back to article Hard-pressed Juicero boss defends $400 IoT juicer after squeezing $120m from investors

Meet this week's bonkers startup Juicero – the San Francisco maker of a $400 fruit juicer that's bagged $120m in funding from investors. The internet-connected gizmo has been dubbed the "Keurig for juice." Juicero founder Doug Evans went as far as comparing himself to Steve Jobs. There's just one little problem with Juicero's …

  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

    with added IoT goodness.

    F**k right off.

    1. Richard 26

      Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

      In the HP model, a firmware update would make third-party fruit go mouldy.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

        "In the HP model, a firmware update would make third-party fruit go mouldy."

        You mean it would only work with official "HP Fruity" cartridges like this?

      2. AdamWill

        Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

        Why do you think this thing requires a wifi connection?

        1. Toni the terrible Bronze badge
          Facepalm

          Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

          Why do you think this thing requires a wifi connection? becuse everything does & how else will our lords and masters know what fruity stuff you are drinking!

    2. dajames

      Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

      In the HP model the juicer itself would be sold well below cost and the profits all made on the pre-packaged fruit.

      In this model the juicer is eye-wateringly expensive, and I'm sure the fruit packs aren't cheap either.

      But ... and this is the real problem with the device ... you are restricted to using the manufacturer's own prepackaged mixtures of fruits and vegetables. You can't make up a mixture to suit your own taste, and you can't use fruit that's actually -- you know -- fresh!

      It combines the inconvenience of having to squeeze your own juice with the restrictions of pre-packaged ingredients ... then it adds IoT foolishness just in case you still thought there might be something there to like.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: All the cost of a juicer at considerably more of the price (HP printer business model)

        The juice packs apparently cost between $5 and $8 each (i.e. £4 to £6 or so) and all appear to be 10oz (283g in weight). I heard somewhere how much juice they're supposed to make; it was something like 225 to 250ml (8 US fl oz IIRC).

        The bottom line is you're paying that much for a midsized glass of juice on top of the cost of the overpriced contraption that can't even function as a regular juicer and does little you can't do yourself to the packs.

        Not that anyone who hadn't already invested in the IoT-enabled status symbol would likely *want* to waste their money on the obscenely expensive juice packs anyway.

        Add to that the amount of packaging and general overheads associated with each pack; like Keurig, but even more inefficient. Obnoxious, wasteful, marketing-driven yuppie b******t. Everything that's wrong with "gadgets".

        As others have said, this is one of those products that you really *want* to fail, along with everyone associated with the project.

  2. Alistair
    Windows

    ahhh buzzword bingo.

    Gotta lurrvve it.

    ITS NEW all new SNAKE OIL buzzword, cliche, tired cliche, hippy hippy shake shake. BUY EEET NAO!

    a) packaged organic veggies and fruit, all chopped up. Hmm. No thanks. Listeria. Shelf life of hours, or they're sprayed with appropriate preservatives, and are thus not in the category of the buzzword "Organic". Yes, lemon juice works, but we're talking the *BUZZWORD* organic.

    Thanks I'll cut em up myself. After buying em from the local market. Whole. Or (perhaps) picking em out o my garden.

    (what? a knife and 10 seconds in the appropriate $45 blending device, pour into glass, toss warm water and a drop o soap in appropriate blending device, reactivate blending, cleaned)

    b) $400 for a @#$%@#$ juicer? no - absolutely not. for an IOT Juicer? I think my opinion on IOT bullshit brain baffler devices is known. This project needs to die yesterday.

    / yes I'm in a pissy mood. 2am and byte walking tapes to repair block headers. Don't talk to me.

    1. Olivier2553

      Re: ahhh buzzword bingo.

      It starts even before the chopping: they harvest the fruits at the pick time, and still offer it freshly harvested all year round...

    2. sjsmoto

      Re: ahhh buzzword bingo.

      Yes! I was waiting for mention that the fruit packs will be delivered by drone and the presser plays whalesong.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Juicing is bad

    It smashes the cell walls of the fruit inceasing the amount of sugar released.

    Also - you are not a baby - why do you want your food pureed

    Eat the fruit normally and get the benefit of the fibre bulk to fill you up without the excess calories fine blending causes.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      Re: Juicing is bad

      Also destroys the fibre.

      More importantly, do you really need the sugar from 3 oranges?

    2. AIBailey

      Re: Juicing is bad

      It smashes the cell walls of the fruit inceasing the amount of sugar released.

      ...

      Eat the fruit normally and get the benefit of the fibre bulk to fill you up without the excess calories fine blending causes.

