I made everything from juice and nut milk to soup and sorbet in this juicer-blender combo — and it's totally worth it

On paper, juicing and blending are pretty similar. Both hold a particular appeal to health-conscious shoppers who want to max out on fruit and veggies, and both create delicious and healthy drinks in minutes. So it's no surprise that people often find themselves stuck between buying the best blender or juicer.

Fortunately, a third option exists, although there aren't many on the market. Blender/juicer combos take one powerful base and use it to power interchangeable blender and juicer attachments, meaning you get more function out of one countertop gadget.

That's why I was so keen to try the Nama C2 Blender and Juicer, the first hybrid product from the brand behind some of the best juicers I've tried. Here's how it went.

• Buy direct from Nama, $800

Nama C2: Price and availability

The Nama C2 is very similar to the brand's J2 juicer, but with the addition of a blending jug that slots onto the base, which is automatically detected to activate blending settings. The J2 retails for $550, and the C2 retails for an immense $800. It's a lot, but you should keep in mind that a slow juicer alone will usually set you back around $300 at the lower end of the scale. The masticating design is more expensive than virtually any centrifugal juicer, and yields a more fibrous result.

You can buy direct from Nama, and in the U.K. you can also buy from U.K. Juicers for £799.

Nama C2: Design

The Nama C2 comes in a huge, weighty box which is helpfully divided into labelled sections for different components. The blending and juicing attachments all come in their own box, as does the (hefty) base unit, which sits very tall compared to the base of most blenders.

You can see from the packaging how much thought has gone into this appliance. It comes with detailed recipes (that actually taste good) with a breakdown of nutritional content and the benefits of various ingredients. The getting started guide is also very helpful for those who might not be familiar with how slow juicers work.

You get a lot with the Nama C2: a stackable juice and pulp container that can be slotted under each side of the juicing dispensers, as well as three pulp filters (one for sorbet, one for low pulp and one for high pulp. There's also a brush, a pusher to assist in blending, and a range of booklets. It's great that Nama has been so thorough in giving you everything you need, but on the downside, it requires a lot of storage.

The base automatically senses whether you've attached the blender jug or juicer attachment, and adjusts your settings accordingly. For the blender, you can choose from ice, smoothie, soup, dips and a self-clean setting, or twist to the right for manual controls over speed, which will automate a timer.

On the juicing side it's a lot more simple: You just need to press start and stop and you can twist the dial to put the blending mechanism in reverse, which is useful if you encounter a jam. It's all very intuitive.

Nama C2: Juicing performance

The first recipe I made in the Nama C2 was its Carrot Apple Ginger recipe. You're advised to put the ingredients into the chamber in the order listed in the recipe (in this case apple, then ginger, then carrots) and simply turn the juicer on to start extracting. It works pretty fast, and I like that you can just add all your ingredients into the chamber and leave your juicer to it.

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This glass of juice took, according to the in-built timer, 43 seconds. I opted for a fine mesh strainer and it came out glowingly vibrant and packed with punchy ginger flavor, which would make it amazing if you're feeling unwell and need an immunity boost. I did notice that the pulp was still a little wet, so I then tried a recipe using the high pulp strainer.

For this, I used my own recipe: a mix of grapefruit, pineapple and apple, following the guidance from the recipe book about how to stack your ingredients for the best performance. This was super delicious, and a despite the higher pulp content it wasn't too frothy.

Nama C2: Making nut milk

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When I tested the Nama J3 I made really tasty hazelnut milk, so I felt pretty confident that I could create some equally tasty nut milk in the C2. The recipe book includes a few recipes including a chai almond milk, which sounded delicious. I decided to start by making a regular almond milk, which required soaking the nuts overnight and softening some dates in some hot water before adding the rinsed nuts and an equal volume of water to the juicer.

I then turned the machine on and was really impressed at how dry the ground up almonds were when they came out of the righthand side of the juicer. To ensure the milk was able to form a cohesive blend I kept the spout locked until the milk looked to be a good color. Although this wasn't mentioned in the recipe book, I'd recommend you do the same if you make this nut milk because otherwise the water you've added to the chamber will just drain immediately from the juicing chamber. I also noted that the recipe book didn't advise on which strainer to use, which would've been helpful.

