Juicero Inc. is the Keurig of juice, if you could turn Keurig cups into coffee by hand.
Juicero is a juice machine. But this is Silicon Valley, so it’s no ordinary juice machine. It’s a $400 juicer with $120 million worth of funding. The functionality is straightforward and familiar: You buy single-serving packets of chopped fruits and vegetables, place them in your $400 juicer, and voila, you have juice. Silicon Valley loves a good analogy and the one making the rounds on tech blogs is obvious: Keurig for juice. Founder Doug Evans is a bit more lofty: He is the Steve Jobs of juicing.
In any case, Juicero and Juicero packs are on the market and it appears that the system may be so advanced that it’s made the juicer itself redundant. Despite the fact the juicer wields enough force “to lift two Teslas,” you can also just squeeze the packs by hand. Bloomberg put this observation to the test and discovered hand-squeezed Juicero packs “yield nearly the same amount of juice just as quickly.”
According to Bloomberg, this is apparently irrelevant to the Juicero audience. “Most people” will still prefer to use the machine.
A person close to the company said Juicero is aware the packs can be squeezed by hand but that most people would prefer to use the machine because the process is more consistent and less messy. The device also reads a QR code printed on the back of each produce pack and checks the source against an online database to ensure the contents haven’t expired or been recalled, the person said. The expiration date is also printed on the pack.
To be fair, if you are someone considering buying a $400 juicer with 400 custom parts including a scanner, microprocessor, wireless chip and wireless antenna, this news probably doesn’t deter you. And there remains a corporate market with high-end hotels and restaurants, who appreciate the minimal clean-up. Ultimately, luxury gadgets aren’t always about the most direct path, so don’t expect Juicero to expire so easily.