      If you eat the fruit, do those sugars not get digested in the same way? Surely blending won't magically generate extra calories - they're there anyway, right?

      (genuine question, as I'm curious)

      1. Bronek Kozicki

        Re: Juicing is bad

        If you eat the fruit, you get filled not just with juice but also with fibre, thus aiding you to consume less of the sugar (because you get filled quicker). Also, fibre is apparently good for your digestive system.

      2. Cowboy Bob

        Re: Juicing is bad

        Yep, I'm diabetic and fruit juice or raw fruit can be equally just as bad for me as a can of coke. Preparation method is irrelevant.

        1. ChaosFreak

          Re: Juicing is bad

          Yes, but you eat LESS fruit when you eat it whole than when you juice it. It takes 2 - 4 oranges to make a glass of orange juice, but if you eat one orange (with all the pulp and fiber) you're likely to feel full and not eat three more, so you get 1/4 of the sugar.

      3. Kubla Cant

        Re: Juicing is bad

        If you eat the fruit, do those sugars not get digested in the same way?

        The same amount of sugars, but not digested in the same way. The problem is with the time it takes for your blood sugar to rise. Whole fruit has a lower glycaemic index than fruit juice. Many fruit juices deliver the same glycaemic load as a glass of Coke.

        Also, a recent study reported that prepared, bagged salads could carry a dangerous risk of salmonella because the juices on the cut ends of the leaves are an ideal growth medium for bacteria. I would guess that the juices in a bag of cut fruit are salmonella heaven.

      4. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        Re: Juicing is bad

        @AIBailey

        genuine question, as I'm curious

        Yes, you are consuming the same quantity of sugar from the fruit and therefore the same amount of calories, but the rate of absorption of those sugars is different to if you had juiced the fruit or ate the fruit.

        The process of mastication (chewing) will not doubt cause crushing and breaking down of a certain amount of cell walls, but the bulk of the fruit mass will still reach the stomach in an intact state, leaving it for the enzymes to breakdown the cells and release the content which takes some time, and therefore the sugar is made available to the body over a period of time - Low Glycemic Index.

        Consuming juice means directly ingesting the available sugar from the fruit which is readily absorbed and carried in the blood. High Glycemic Index.

        High GI results in a blood sugar rush and the pancreas has to supply insulin at a greater rate...

        see https://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/glycemic-index

        https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Enjoy-food/Carbohydrates-and-diabetes/Glycaemic-index-and-diabetes/

      5. emullinsabq

        Re: Juicing is bad

        Depends how you define digestion. But the short answer is no, they don't get digested the same way.

        The fruit with benefit of fibre has a lower glycemic index. That's an attempt to quantify the effect a food has on your serum insulin levels. Why do we care? Because what your body decides to do with the calories you eat is heavily impacted by your insulin levels. All other things being equal, the higher your insulin, the greater proportion of your ingested calories goes to fat. This is why low carb diets work-- they keep your insulin levels low.

    3. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Juicing is bad

      Sugar released is not particularly relevant as you will get it anyway.

      The "bad tirade" of instant juicing are:

      1. Removal of Fiber

      2. Oxidation

      3. Increased damage to teeth from acids and sugar

      Juice it only if it is a real PITA to eat otherwise - grapefruit, wild apples and pears, etc. Otherwise just eat it. Much better for you.

      As far as "sugar from 3 oranges" your burn rate at max "brain revs" is > 250 calories per hour. An orange is only 50 calories. If you get proper breakfast, lunch and dinner you are still looking at 1-2 oranges an hour to keep the thinking machine going (brain wants sugar, it could not care less about other forms of energy. If you are not getting a proper lunch as is the case in most modern offices, you are looking at cranking that up to >2 oranges per hour (either that or the cookie/choc jar which is much much worse).

      1. 404

        Re: Juicing is bad

        Grapefruit.... My Ghod, do you know how long it has been since I had a grapefruit? I recall I liked them... Hmmm

        I don't remember. Pretty sure I was still living w/parents. Fuck. That means 35+ years ago, minimum. Have to go by the store today.

        On Topic-> That machine should have been sold on QVC or the Home Shopping Network, but they want to be Apple, mixed with a little HP dicketry. They attempted to sell it at $699 at first, but that proved to be a bit much for the folks who cannot afford to hire fitness trainers... I understand they have delivery issues to parts of the country because the packets have next to zero shelf life (which is odd because I can order live tropical fish from a breeder in Oregon and have them 3-day shipped to Tennessee with possible 1-2 losses from a group of ten). You also cannot buy juice packets unless you already are a registered owner of said kitchen counter clutterer.

