The Dash Dual Citrus Bar may be a letdown for those seeking the convenience it promises; it fails to follow through.
When I hear the words “Citrus Bar” I see images of a bar top in a tropical oasis, covered with fruit drinks. When I come back to reality and realize that we are actually discussing a juicer, my imagination pictures a juicer capable of quickly and easily supplying citrus juice beverages to an entire bar full of people.
Unfortunately, although my research showed that this particular juicer is very good for its low price, I also found that it cannot uphold my dreams of serving an entire bar full of people in a short period of time.
No More Sticky Fingers
A very unique feature included with this juicer is the built-in citrus slicer located on the inside of the lid. Simply place your citrus fruit in the cup-like holding space behind the two reamers and pull down the lid to slice your fruit in half.
My favorite aspect of this feature is that it reduces the mess you will make while juicing sticky citrus fruits. If there is one thing I find annoying about working with citrus fruits it is the stickiness of their juices. On more occasions than I can count, I have found myself running back and forth between my task and my taps, trying to clear away citrus juice from my hands to stop myself from tracking it throughout my entire kitchen. With this slicing option, there will be no more sticky juices on your hands or your countertop.
Unfortunately, the cup-like holding space included with this juicer appears to only be big enough to fit a large orange. This means that you may still find yourself having to slice your grapefruits by hand on an external surface.
Twice As Fast
After slicing your citrus fruit in half, you can move each half to its own designated reamer. That’s right, there are two reamers in this juicer. Perhaps that explains why they chose to call this a citrus bar instead of a citrus juicer.
This added convenience means that the juicing process itself will take half the time it takes with a traditional single-reamer juicer. Simply place both halves on their own reamers, pull down the lid and press gently to initiate the motor. The motor will cause both reamers to spin as they simultaneously fill the single juice cup beneath.
One Cup to Catch it All
It is good to know that this system has been designed in such a way as to feed the juice from both reamers into the same juice cup. Separate juice cups would only create more work and more dishes. Unfortunately, the single cup that Dash chose to include is rather small. I would hazard a guess that about 8 ounces of juice would fill this cup. That’s the equivalent of about one glass of juice.
I honestly expected that this juicer would have included a larger juice cup since it simultaneously juices two halves of a fruit. I figured that it was made for people who like to make entire pitchers of juice at a time. I mean, it is called a ‘bar’ and bars generally serve multiple people. Theoretically, you could fill the cup several times and empty it into individual cups as needed, but I think it would be much more preferable to fill an entire pitcher and allow guests to serve themselves.
Sufficient Space Required
This is a very large juicer. Making room for two reamers, a holding space for the slicer, and the motor means that this juicer is wide, deep, and tall. You will need a large countertop or a large cupboard to house this massive juicer, which measures approximately 9” high by 9” deep by 9” wide.
Ready, Set, Clean
One of the most popular consumer complains for this machine was the amount of cleaning required. Although the removable, non-electric parts of this juicer are dishwasher friendly, there are many difficult-to-reach parts which are not dishwasher safe.
Secondly, many dishwashers have a difficult time cutting through dried-on citrus juices, which become almost like a plastic coating of their own. As a result of this difficulty, many consumers have taken to hand washing all parts of the Dash Dual Citrus Bar. Since this juicer is larger than most others, it contains more parts. Hand washing these extra parts adds time to the juicing process, meaning that the time they saved by juicing two halves at once is now lost.
You Get What You Pay For
In the end, consumer reviews for this juicer are generally positive. Most of the negative reviews revolve around difficulties in fitting a grapefruit inside and having to individually hand wash pieces of the machine. Another common complaint is that the 90-watt motor overheats if you try to create too much juice in a short period of time.
I suppose that you get what you pay for. This citrus juicer is rather inexpensive and, thus, cannot be expected to perform as well as more expensive juicers. It appears that the majority of consumers who gave positive reviews for this juicer are aware of this fact and based its high scores on the expectations they had for this juicer. Although it cannot live up to the standard set forth by more expensive juicers, it lives up to the quality expected for a juicer of its price.
