This $15 citrus juicer is squeezing circles around the competition

Playing around with the latest smart multifunction oven and trying out futuristic food creations is fun, but to be honest, my favorite kitchen innovations are often the simple ones. A sip here or a flick there and suddenly a kitchen tool you thought was fully realized just got even better. That’s what happened while I was getting a good two-handed grip on Dreamfarm’s excellent new $15 Fluicer — the best portable citrus juicer I’ve yet to try.

The Fluicer (a portmanteau of “flat juicer”) is a smart reinterpretation of where the pressure points should land on any half of a lemon, lime, or orange. With a solid build and efficient design, the savvy kitchen brand has brought out a serious upgrade for that simple, clunky juicer that collects dust in the back of a drawer or home bar. That’s all enough to make that lemonade and margarita enthusiast smile as peak season kicks off.

Most portable juicers kind of suck

The superior Fluicer lies flat in a drawer and is even easier to store than a classic hand juicer.

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I’ve always been disappointed with the efficiency of traditional hand-held citrus juicers. Small citrus fruits don’t produce much juice as they are, especially limes, so it’s important to get as much of each as possible. Most portable juicers I’ve used get the first 70% relatively easily, but have a much harder time extracting the last bits closer to the bowl. When making a batch of margaritas or lemonade, I often skip the juicer altogether and rely on a small spoon to twist and scoop out the good stuff. It’s an effective method, but requires most of the muscles to come from one hand and can get tiring.

Simple physics makes the Fluicer much more effective

The Fluicer juices citrus fruits from all angles.

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The basic concept of the Fluicer is similar to the onion-head citrus juicer most of us are used to, but a few key differences make it a much better tool. Each half of the citrus you stuff in is not only squeezed front to back, but also bent in half, resulting in a more complete extraction. The Fluicer also encourages a two-handed, butterfly-style press, allowing you to use the full strength of both arms. As the juice drips from the bottom, the seeds and pulp are caught in a small grate.

This grid will catch any seeds before they fall into your jar or bowl.

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What’s left when you open the fluicer is a fully drained piece of citrus fruit. You’ll find more juice in the cup, bowl or blender below than if you had used any other citrus juicing gadget or method.

It’s not even close.

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The Fluicer is built tough and folds up to fit anywhere

As crowded as it gets, I’m going to make room for the Fluicer in my miscellaneous kitchen utensil drawer.

David Watsky/CNET

The Fluicer is well constructed from durable, dishwasher safe plastic. When not in use, the Fluicer folds flat to a height of about 1 inch, which means it actually takes up less space than these other portable juicers.

For a citrus lover, the new Fluicer is an essential kitchen tool and also makes an excellent gift. The small (lime size) model is only $15. The medium fluicer (made for lemons and limes) is only two dollars more. The large fluicer (for limes, lemons, and oranges) is $20.

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