        I also suspect those 'fresh vegetables' are the leftovers from processing fruit for other uses - a'la pink slime bits and pieces.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Juicing is bad

          "That means 35+ years ago, minimum."

          So, you are now at or about the age when doctors start prescribing 'statins by default, which almost all include avoiding grapefruit in the warnings paperwork. Get some quick! :-)

      2. Stevie

        Re: Increased damage to teeth from acids and sugar

        No poblem! Simply use the Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush!

        Simply nip over to Stevietat.com (the Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush is not available in stores) and simply click on the "BUY NOW!!!" button and your Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush will be rushed to your door, along with ONE WHOLE MONTH's supply of IoToothpaste (a one hundred dollar value!)!

        Then, after simply charging the Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush for three hours and simply connecting it to your network via our easy-to-understand app for Windows (our eager tech support team are standing by to help you with this at the special introductory rate of eight dollars and thirty four cents a minute) you are ready to start fighting off the pernicious effects of your juicer.

        Simply open the hopper door of your Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush, and slip In a cartridge of IoToothpaste, press the red button and simply follow the directions on the included leaflet. It is often helpful to fully unfold this and to tape it to the bathroom wall before using your Steviematic Matrix-Enabled Electric IoToothbrush for the first time.

        We here at Stevietat PLC are committed to giving you the best oral hygene that your money can buy.

    4. JulieM Silver badge

      Re: Juicing is bad

      It's funny how fruit juice went from being "good for you" to being "bad for you" almost exactly the same time as it went from being expensive enough that only rich people could afford it to being cheap enough that even poor people could afford it .....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Juicing is bad

        >It's funny how fruit juice went from being "good for you" to being "bad for you" almost exactly the same time as it went from being expensive enough that only rich people could afford it to being cheap enough that even poor people could afford it .....<

        Exactly, and so it has happened for many other things!

        "Vulgarisation" it is often called, i.e. when the bourgeois and the proletarians get access to it, the "Cool Kids" no longer wants it.

        In this forum, I have seen many cases of it, not limited to food:

        Gmail

        iPhone

        Android

        E-Ink

        Google Chrome

        Mozilla Firefox

        Capsule-coffee

        Wearable fitness devices

        PDA

        Windows !

        Feel free to add to the list!

        1. MK_E

          Re: Juicing is bad

          Reminded of seeing a grauniad article from some yuppie talking about avocados, that seriously asked the question of whether they'd become too cheap and accessible to be "aspirational".

  4. Stoneshop
    Devil

    The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice

    Exactly. But the value is not to the juser, rather to the company. Although I'm hard-pressed to see enough poor saps buying the machine and its ink cartridgesfruit packs to get the company to stay liquid, even with the sales talk where Jeff Dunn managed to squeeze in most of the currantly fashionable buzzwords. Also, as it's IoT, it's certain to leak sensitive data all over the place.

    Clearly you've got to be nuts to buy a machine like this.

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice

      Clearly you'd have to be more then a little fruity to buy a machine like this.

      Ftfy... :P

      1. Mike 125

        Re: The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice

        "Juicero’s mission is to make it dramatically easier and more enjoyable to consume more fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, and that’s a really tough nut to crack. "

        ...said in all seriousness. I think we know where the nuts went.

  5. jake Silver badge

    Sadly ...

    ... the people investing in this product probably don't know that people have been squeezing fruit for juice at home for a very long time. Wine making has been dated to over 10,000 years ago ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "people have been squeezing fruit for juice at home for a very long time."

      Back in the day I was staying with this old Yugoslavian and his family who made wine with bunches of grapes, a bucket and an old laundry mangle.

      People take the term "press" far too literally.

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: "people have been squeezing fruit for juice at home for a very long time."

        a bucket and an old laundry mangle. How primitive...

        The most sold household item on the Balkans (including what was Yugoslavia) in my childhood was the Eureka washing machine. This contraption has separate washing and centrifuge compartments with top loading for both and easily disabled safety.

        Here is a modern version of the same appliance: https://iak.olx.ph/images_olxph/824890925_4_1000x700.jpg?rev=001&bucket=04

        As you can see - the design has remained virtually unchanged for 40 years despite it being large, ungainly and double the size of a normal washing machine. There is a reason for this - it has an alternative application in addition to washing - Grapes into the centrifuge, output hose into the cask, power, let's rolllllllll.... As the centrifuge is top loaded you can just dump them with a bucket. There is no drain pump - it is 100% gravity drained so there is nothing to go wrong too.

        By the way - it costs less than 1/3rd of the contraption discussed here too.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "a bucket and an old laundry mangle. How primitive..."

