Cold-Pressed
Cold-Pressed Juice Benefits
A glass of cold-pressed juice holds more raw vegetables than most people manage to eat in a sitting. That is the whole idea and it is a better one than most of the claims made on its behalf. Here is what cold-pressed juice does for you, why the press makes a difference and how to choose a bottle that earns its place.
What a Glass Actually Gives You
Cold-pressed juice does four things well. It gets a serious quantity of raw vegetables into your day without any cooking. It hydrates, because a glass is mostly water. A vegetable-led juice carries very little sugar. And it takes a minute, which matters more than any nutritional argument, because the habit you keep is the only one that counts.
Those benefits are unglamorous and they are also real, which is more than can be said for a lot of what gets written about juice. If you want the method explained first, start with what is cold-pressed juice.
Six Reasons People Drink It
| Benefit | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| More vegetables | Most of us fall short of five a day. A vegetable-led glass closes part of that gap before you have made breakfast |
| Quantity in one serving | Pressing concentrates a lot of raw produce into 250ml. Eating the same amount whole would take most of a lunchtime |
| Hydration | Juice is largely water and counts towards your daily fluid intake like any other drink |
| Low in sugar | Celery, cucumber and leafy greens carry very little natural sugar, so a vegetable-led juice sits a long way below fruit juice |
| Vitamin C, potassium and folate | Present in useful amounts depending on the recipe, straight from raw produce rather than added afterwards |
| It is quick | A drink you finish in a minute gets repeated. That is the difference between a good intention and an actual habit |
The Produce Behind the Glass
The photograph at the top of this page is not styling. That is roughly the scale of raw produce a press works through to fill a small bottle and it is the single most useful thing to understand about juice.
A press grinds produce and then squeezes it under several tonnes of pressure, leaving a dry cake of fibre behind. What comes out is dense: the water-soluble vitamins, the minerals, the natural sugars and the plant compounds from all of it, in something you can drink on the way out of the door. Whole beetroots, whole carrots, bunches of spinach, celery, ginger, lemon. Nothing added, nothing from concentrate.
That concentration is the benefit. Not a special property of the liquid, just an unusual amount of vegetable in one place.
What Cold-Pressing Changes
Any juicer will get liquid out of a vegetable. The press does it differently and the differences show up in the glass.
Less air. A centrifugal juicer shreds produce against a blade spinning at speed, whipping oxygen through it as it goes. Oxygen is what turns juice dull and flat. A press works slowly under pressure and introduces far less, which is why cold-pressed juice holds its colour and aroma noticeably longer.
No heat. Fast blades create friction and friction creates warmth. A press generates none, which is where the name comes from. Vitamin C in particular is sensitive to heat, air and light, so a gentler method starts from a better place.
More out of the same produce. Press pulp comes out dry. Centrifugal pulp comes out wet and everything still in it is juice you paid for and did not drink. It is also why a press handles leafy greens properly when a domestic juicer barely touches them.
The result is a denser, cleaner-tasting, less foamy glass that keeps better. More detail in how long cold-pressed juice lasts.
How Ours Stays Fresh Without Preservatives
Raw juice has a short life. That is a straightforward consequence of it being raw and every brand has to solve it somehow. Most treat the juice after pressing so it survives a supply chain, a warehouse and a shelf. We freeze ours the moment it is pressed instead.
The difference is what happens to time. A chilled bottle is ageing from the day it is made, through the journey, the shelf and the days in your fridge. A frozen one does nothing at all until you decide to thaw it, so the clock starts when you want it to. Nothing is added, nothing is treated and you can pull out one bottle at a time rather than racing a use-by date.
It also means you can keep a proper supply in. More on the reasoning in frozen versus fresh.
Which Juice Suits What
All of it is cold-pressed and frozen the same way, so the choice comes down to taste and what you want out of it:
| Range | Pick this if |
|---|---|
| Beetroot juices | You want the most-researched vegetable in the aisle, earthy and deeply coloured |
| Green juices | You want leaves in the glass and lower sugar than fruit-led blends |
| Celery juice | You want the lowest sugar of the lot and a clean savoury taste |
| Carrot juices | You are new to vegetable juice and want the easiest way in |
| Juice shots | You would rather have something small and concentrated than a full glass |
| Cleanse programmes | You want a structured multi-day set rather than single bottles |
Read the ingredients in order of weight on any juice you buy, ours included. That order tells you what you are actually drinking and it is the most useful thirty seconds you can spend in front of a bottle. There is more on that in low-sugar green juice and if you are weighing juice against a smoothie, green juice vs smoothie covers the fibre question.
How to Fit It Into a Day
One glass a day, at roughly the same time, alongside food rather than instead of it. Mornings suit most people because it is one good decision made before the day gets complicated. Others prefer mid-afternoon, when the alternative would have been something sweeter.
Two things worth knowing. Juicing removes the fibre, so juice works alongside whole vegetables rather than in place of them and in the UK 150ml counts as one of your five a day no matter how much you drink. And a juice you actually enjoy beats a more virtuous one going brown in the fridge door, so pick by taste. If you manage a health condition or take regular medication, check with your GP before making any drink a daily fixture. Do your own reading and form your own view.
Three Places to Start
Cold-pressed, flash-frozen at the press and delivered frozen across the UK. The full cold-pressed juice range is worth a browse if none of these is quite right:
Frequently Asked
What are the benefits of cold-pressed juice?
A serious quantity of raw vegetables in one glass, hydration, very little sugar if the juice is vegetable-led and useful amounts of vitamin C, potassium and folate depending on the recipe. It is also quick, which is what turns it into a habit rather than a good intention.
Is cold-pressed juice better than other juice?
The press introduces less air, generates no heat and extracts more from the same produce, so you get a denser, cleaner-tasting juice that holds its colour and flavour longer. What is in the bottle still comes down to the recipe, so read the ingredients in order of weight.
How much cold-pressed juice should I drink?
One glass a day suits most people, alongside food rather than instead of it. There is no advantage to drinking more and with fruit-led juice there is a reason not to. If you manage a health condition or take medication, check with your GP first.
Does cold-pressed juice count towards five a day?
In the UK, 150ml of juice counts as one portion per day, however much you drink, because juicing removes the fibre. So a glass gets you one portion and the rest comes from whole vegetables. Juice works alongside them rather than replacing them.
Is cold-pressed juice high in sugar?
It depends entirely on the recipe. Celery, cucumber and leafy greens carry very little natural sugar, while apple and orange carry a good deal more. Vegetable-led juices sit at the low end, which is why the ingredients order matters more than the words on the front.
Why is your juice frozen rather than chilled?
Because raw juice ages from the moment it is pressed. Freezing at the press stops the clock instead of extending it, so nothing has to be added or treated and you thaw one bottle at a time rather than racing a use-by date.
The Bottom Line
The case for cold-pressed juice is simple enough to state plainly. It puts more raw vegetables into your day than you would realistically eat, it hydrates and a vegetable-led glass does both with very little sugar. The press earns its name by working slowly, without heat and with far less air, so what reaches the glass is denser and holds better. Freeze it at the point of pressing and it waits for you rather than ageing on a shelf. Drink one a day, alongside your food and pick the one you actually like.
More in cold-pressed juice questions, or browse everything in the cold-pressed hub.
Where to Start
Browse the full cold-pressed juice range, or go straight to the Daily Juice Box, Daily Beets or Fresh Greens.
Related reading
- Cold-pressed vs centrifugal juice
- Cold-pressed juice vs HPP
- Is juicing good for you
- How long does cold-pressed juice last
- Is shop-bought juice healthy
- Cold-pressed juice recipes
- Flash-frozen juice
By goal
Related ingredient hubs
Join the list for the latest from The Pulp and your 20% off code lands there and then.
Join the list for the latest from The Pulp, and pick a free 500ml bottle of ginger or turmeric shots on your first order over £50.