left and right. The juice then ends up in the bowl. You can also use the same technique with a plastic bottle. In both cases, the pulp ends up in the juice and you filter it out with a strainer if desired. Be sure to clean the bottle or glass thoroughly.
5. Good alternative: use your hands
It is also possible to make orange juice without any accessories. After cutting the orange in the middle, use your hands to squeeze it. You do this by squeezing the sides of the peel together from different angles. You can use thumb inside to get extra juice out of the orange. With this method, you end up getting the least amount of juice and have no way to filter the pulp.
How long does fresh-squeezed orange juice keep?
Most people prefer to drink their freshly squeezed orange juice right away, but what if you want to preserve it? It is recommended that you drink the juice within a day or two or three. In the meantime, you store the juice in the refrigerator. The longer you leave the juice, the more vitamins will be lost. So it is better to drink your glass of orange juice immediately after squeezing the oranges. To keep juice longer than a few days, you can freeze it. For example, you freeze the juice as ice cubes and then put them in a freezer bag. You can keep these cubes in the freezer for up to a year.