          He was old school. He left (the former) Yugoslavia shortly after WWII (there may have been a little misunderstanding about alleged war crimes). One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. And in Yugoslavia one man's Royalist is another man's Nazi sympathizer (or not) and so on.

          In the West the generic term for this is a "twin tub." I'm not sure if they are quite as large, or with such easily disabled safety devices.

        2. Stoneshop
          Happy

          Re: "people have been squeezing fruit for juice at home for a very long time."

          By the way - it costs less than 1/3rd of the contraption discussed here too.

          And for that low, low price you not only get a juicer that does not take space on your counter top, it *is* its own counter top (if you close the lid), and you can even wash your clothes in it.

  6. RatX

    Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

    Donning my flameproof pants here, I'd sign up for this if I had the money. I think they've cocked up the marketing and put too much emphasis on the IoT bullshit, but the fundamental premise sounds valid and they have the potential to deliver a useful service. We know that we have to eat more veg, the more the better. You can maximise the benefits by juicing them, so that you're able to take in even more of the valuable nutrients, without eating a ton of spinach, for instance. This is a bit different to making a peach and ice cream smoothie in your hand-me-down blender.

    For those of us that have the time to wander off to the market or grow their own - excellent, you've clearly made good decisions in your life - many of us don't have that kind of time readily available. I bought a juicer and try to periodically make myself a big bottle of "green juice" to have during the day - when I do, my energy levels are higher and I can think more clearly than usual. It makes me feel great, the effects are more tangible than any vitamins or supplements I've ever taken. I usually put in at least two bunches of spinach or kale, a cucumber, carrots, a whole broccoli, maybe green beans, and some ginger or apples to make it all palatable. I couldn't eat that much veg if I tried.

    BUT(t) - it's a pain in the ass - you want the produce to be fairly fresh, so you need to be buying it every 2nd or 3rd day. It makes a mess and the machine is a hassle to clean (according to the reviews I read, my machine is one of the easier to clean). Here in my country there are one or two companies commercially producing and selling tiny bottles of pure veg and fruit juice, but they cost a fortune. From the CEO's letter, this crowd are working on the whole supply chain to make it easier to get the benefits of fresh juice in your home without the hassle. Power to them.

    1. ChrisB 2

      Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

      Actually I sort of agree with you here. My smoothie maker regularly gets fed with pre-packed pre-cut fruits and frozen packs of berry mix for the very reasons you expound - I simply don't have the time/inclination to go fresh fruit shopping every couple of days (in other words, ICBA).

      Why on Earth anyone would need/want an Internet-enabled juicer or smoothie maker is, however, completely beyond me.

    2. Alan Hope

      Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

      Ok, I'll bite. Exactly which "valuable nutrients" in veg makes them healthy? Guess what. Despite vast sums spent on research, you can ask any dietitian, nutritionist, professor of nutrition science, etc etc and they simply don't know. They can't even hazard a reasonable guess as a starting point for further research. Is chlorophyll some sort of mysterious unrecognised wonder-food? Is it the water in them? Maybe the cellulose? We know for sure (the science has been done) it is not eating an excess of vitamins.

      So your "energy levels" are higher after drinking "green juice"? Ah the power of the human mind. What pharmaco-physiological effects do you think might be boosting your "energy levels" beyond, say, some carbohydrates (in which case try some of your favourite sugar-filled fizzy drink instead).

      And the evidence behind the "3-a-day", or "8-a-day", or "5-a-day" fad? Wow, if you want to see some flaky science full of vague assumptions look at where these figures come from.

      Basically, food is a zillion-dollar industry so any "science" behind it is systematically distorted and hyped until it is simply no longer recognisable as science. What was Phelp's diet again that produced one of the greatest ever Olympians? (http://www.bravotv.com/blogs/what-olympic-athletes-eat-and-drink-every-day-will-shock-you).

      Me? I love food. I enjoy a decent mixed diet including fruit and veg (because I like them not because of any defined health benefit). I am vaguely aware of my calorie intake and am not obese.

      1. DwarfPants

        Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

        I believe we have made it to a 10-a-day recommendation. Probably followed by another piece of research that is either paid for by a vested interest or taken out of context by the press that says fruit and veg is bad and we should only eat moon rock if we want a long life.

        All things in moderation and try to get out of the chair long enough to raise the heart rate.

      2. RatX

        Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

        Just sharing my own experience - I do agree that for every nutritional study out there, it's just as easy to find another with apparently opposite findings. However, without getting into a whole big thing, are you really trying to argue that there isn't evidence of useful nutrients being contained in vegetables?

