Please note that Breville provided me with this appliance to facilitate a Juice Fountain Plus review. All opinions are my own.
Way back when the Macarena was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts, I bought a juicer. Or maybe I begged my parents to buy it for me. I don’t recall.
What I do remember, though, was the awful mess it made and how impossible it was to ever get the filter clean. I even tried using a toothbrush (sorry to my brother – he never knew…).
It went into storage and resurfaced a couple of years ago when I was readying a pile of junk for a garage sale. It sold for $5.
Fast forward to a few months ago when Breville offered me the Juice Fountain Plus.
THE GOOD
Breville knows how to throw together a complete package for the consumer. Not only did my Juice Fountain Plus juicer come with a DVD of Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, but it also came with a brush with which we can clean the filter.
And I mean clean. As long as you attack the pulp trapped in the filter as soon as you finish juicing, it really does get completely clean – as long as you take some time with it. We still toss it in the top rack of the dishwasher, though.
Two speeds mean that softer fruits and veg like blueberries and tomatoes aren’t hurled right back out of the vacuous pipe and into your unsuspecting face. That is, if you use the slower speed for the blueberries and tomatoes and such. With apples or carrots, on the other hand, crank up the speed and watch the Juice Fountain Plus pulverize it in seconds. Fresh juice out one end and pulp out the other.
It’s pretty mess-proof. Breville’s design means that virtually no juice or pulp will escape while you’re juicing because there’s a perfect fit for every component.
Like everything from Breville, the overall look of this appliance is very modern, very clean. And it will match your stainless steel kitchen if that’s what you’re going for.
There wasn’t one fruit or vegetable we tried that the Juice Fountain Plus couldn’t handle.
Oh, and the juice. Rave reviews from every member of our family, plus friends who came for brunch one day and got to enjoy a fab concoction of blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, oranges and carrots.
Compared to my old juicer, the pulp is much drier using the Juice Fountain Plus. This means more juice is going out the other end. And into my belly.
The locking mechanism that prevents you from turning it on until it’s safely engaged is fantastic. There’s little chance that a small child could ever get this thing turned on. I guess that’s a gaffe, too, since we really should be encouraging our youngsters to fetch us breakfast in bed.
Until I read the booklet that came with the juicer, I didn’t know that the nutrients in fruits and veg could be depleted if they reach a certain temperature. Breville has ensured that the juicer’s motor remains at or below the optimal temperature to maximize the nutrients you extract during the juicing process.
At $149 to $199 (depending where you buy it), the price for this juicer is really reasonable. It’s much better than an entry-level juicer but not so expensive it feels like an investment. Sure, you can get a juicer for less than a hundred bucks, but you mind end up with one that comes out of the box singing the Macarena. Just sayin’. You can also get commercial-grade juicers for triple the price, but unless you’re making juice for the entire neighbourhood, three times a day, you probably don’t need to incur the expense.
I almost forgot (really…I already wrote the rest of this review and it dawned on me that I needed to add this!); the plug. Seriously. The Juice Fountain Plus’s electrical plug is basically the most innovation I’ve seen in the kitchen, ever. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I need you to feel my passion. You can easily pull it out of the wall without feeling like you’re going to (a) fly backwards or (b) get electrocuted. Win, win.
THE GAFFE
I would prefer a much larger container to catch the juice. It holds one litre of liquid, which is fine if you’re a family of three who never entertains. If, however, you serve as many brunches as we do (it’s kind of our thing), one litre of juice just doesn’t cut it.
The box shows a woman (clearly some hand model who has to get regular manicures and arm massages for her “job”) delicately placing a whole apple into the chute. This ain’t gonna happen, people. I know – I tried. With various sizes of apples, and even the smallest, runt apple I could find didn’t fit without some trimmage. You really ought to remove the core and pits, and skins of fruit like bananas and oranges, too, before you chuck them in the chute – especially if you want to use the pulp in recipes. This product would have probably earned a 4.5/5 if it required less overall prep time.
While this is no complaint about the product itself, I just want to point out that although there are recipes included with the manual to make muffins and such out of the pulp (versus tossing it in the green bin), at the end of the day, I’m not sure how many people are actually going to do that – because you have to do it within 24 hours or the nutrition content is essentially zilch. And when you remove the pulp from your juice, you remove the fibre. And fibre is good. You know, for the poop shoot.
THE GEARS
3.5/5
renee says
I suppose you could just juice and move it to a larger container as you are going… but that could get messy too. I’ve been looking to get a juicer. I think I’d love more than anything to have a vitamix!
Mommy Gearest says
There’s also the Blendtek – have you checked that one out?
renee says
I suppose you could just juice and move it to a larger container as you are going… but that could get messy too. I’ve been looking to get a juicer. I think I’d love more than anything to have a vitamix!
Mommy Gearest says
There’s also the Blendtek – have you checked that one out?
Sarah Schroder says
I’ve been wanting to get a juicer forever! I’ve heard that the ones where the veggies/fruit load in from the side are more efficient than the ones that load in from the top. I guess they tend to get more moisture/liquid out and leave behind more dry pulp.
Mommy Gearest says
I believe that would be true – makes perfect sense.
Sarah Schroder says
I’ve been wanting to get a juicer forever! I’ve heard that the ones where the veggies/fruit load in from the side are more efficient than the ones that load in from the top. I guess they tend to get more moisture/liquid out and leave behind more dry pulp.
Mommy Gearest says
I believe that would be true – makes perfect sense.