Nonetheless, the milk came out surprisingly similar to store-bought almond milk. It didn't taste great, so I added a bit more vanilla for some added sweetness, but the consistency was impressive and this is a very easy way to cut down on processed plant-based milk by making it at home. Next up, I'm making chai almond milk.

Nama C2: Making sorbet

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The Nama C2 comes with a sorbet mesh, which doesn't feature any holes for straining and instead masticates frozen ingredients to form a thick frozen "nice cream." I tried the banana and chocolate ice cream recipe from the cookbook, which simply included freezing a few bananas, adding them to the chamber with some chocolate chips and peanuts (I used hazelnuts because I'm not too keen on the taste of peanuts, but any nut would work) and then turning the juicer on.

I was a bit worried that the machine would struggle with how frozen-solid my banana was, but it immediately started to eject a very thick and well-mixed stream of ice cream. It could even be a soft serve, if I'd had a cone on hand. Once I'd mixed it, it formed an amazing texture. My only complaint was that the chocolate was a little gritty, which makes sense as it had been frozen by the banana mix. Next time I might stir through some cocoa powder instead.

Nama C2: Blending performance

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I had all the ingredients for Nama's "Blueberry Muffin" smoothie, so I decided to give that a try. I added frozen blueberries, milk, rolled oats, cashews, cinnamon, salt, ice and maple syrup to the blending jug and slotted it onto the base. This doesn't fit under my countertop due to the large dimensions of both the base and the blending jug, so I had to pull it out to the front of my countertops.

I used the "Smoothie" setting which pulsed and blended my ingredients for 60 noisy seconds. This blender is pretty loud, although it's not helped by the noisy blitzing of ice and frozen berries. The result, though, was more than worth it. It tasted exactly like a blueberry muffin and despite the seeds from my berries was mostly smooth and evenly blitzed. I've added this to my breakfast rotation, and I definitely plan on making it again.

Making soup

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Next, I attempted Nama's "Carrot and Ginger Soup" recipe, with a few tweaks to use up ingredients I had at home. I roasted carrots, garlic and ginger for half an hour before adding to my blending jug with some vegetable stock and cilantro before option for the soup setting. The soup setting is 7.5 minutes, and clearly designed to not only blend your ingredients but heat and even cook them too. I've tried similar settings from the likes of Vitamix, which made a tasty and fully-cooked tomato soup from entirely raw ingredients when I reviewed it.

Because my ingredients were already cooked, I probably didn't need the full 7.5 minutes for this soup, but the finished result came out super hot and creamy when finished. It was far better than anything I could've bought at the store and with an almost-whipped texture that I've struggled to achieve in cheaper blenders.

Nama C2: Cleaning

There's no way around it: cleaning cold press juicers sucks. There's so many removable parts, and they all need rinsing after every use. Nama does make it easier than most to clean their parts though, with a design that intuitively slots together and an included cleaning brush to get into the various crevices. Just please, please do this after every use, or you'll end up with some unpleasant remnants of pulp and juice on your fancy new machine.

The blender is pretty easy to clean: Just add some dish soap and warm water to the pitcher and then turn on the clean setting.

For a deep clean, Nama recommends soaking the components in equal parts of warm water and vinegar overnight before drying thoroughly and leaving out to fully dry.

Should you buy the Nama C2?

Most people don't have a spare $800 to spend on a juicer/blender combo, but if you do, I'd recommend spending it on the Nama C2. Heft aside, this machine delivers near-faultless blending and juicing performance, and is one of the few machines on the market to boast a 15-year warranty.

I really loved the juices I made in this machine, which are on par with the juice I made in the $450 Nama J3. If you just want a good juicer, you could save $350 and just opt for that. But despite being noisy, the blender also offers near-market leading performance. My soup was immensely creamy, almost restaurant standard (if I say so myself). It's just a shame that there's no avoiding the huge space this machine takes up. Nama, if you make a version that sits under my kitchen cabinets, I'll display it with pride.

• Buy direct from Nama, $800

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