        1. DwarfPants

          Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

          "are you really trying to argue that there isn't evidence of useful nutrients being contained in vegetables?"

          No, that would be insane. It was intended as more of a comment on the media, as I am recommended to eat one thing one day and not the next, but wait until tomorrow it will be ok again.

          1. Kubla Cant

            Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

            are you really trying to argue that there isn't evidence of useful nutrients being contained in vegetables?

            The weasel-word here is "nutrients". In spite of what self-styled nutritionists tell you, here's nothing intrinsically good about nutrients.

            Most food consists of a mixture of nutrients, things absorbed by the body, and non-nutrients such as fibre, that pass right through. A bag of white sugar contains nothing but useful nutrients. It also delivers plenty of energy - another weasel-word. But it's not really a wise food choice.

            1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

              "Sugar swings. Serve some."

              "A bag of white sugar [..] also delivers plenty of energy"

              Indeed it does.

              (Sorry for linking to Buzzfeed, but that really does have all the examples I wanted in one place).

              1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

                Re: "Sugar swings. Serve some."

                Amazing, thanks for the link (never mind the buzzcocksfeed)!

                A master class in PR blurb indeed.

      3. Lamont Cranston

        Re: "I enjoy a decent mixed diet including fruit and veg"

        I think the problem is that too many people don't vary their diet much beyond protein/starch combinations. A balanced diet is always preferable, but for most people, that probably means eating more fruit/veg, hence all the health campaigns that focus on "getting your (x) a day".

    3. MonkeyCee

      Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

      "For those of us that have the time to wander off to the market or grow their own"

      You don't have time to go to the store? Or set up some sort of delivery system? Then go to fugging eatery :)

      "you want the produce to be fairly fresh, so you need to be buying it every 2nd or 3rd day."

      Going to the supermarket once a week and a market/grocer/bloke on side of road once a week doesn't seem too much of a hassle. Lots of stuff is as "fresh"* when canned or frozen, notably berries and legumes.

      "I couldn't eat that much veg if I tried."

      Try it. Seriously. Eating vegetables isn't that hard, quick boil and nom nom. I even hear carrots and broccoli can be eaten raw, by using the "food processor" of your teeth. If you don't wank about it no-one really cares, apart from the chewing sounds.

      "It makes a mess and the machine is a hassle to clean"

      You're doing it wrong, much like the rest of your diet ;)

      Now I'm not a fan of juicers/blenders, since they appeal to lazy fuckers, and lazy fuckers don't like to wash up. So after you used it (right after, not when you get round to it) fill it with soapy water, run it, then do the same with clean water.

      But I'd think you'd be better off just deciding to actually eat some freaking veggies as part of your normal diet.

      My main issue with it is that a diet of apples, carrots, spuds, rice and veggies on the turn was what I ate for six months when broke as fuck. So I can still look at the ingredients of a liter of green juice as often being 4-5 days food. Well, the non starch parts anyway.

      * in terms of retaining vitamins and minerals

      1. Lamont Cranston
        Unhappy

        @MonkeyCee

        I tried to wank about the carrots, but now I'm banned from Sainsburys.

        1. John H Woods Silver badge

          Re: @MonkeyCee

          Are you the guy who made Tesco rethink the serving suggestion on their chillies? ("Why not toss into a fresh green salad?")

          1. MonkeyCee

            Re: @MonkeyCee

            "Are you the guy who made Tesco rethink the serving suggestion on their chillies? ("Why not toss into a fresh green salad?") "

            @ John H Woods: Alas no, Tesco being very good at ignoring anything I say.

            My local Lidl is very nice, since I'm apparently the only person who puts stuff in their suggestion box. I thought the manager was having a laugh with me when he said it, but apparently true.

            Just to show my awesome health credentials, I've managed to get them to add doughnuts to the bakery section, and bring back the chocolate/praline blocks that Mrs V likes an awful lot.

            I am amused by the fact that a suggestion slip with "doughnuts!" being the only thing written on it got a result, along with its follow up "more doughnuts!"

      2. Tim Seventh

        Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

        "I couldn't eat that much veg if I tried."

        "Try it. Seriously. Eating vegetables isn't that hard, quick boil and nom nom."

        Here's an add on cooking tip for op, do search for some recipes to make the food (veg) tastier.

        At the very least, add some salt to the pot and maybe some seasonings on top of the boiled veg to enhance the favor just as you would on a baked potato or potato chips.

    4. Captain Hogwash
      Meh

      Re: spinach or kale, ... apples

      And don't forget a sprinkling of freshly ground placebo.

