This very expensive juicer can connect to Wi-Fi but can’t actually juice your produce

The founder of Organic Avenue, a now-bankrupt restaurant chain that sold stale wraps and overpriced juices, is launching a $699 Wi-Fi connected juicer that can't actually juice produce you've brought home from the store. Instead, the company, called Juicero, wants you to buy its prepackaged, pre-chopped produce, have it delivered to your home, and then insert its proprietary produce-packs into the juicer to create juice. This is supposed to be more convenient.

There's "a great fallacy that juice made on demand" is better, says Juicero's founder

Using Juicero does seem easier than using a normal juicer, which typically requires some amount of chopping and cleaning. But it does not seem easier than, say, buying a pre-made juice, twisting off its cap, and beginning to drink it. That would be more convenient.

Would it be as fresh? I don't know. Juicero says you should use its produce packs within six days of delivery, which means you're drinking fruits and vegetables that were chopped upward of a week earlier. Here's Juicero/Organic Avenue founder Doug Evans talking about this very topic in 2010: "There's actually a great fallacy that juice made on demand in front of a consumer is most likely superior to juice made in a certified juicing facility," he told Marie Claire. Interesting.

Juicero juice packs cost between $4 and $10, so it's not like you're saving money on your juice habit here. You're also locked in to buying Juicero's packs, and only Juicero's packs because no one else sells these things and it's (theoretically) not possible to make your own. That means you'd better like the juice varieties Juicero is offering, because you can't create a juice blend exactly to your liking, as you might be able to with literally any other juicer.

I'm going to pause for a moment here, because I want to highlight a phrase I found on Juicero's website:

Juicero has raised nearly $100 million in funding to support its venture into the juice world, according to Business Insider. Its product was unveiled today after three years of work. At launch, Juicero is only available in parts of California; it intends to eventually go nationwide.

Somehow, Silicon Valley's two most famous designers were involved, to some degree, in creating this product. Business Insider reports that Jony Ive and Yves Béhar were both brought in to help. During its testing, Juicero also consulted with noted health experts Dr. Oz and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are reported to have "been blown away" by its juice.

The thing is, I strongly suspect Juicero will succeed, at least for a time. Organic Avenue, which operated for 13 years before going bankrupt, proved that there are a lot of people willing to pay way too much for juice and buy into dubious juice-based health regimens. It seems like Evans may have found a way to tap into that again — and to make it even easier for juice fans to keep buying.

I have read a large portion of Juicero's website, and I still don't know why it has a Wi-Fi connection.

Sorry, I just need to repeat this quote. "There's actually a great fallacy that juice made on demand in front of a consumer is most likely superior to juice made in a certified juicing facility," said the man who wants to sell you a home juicer.

Correction: Juicero says that Nest's Tony Fadell did not consult on the project, as Business Insider originally reported; Nest's Matt Rogers is involved as a board member.