This is the most intuitive juicer I’ve ever tested — but there’s one thing holding it back

The Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer is the most intelligent juicer I’ve ever used. It could be one of the best juicers out there. If you’re looking for something that can intuitively juice based on contents, then the Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer is the one for you.

As long as you’re willing to accept a tiny bit of pulp in your juice, the Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer is a winner. There are eight preset functions to choose from to ensure the correct speed of juicing based on your ingredients, but there’s also an AI mode — which is great for using various ingredients simultaneously.

The touchscreen is very easy to use, too, so if it’s simplicity you’re after, keep reading this full Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review.

Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review: Specs

Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review: Price & availability

The Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper juicer is available at the Tribest online store for $599. The juicer is also called SWA-3GY-B, which is handy to note since there are many juicers available on the site. Since its release earlier this year, the juicer has not been made available on any other sites, even so, by ordering from Tribest, you are assured a 15-year warranty.

The $599 price means the Tribest is expensive, even for a juicer. It’s quite the investment, so you need to be sure it’s something you’re going to use long term — don’t just buy this machine if you’re a beginner hopping on the latest juicing fad.

If you’re trying out juicing for the first time, I’d recommend the AMZCHEF Cold Press Juicer for $129. This one offers a more minimal setup and a lower initial cost — perfect for beginners.

An added perk with the Tribest is its ability to make a mean sorbet, but this isn’t unique to the Tribest. So if you’re already part of the juicing world and you want a machine that can do more, you should take a look at the Nama C2 juicer and blender. That one is going to set you back a whopping $800, but it’s a blender and a juicer in one unit, saving space in your kitchen.

Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review: Design

The Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer has a sleek design and looks great when set up in the kitchen of our testing studio. It’s also futuristic, so if high-tech gadgets are your calling, this juicer will be right up your alley.

A touch screen display isn’t something I typically look for in a juicer, but it made using the machine incredibly convenient.

I assembled the machine quickly as the augers, filters, and hopper all slot on top of each other easily and then fit into the main body — which also means it’s not too tall. The Nama C2 Cold Press Juicer and Blender, for example, is 21 inches. The Tribest measures 17.6 x 8.8 x 8.1 inches in comparison. It’s shorter but wouldn’t fit under your cabinets and would need to be dismantled for storage. I also found it very easy to attach and detach the components since the juicer is just 12.6 pounds.

The stainless steel chopper attached to the auger is strong and made light work of crushing even the toughest of ingredients like carrots. However, the tamper that comes with the machine is very short, so pushing ingredients down is a little tricky.

This hopper holds up to 52.8 ounces, and I found this was a good size to fit most of the ingredients I was using. The juicer also comes with a 27-ounce juice container and a 32-ounce pulp container to catch the juice and pulp. The juice container is a great size, but I never got near to filling the pulp container.

Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review: Juicing performance

I was pretty impressed with the juicing capabilities of the Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer, especially its speed. It was a lot faster than the Kuvings Auto8 juicer I reviewed earlier this year.

And it’s not just for juice; I was also able to quickly make some of the best sorbet I’ve ever had (a wildly bold claim, I know). So if you were considering purchasing the infamous Ninja Creami ($229) this summer, you can kill two birds with one stone and get your sorbet fix and juice fix in one machine with the Tribest… even though it’s double the price.

The juicer uses a brushless motor for a quieter sound and runs at around 60 decibels when it has fruit inside, which is pretty quiet. This is around the same volume as the Kuvings Auto8. I could still maintain a conversation with the people around me (who were waiting patiently for their fresh juice).

Juice

Citrus juice:

To test out the citrus function, I added two grapefruits and four oranges (peeled and quartered) to the hopper. The mess was minimal, and the machine spat the pulp out into the side container.

I got about 28.1 fluid ounces of juice from this. Although the juice was mostly smooth, some minute bits of pulp settled at the top. If you don’t mind pulp like me, this is fine, but some of my colleagues are pulp-deniers and wouldn’t go near the juice — tough crowd.