    5. VanguardG

      Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

      The problem I see with this is the proprietary nature of it. You spend a considerable amount of money on this, but have to buy THEIR packaged produce...if they go belly up, or hike their prices, you have an expensive piece of counter-clutter. Plus, at $5-8 each, the packs aren't cheap, but, I'm compelled to admit, aren't as pricey as I thought they might be. I, too, have been conditioned by the printer & ink pricing model.

      But the best-insulated box won't keep the stuff suitably chilled if its dropped in a sunny area on a hot summer day at 10 or 11 and not retrieved until you get home 6 or 7 hours later...you could have an entire shipment warmed up to unsafe levels.

      If you could make your own packs, might be different. You can keep enjoying the thing even if the company rolls over, and you can create your own blends.

      Then there's the IoT aspect, which has its own issues. I'd just as soon walk in, load the thing up, and poke the "go" button, then come back later to retrieve the glass of crushed organic matter.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

        "Plus, at $5-8 each, the packs aren't cheap, but, I'm compelled to admit, aren't as pricey as I thought they might be."

        I don't know if you got the price from my comment or elsewhere, but did you note that each pack only produces around 250ml of juice?

        1. VanguardG

          Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

          Popped over to their website, actually - I was reading the articles, I promise. No, I failed to note that 250ml tidbit. Kind of expected single-serve, though. I would expect this is meant to attract itself to the crowd that's already replaced an actual breakfast with a smoothie, so their pricing reflects this as a meal replacement, not an accompaniment. Given the alternative many people might resort to is a fast-food McBreakfast with who-knows-what in it and coffee for five or six bucks...meh.

          Maybe you could "cut" the result with commercial juices and get something more to sip on most of a morning.

  7. jzl

    There's one born every minute

    Enough said.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. JulieM Silver badge

      Re: SI units.

      There are 2240 lb. in a ton (= 1016.0469 kg.), not 2000. You might be confusing "a hundredweight" (which is 8 stone, or 112 lb. [= 50.802345 kg.]) with "a hundred pounds" (= 45.359237 kg).

      Now imagine a system whereby the jump from one measuring unit to the next was always a factor of 1000, and a consistent system of prefixes could be applied interchangeably to any of the base units for scaling. Oh, but that would be far too complicated .....

      (All conversions courtesy of GNU units.)

    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: SI units.

      @Symon: you are really Adam Goren, and I claim my 5.9715 €!

      Atom and his package - LORD IT'S HARD TO BE HAPPY WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING THE METRIC SYSTEM

  9. JLV
    Trollface

    FFS

    You forgot "sustainable" and "community" in your buzzwords.

    Those woulda made a $400, nay, an $800 juicer totally palatable.

    On re-read, my bad, "community" was there, twice. Along with "engage". So totally worth 400$ and your bonus then.

    1. JLV

      Re: FFS

      p.s. https://twitter.com/awlilnatty/status/705375555030556672?lang=en

  10. Unep Eurobats
    Windows

    IoT? Maybe...

    As has been pointed out above, fresh juice can be healthy and tasty.

    I regularly throw a few handfuls of fruit and veg into the juicer and fondly imagine it's doing me some good. But how much? I can see some value in an app which could immediately tell me something like, 'You've just had 50% of your RDA of vitamin D - why not have some carrots? But you're at 100% for vitamin C: well done you.'

    Next up: an augmented reality app that surrounds me with a dazzling Ready Brek glow.

    And I might be prepared to share my consumption stats with a health insurer in return for reduced premiums. Although they'd have no way of knowing I wasn't following my kale smoothie with half a dozen deep-fried Mars bars and a bottle of Scotch.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Utter shite

    The stuff in the packet is no more fresh than the stuff you get pre-juiced in a bottle in the supermarket - unless each bag actually contains solid apples, oranges, kales and broccollis or whatever fad of the week "superfood" they're ripping the piss out of you for then it's half-way juiced already so what's the point?

    On the assumption that they're going to claim that pre-juicing it is going to cause vitamins/fibre/sugars/vitamins/someotherbollocks to degrade in some way by the time it gets to you, and that's why you should buy their product, then it's self-demonstrating nonsense dreamed up for and by silicon valley hispters with too much cash. More power to them I say; anyone buying this deserves to lose their money and I'm only sorry it's not being lost in my direction.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does using a juicer taste better than the juice you buy?

    Is it more nutritious?

    How will the price compare with buying juice?

    Will the veggies be better than the veggies in the bottle? If so, can you tell?

    Those are the actual fundamental questions. Unfortunately, this article doesn't even attempt to answer those questions.

    The journalist suggests that people can just use their hands, as if labor-saving isn't a trillion pound industry.

