Juicero found itself in the limelight on Wednesday after Bloomberg ran a piece on the company’s $ 400 cold-press juice appliance. It seems investors have been disappointed in the juicer after discovering that its primary function—squeezing juice out of a proprietary bag—could be replicated by human hands. In a test by Bloomberg, reporters were able to squeeze 7.5 oz of juice out of the Juicero bags in 1.5 minutes. The $ 400 juice press got 8 oz out in 2 minutes.
Although Ars contacted the company yesterday, no one responded to our request for comment. But today, Juicero CEO Jeff Dunn, formerly of Coca-Cola, took to Medium to write a defense of his company’s juice maker.
“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,” Dunn wrote. (A fantastic turn of phrase that hopefully was intentional, given Juicero’s claim to deliver four tons of force during the pressing process.) “It seems simple, but despite everything we’ve done to-date as a food community, we’ve barely moved the needle.” Juicero is decidedly not a household name, so one is left to wonder how much of a budge from the needle is expected as a result from the company’s (or food community’s?) efforts.