Apple juice:

Again, I was impressed at how quickly the juicer worked. I added six quartered apples and let it get to work. In just a few minutes, I had 600ml of fresh apple juice, which was pretty foamy. I expected this foam as this also happened when I tested the Kuvings Auto8 juicer, so it’s not really a flaw.

However, there were some very small flakes of solid in the juice. I personally didn’t notice them as I was too busy drinking up the delicious juice, but my colleague pointed out the apple pulp floating around. As I said, this isn’t something that bothered me, because I don’t mind pulp in my drink. But it’s worth considering before you buy if you’re a pulp-hater.

Watermelon juice:

This juice has to be the best and easiest to make of them all. And no, I couldn’t just whack a whole watermelon into the hopper. I used watermelon chunks that were pre-cut from the store. I got 14.1 fluid ounces of liquid from this, which had some very small bits.

This was the fastest juicing process, as there isn’t much resistance from the soft watermelon, and the juicer moves a little faster to account for that.

Pomegranate juice:

Although this was a function on the juicer, it’s not an option that I would use again. When I’ve had pomegranate juice previously, the liquid has been red and clear, but with this juicer, the liquid was almost pink and opaque. This makes me think that some of the inner seeds were crushed and let into the drink, which would make sense since it felt quite astringent in the mouth.

During the juicing process, some pieces got stuck in the hopper, and the tamper was too short to reach them to direct them towards the augers.

Grape juice:

This is a setting I was intrigued to try out, as everybody loves grape juice. I filled the hopper to the brim with grapes, which it took just a few minutes to pass through. I got about 21.1 fluid ounces.

But after looking at the pulp that came out of the juicer, I think it could have squeezed more liquid out. The pulp was still pretty wet.

Carrot juice:

I added a 17.5-ounce bag of carrots to the juicer, and it all fit into the hopper with a few cuts to shorten them. I got 10.5 fluid ounces of liquid from this.

I noticed that the augers were moving a lot slower in this setting since the carrots are a lot tougher than some of the other fruits I tried out in the machine. Although the result wasn’t to my personal taste, I would use this setting again and add some ginger and lemon at the same time to get a more varied flavor.

Celery juice:

For this juice, I simply threw in a few sticks of celery, but this took the longest of all of the juices. It’s a tough test for a juicer, as celery is very fibrous.

I got 7 fluid ounces of juice from a bunch of celery, but cleaning up after this juice was an absolute nightmare. Since celery is so fibrous and stringy, it got tangled up in the augers, so I literally had to detangle it after use.

AI mode:

The AI mode detects ingredients in the hopper and adjusts the speed of the mastication accordingly. I would recommend using the AI mode if using a mixture of fresh fruit and vegetables, as it will provide a more reliable result, given the amount of force needed.

Sorbet

Don’t be fooled, this machine is more than just a juicer. It can also whip up a mean sorbet, much to the delight of my colleagues in the office. I added a mixture of frozen fruit to the hopper, including banana, strawberries, raspberries, and mango, and then set the machine to sorbet mode. The sorbet then comes out where the pulp would usually be.

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The process was very quick and gave me incredibly smooth sorbet. I’d recommend using a juicer like this for sorbet rather than a blender like the Tribest Backspin blender, as the result is far more consistent.

Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer review: Verdict

The Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer is a great kitchen addition for anyone who is looking for an easy-to-use and intuitive juicer. The touch screen makes it simple to select your functions, and I found the AI mode increased efficiency.

I only have a few minor complaints about the juicer. Some pulp got through, so if you’re a pulp hater, this won’t be the juicer for you. The tamper is very short, so it’s hard to push some ingredients into the path of the augers. It’s also not dishwasher safe, so if you’re lazy about washing up (like me), then this could be too much maintenance.

But for anyone who already enjoys juicing but is looking to step up their game with more high-tech functionality, I think the Tribest Slowstar AI Vertical Hopper Juicer is a great option.