    The journalist complains that the statement doesn't explain why it's better than a bottle. Well, we don't know either. Maybe the journalist could do some investigation and write an article about it. You know, like the good old days.

    I think that this article raises an important question: Is the journalist just writing this shite for the money or do they actually find it enjoyable?

    1. keith_w

      Might I suggest that you check the ingredients in packaged juices. While I would never buy the juicer machine neither would I buy packaged juices. On the other hand I usually limit my fruits to a banana a day and some thawed frozen fruits in my oatmeal on the weekends.

  13. David Lawrence

    A fool and his money....

    ...are soon parted.

    His cupboard must be getting pretty full by now. Even from here I can see his Apple Watch, his VR headset, his drone, his connected doorbell, central heating control system, lighting system, kettle, toaster, fridge, scales, cooker, razor, bed, bicycle and nasal hair extractor.

    Is there room for this total pile of utter shite as well, I wonder.

    I bet he works for Apple or Google as well, in some 'visioneering' team, the twat. I hate him because he gives money to these charlatans.

  14. Andytug

    Scott Adams had it right years ago

    The ideal target market is the stupid rich, which this thing is squarely aimed at.

    Of course back in the day they would have had servants to do this kind of thing as it was menial work and therefore beneath them, but these days it's gadget time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Scott Adams had it right years ago

      £400 is nothing to the "stupid rich" who likely still have their servants in an updated format. This is more likely aimed at those who *like to think* they're rich by buying endless overpriced nonsense like this, then wonder why they're in debt.

      The BBC had a show about shopaholics a few years back; very often it featured professionals who were on relatively high salaries and yet still on the verge of being declared bankrupt because they frittered their money away on endless fripperies like this.

    2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Scott Adams had it right years ago

      "Of course back in the day they would have had servants to do this kind of thing as it was menial work and therefore beneath them, but these days it's gadget time."

      The really rich have servants to operate their gadgets for them.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The first thing I thought of when I read about these sachets of pre-juiced fruit - isn't that basically the same format as sachet cat food ? The sort you squeeze out with your hand?

    1. Geoffrey W

      I like the Whiskas fishy sachets. They make a quick snack when you simply haven't the time. My kitties eat nothing I wouldn't eat myself. Correction - they can keep the dead mice.

  16. myhandler

    All I care about is they raised $ 120 million. I mean really? Who are these investors?

    Can I sell them my IoT poo machine.. you get ready made poop in a pack and you print it to designer dung shapes using a 3d printer - end result iStools.

    No need to eat - comes complete with selfie stick.

    1. Warm Braw

      Who are these investors?

      Presumably the same people behind crappy "retro" record players, pre-ripped jeans, £500+ mobile telephones, social media, home exercise equipment and TV jewellery channels - the ones that can spot the gullible a mile off.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        you can find these "investors"

        lining up at or sending their college age children to "protests" about how "unfair" Capitalism is. While demanding the right (and more money) to take part in such "unfairness".

        usually self-saddled with debt so high it makes the US Federal Government wince.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    juicy clickbait

    in lieu of MS / Apple / Google / NSA. There's always something out there that's gonna push the right click buttons. I did mine!

    p.s. you're not far behind the beeb, granted.

  18. SeanC4S

    A sucrose laden glass of MiWadi is just what the doctor ordered.

    https://www.facebook.com/MiWadiIreland/

  19. JulieM Silver badge

    Who actually thought this was a good idea?

    Did anyone actually think this through properly? From initial inception, to practical prototype, it is full of fail. It does not solve any problem. It just creates more problems. There seems to be something about the process of extracting juice from fruit that brings out idiots .....

    Back in the 1980s, no yuppie kitchen was complete without one of those awful Philippe Starck contraptions that looked like a spaceship from a bad sci-fi movie, on the granite worktop next to the Belfast sink. An iconic masterpiece of industrial design, supposedly, it got juice everywhere except your waiting glass and took too long to clean up afterwards. But at least people looked at it and said "Ooh" or "Aah". Or "Jesus, that is one ugly ..... whatever it's supposed to be ?!"

    Now we get this 400-pound gadget, that can only process fruit loaded into a special plastic bag, is unreliable because it depends on an Internet connection, and still does nothing you couldn't do by hand. And since it uses non-biodegradeable plastic bags, the after-use-clean-up time is now properly measured in millennia.

