Kitchen Appliance Review: Breville Juice Extractors Put to the Test

Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Breville, juicers, juicer extractors

(NaturalNews) It is rare to discover kitchen appliances of such remarkable design, quality and performance that they transform juicing and food prep into sheer joy. The Breville product line, however, has achieved what once seemed impossible: Creating a line of juice extractors, citrus juicers, blenders and other kitchen appliances that set a whole new standard for the industry. In this independent review, I'll review two Breville juice fountains, let you know where to get them and explain why no healthy kitchen should ever be without one of these innovative appliances.

When it comes to health, there's almost no habit more important than drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juices on a daily basis. Those who embrace juicing find their diseases vanishing: Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, depression and many others. That's because fresh juice is loaded with disease-reversing phytonutrients -- the natural medicines found in plants that fight disease far better than any prescription drug.

Fresh cabbage juice, for example, cures ulcers and prevents cancer. Fresh celery juice alkalizes the body, boosting bone density and healthy immune function. Fresh parsley juice is anti-cancer and cleanses the entire digestive tract of toxins. Almost any edible plant can be juiced, and they all contain powerful natural medicines: Carrots, cucumbers, pears, pineapple, oranges and much more.

A new standard of quality and performance

Juice extracting machines have been around for many years, but the common machines sold through infomercials and retail stores just aren't very impressive. If you've used one of those juicers, you know what I mean. Their motors are weak and slow, their juicing blades are made with cheap metals that quickly lose sharpness, their parts are made out of cheap plastic, and they end of wasting a lot of the produce because they don't spin fast enough to extract most of the juice.

I have good news for you, though: You no longer have to settle for sub-class juice extractors. A company called Breville has introduced two juice extractors that set a whole new standard in the world of juicing: the Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL and the higher-end Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JEXL.

You can get them both here: http://www.rawveganbooks.com/index.php?cPath...

For this review, I purchased both of these machines and put them through several weeks of daily juicing. My typical juice recipe consists of a base of celery, carrots, cucumbers and parsley (all organic, of course). Then I throw in some kale, citrus and sometimes a pear. This is then blended in a kitchen blender with frozen organic blueberries, stevia and superfood powders (Boku Superfood, for example) to create the final delicious beverage that I drink throughout the day.

Putting the Breville Juicers through the paces

Both Breville juicers performed extremely well, chewing through carrots and celery almost faster than I could push them into the feed shaft. They extracted so much juice that the leftover carrot pulp was nearly dry. They even did a great job on bunches of parsley, cilantro and sprouts. (These are loose herbs that usually don't juice very well, but I found that by bunching them into a tight ball, they juiced just fine on these Breville juice extractors.)

You might ask why I'm not comparing Breville juicers to other more common brands such as the Jack LaLanne juicer or the Juiceman Juicer. The answer is simple: There's no comparison! They don't even belong in the same comparison chart.

Don't get me wrong: I have the greatest respect for Jack LaLanne and Jay Kordich (the Juiceman), both of whom I consider to be true champions of health. They've both done incredible things to promote the benefits of exercise and nutrition, and frankly they both deserve Congressional medals of some kind for their lifelong work promoting health and fitness.

But their juicing machines just don't stand up to the Breville line. Upgrading from a Jack LaLanne juicer to a Breville juicer is like switching your car from a 4-cylinder beater to a Ferrari.

The Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL retails for just under $150. It's the best $150 you'll ever spend in the kitchen, believe me. Although some of its parts are plastic, the main unit is stainless steel. The motor is remarkably strong, the controls are responsive and the design is surprisingly simple for cleaning.

Lower-cost juicers, in contrast, require you to use a special tool to remove the mesh basket in order to wash it, but the Breville juicer unlatches in a split second, requiring no tools, and all the parts are immediately free to be washed. Total cleanup time with a Breville juicer is well under two minutes (I've been known to clean it in under 60 seconds).

The higher end Breville juice extractor is the Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JEXL. This is the one I really recommend. It's become my standard juicer. At $300 retail, it's more expensive than most juicers you've ever seen, but the quality and workmanship make this price an absolute bargain.

I'm not kidding: This unit is made almost entirely with stainless steel. The powerful motor and durable spinning blade are all made with extremely high quality materials. This juice extractor processes all the fresh produce you want to feed it, as fast as you want to feed it, and it never bogs down on difficult items like pineapples.

Another feature I've noticed is that the Breville motors are electronically controlled. They actually power up gradually, placing a much easier burden on the motor and the electricity in your home. It takes them five seconds or so to spin up to full power. Then, once you begin juicing, the motor is given more power as needed in order to maintain a constant high-speed RPM. The electronic control circuitry puts Breville juicers in a class all their own.

Where to get Breville juicers (and spare mesh baskets)

I hope you get a Breville juicer for yourself, because I know you'll thank me every time you power it up and start making your own juice. These juicers make juicing a breeze, saving you an enormous amount of time compared to lower-end juicers. What used to take you 20 minutes might only take you 10 with the Breville machines. Most of that is prep time, by the way. The actual time spent feeding produce into the powered-up Breville juicer is well under two minutes. Seriously. You can juice a whole day's worth of juice for one person in 90 seconds (once the veggies are prepped, that is).

You can buy Breville juicers from lots of places on the internet, but we've set up a special inventory just for NaturalNews readers, offered by the company of Matt Monarch, a raw foods author and enthusiast who deserves your business. He's acquired 60 juicers just for NaturalNews readers and has agreed to set them aside for this article review.

Order your Breville juice extractor right now at: http://www.rawveganbooks.com/index.php?cPath...

I also recommend buying a spare mesh filter to extend the life of your Breville juicer. You'll find it on the same page (click the link, above).

Other necessities of a healthy kitchen

Want to know which appliances I have in my own kitchen? I'll break it down for you:

• Breville juice extractor
• Vita-Mix blender
• