Juicers are a convenient way to make delicious fresh drinks from your favorite produce, but there’s no denying that most of these countertop appliances are oversized and quite pricey. If you’re interested in a juicer, but don’t want to sacrifice too much counter space in your kitchen, the new Magic Bullet Mini Juicer from NutriBullet will definitely pique your interest.
This budget-friendly juicer is one of the smallest options available today, weighing just over 6 pounds and sporting a compact 7-by-6-inch base. Its centrifugal-style design uses a high-speed spinning blade and fine strainer to extract juice from fruits and veggies, and it even includes a convenient 16-ounce tumbler with a flip-open lid that lets you take your juice with you on the go.
We wanted to see how this affordable juicer compared to some of the best juicers, so we tested it over the course of two weeks. We used the Magic Bullet mini juicer to make a variety of homemade drinks with a wide range of ingredients — here’s what we thought of it in the end.
TLDR: What we thought of the Magic Bullet mini juicer
The juicer has a simple on/off switch on the front, and when I flipped it on, the appliance began spinning its blades and strainer at top speed. It’s fairly loud, especially when compared to most slow juicers — I’d say it’s roughly the same noise level as a small blender.
I absolutely loved the convenience of the juicer tumbler. When I was finished juicing, I was able to take the tumbler with me to my office and sip out of its flip-top. It would be perfect for taking your morning juice in the car or on the go.
Unboxing the Magic Bullet Mini Juicer
The Magic Bullet Mini Juicer arrived in a surprisingly small, colorful box, and immediately I could tell that it was going to be much more compact and lightweight than most other juicers.
The appliance was packaged using cardboard forms, and each individual piece was wrapped in a plastic bag, making for quite a bit of waste.
This juicer was extremely quick and easy to set up, as there aren’t too many pieces. The mesh strainer and lid were already in place, so it was just a matter of putting the pulp collection bin — a tall, narrow black container — into place. From there, it was ready to use.
In terms of first impressions, I loved the compact size of this juicer. It’s by far the smallest juicer I’ve tested, and you could keep it right on the counter without taking up too much space. Some of the components, such as the food pusher, do feel a bit lightweight and almost flimsy, but that’s not too surprising given the low price point of the appliance.
The techy stuff
- Type: Centrifugal
- Dimensions (in): 7 x 6 x 11.5 in
- Cord length (in): 39.73 in
- Weight (lbs): 6.07 lbs
- Power: 400W
- Jug capacity (fl oz): 16oz
Test one: Juicing apple and pineapple
The first juice I made with the Magic Bullet Mini Juicer was my go-to everyday recipe: apple, pineapple, and ginger. I cored and quartered two apples and cut half a pineapple into chunks. However, when I brought all the fruit over to the juicer, I realized I may have cut up too much for the 16-ounce juice jug to handle.
I began by feeding pieces of pineapple down the chute, pushing them into the spinning blade with the food pusher. I quickly learned not to push too hard, otherwise, the fruit gets shot out of the blade into the pulp chute without extracting all the juice. The quartered apples didn’t quite fit into the opening, so I had to cut them in half again before I could feed them into the appliance.
Overall, the juicer was simple to use, and it quickly filled up the plastic tumbler. In the end, I only ended up using about half the fruit I prepped, so I just saved the rest for another day. I will say that there was quite a bit of foam on top of my juice, and there’s no strainer to keep foam out of your drink.
Test two: "Garden Party" vegetable juice
For my next juice, I decided to try one of the recipes listed on the Magic Bullet website. I’m not usually one for vegetable-based juices, but NutriBullet's Garden Party recipe caught my eye and I decided to give it a whirl. I used two tomatoes, a peeled cucumber, and one stalk of celery — the recipe calls for more celery, but I don’t like the taste and didn’t want it to overwhelm the drink.
The juicer had no problem processing the tomatoes and cucumber pieces, but it didn’t do great with the celery. Several sizable pieces of celery stalk got pushed into the pulp chute without being fully shredded. This drink also separated extremely quickly — a common complaint with centrifugal juicers. By the time I was finished juicing, the liquid had already started separating into distinct layers, and I had to keep stirring it as I was drinking. Overall, I found the recipe to be fairly bland, but it might be better with fresh summer tomatoes, which are generally more flavorful.
Test three: Making the "Rise and Shine" juice
The final recipe I made with the Mini Juicer was "Rise and Shine" juice — a longtime favorite of mine — which contains apples, lemon, carrots, spinach, and ginger. I only had shredded carrots, so I wasn’t sure how well that would work, but I prepped the rest of the ingredients as usual.
The first ingredient I put into the juicer was the lemon, which had the rind still on, and because it was fairly tough for the blades to shred, it bounced around inside for a few seconds and then actually bounced back out the chute! I was definitely caught off-guard, and I made sure to have the food pusher ready to block the chute for the other ingredients.
The apples went in with no issue, but the carrots and spinach weren’t so easy. The strainer had trouble extracting juice from these ingredients, and even after I put half a bag of baby spinach into the appliance, there were still only a few drops of green liquid in my glass. Realizing I probably should have put these ingredients first, I ended up adding in a few pieces of pineapple in hopes the juices would help push some of the spinach and carrot juice into the tumbler. It worked fairly well, giving my green juice more of its signature green color, but overall, I’ve had much better luck making this recipe with slow juicers, which are able to get more liquid out of leafy or hard vegetables.
Cleaning the Magic Bullet Mini Juicer
Thanks to its compact design, the Magic Bullet Mini Juicer is quite easy to clean. After using it, I would generally wipe any pulp off the inner components and rinse them off with warm water. Almost all the pieces can be cleaned this way, and the only component that needed scrubbing was the mesh strainer, which gets tiny food particles stuck in it. Thankfully, the juicer came with a brush that works well on the fine mesh.
If you want a deeper clean for the appliance, all its removable components are dishwasher safe, so you can simply put them through a cycle for hands-off cleaning. I wanted to see if the dishwasher would be able to clean the strainer on its own, but unfortunately, there was still a lot of pulp stuck in it after the cycle. For this reason, you will need to manually scrub the strainer, but it’s quick and easy to do.
Should you buy the Magic Bullet mini juicer?
The Magic Bullet mini juicer definitely has some appealing features, including its compact form — ideal for smaller kitchens — convenient to-go tumbler, and $60 price tag. It did a good job extracting juice from soft ingredients like apples, tomatoes, pineapples, and cucumbers, but it struggled with harder ingredients like celery, as well as leafy greens. Additionally, the juice from this appliance tends to separate fairly quickly, so you won’t be able to make juice in advance and save it for later.
While it does have some flaws, that’s not to say this juicer isn’t worth buying. It’s a good beginner-friendly model for those who don’t want to splurge on an expensive slow juicer, and it will likely serve you well if you mostly plan to juice softer ingredients.
About this review and the reviewer
Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has been testing small kitchen appliances (as well as other home goods) for several years. She’s tested everything from toasters to oil infusion machines, and she recently fell in love with juicing, as it’s a great way to use up the extra produce she grows on her farm while sneaking more vitamins into her diet.
Camryn does her product testing from her small homestead in beautiful Rhode Island. When she’s not tinkering around with the latest home gadgets, she spends her time tending to her animals, working in her garden, or crafting.