    With a device like this, you also ultimately end up throwing away all the benefits of economies of scale. See, fruit being mostly water, it turns out that you can dehydrate it, transport it for long distances in that state and dilute it at the destination; and these processes actually create a significant saving over the cost of transporting something that is, after all, mostly water. Sure, it's no good for the structural integrity of the fruit, but that is not so important here anyway. And, as you learned in Chemistry in the first year of Big School, one molecule of a substance is absolutely identical to and indistinguible from every other molecule of the same substance. Hydrogen oxide out of a tap is exactly the same as hydrogen oxide out of an orange, and anyone who tells you different is -- to use the scientific term -- chatting shit.

    Before disposable cartons, it was actually possible to process fruit industrially, and then deliver the reconstituted juice from a local depôt to your door in glass bottles that, once they were empty, only needed to be washed and reused; as opposed to transported several megametres, crushed up, melted down and made into new bottles. In some areas, this was even done using electric vehicles!

    1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

      Re: Who actually thought this was a good idea?

      The founders presumably thought this was a good idea. The investors may have initially thought the same.

      But... California. It seems to be outdoing Florida for sharks and suckers. And they have something in common, like producing a good chunk of America's fresh fruit & veg. Ok, so some growers are diversifying due to realising exporting water isn't necessarily sustainable. But this seems an awfully complicated and ungreen way to get food to consumers. Unlike the good'ol bottle, recycling the packaging is going to be costly, and offset any time saved cleaning a cheaper juicer if you have to wash out the juice bag. And if there's no preservatives, there'll be more waste.. Or mess if they start fermenting and leak.

      But most of that stuff isn't the producer's cost, they socialise that. Flogging less than a pound of fruit or veg for $5-10 is all they're interested in.

    2. Stoneshop
      Boffin

      Re: Who actually thought this was a good idea?

      Hydrogen oxide

      ITYM Dihydrogen Monoxide, or DHMO

    3. Kernel

      Re: Who actually thought this was a good idea?

      "And, as you learned in Chemistry in the first year of Big School, one molecule of a substance is absolutely identical to and indistinguible from every other molecule of the same substance."

      Hmmm - maybe you should try explaining that to all those who have a lifetime of suffering due to the fact there are two different forms of the Thalidomide molecule, one of which is a mutagen and one of which isn't.

      There are, in fact, a number of substances which have distinguishable 'left' and 'right' molecules.

      In addition, no water molecules from fruit are not "indistinguishable' from water molecules from a tap - it has long been possible to identify how much of the water content of wine is from the grapes and how much was added during manufacture.

      1. jake Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Who actually thought this was a good idea?

        "water molecules from fruit are not "indistinguishable' from water molecules from a tap"

        Horseshit. H2O is H2O.

        Contaminants in that water, on the other hand, vary from location to location. Measure the ratios of certain contaminants, and you might be able to tell how much water was added by the wine maker. Note the might, it's not a sure bet. How do I know? I make wine as part of my living.

        Also note that most wine here in California has at least some water added to the must during fermentation. If you don't add the water, you'll wind up with a "stuck" fermentation due to the high sugar content of our local grapes. See this web page for some details:

        https://www.winebusiness.com/tools/?go=winemaking.calc&cid=5

        In the gripping hand, beer :-)

      2. JulieM Silver badge

        Re: Who actually thought this was a good idea?

        Yes, R- and S- thalidomide are different substances. Each molecule contains the same atoms, but they are arranged differently (therefore not identical). They are distinguible by their effect on polarised light. Not sure what point you were making

        As for determining water added during manufacture of wine, that is only possible thanks to the cocktail of impurities present in the water. It's not the water molecules themselves.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's only a matter of time before someone starts punting this ...

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Maybe they'd done better calling it "Juicy McJuiceMaster?"

    On second thoughts.

    Better name, still s**t product

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Maybe they'd done better calling it "Juicy McJuiceMaster?"

      "Better name, still s**t product"

      That's nothing a huge marketing budget couldn't fix.

      Oh, and obligatory pop cultural reference: "Is that all it does?"

  22. bill 30

    not trying to start another class war...... but

    Just wondering about the billions of these juicers that have been sold, what is the breakdown by ownership of:

    PC

    MAC

    LINUX

    old minds wander in the wee hours

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    The problem is...

    ...that as IT folk, we're unfortunately very well used to squeezing our own juice out regularly, and having to clear up the sad and lonely mess.

    How the Juicero CEO should've sold it, is that whilst it's perfectly possible to do your own squeezing, it's much nicer to have someone else do it for you, even if you have to pay regularly for it. So I'm told.

  24. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

    damn. hipsters and money are soon parted?

    and I thought the mastication style (heh heh...he said "mastication!"" attachment to my Kitchenaid was expensive.

    But that at least I can feed anything I want to juice. No proprietary single source packets.

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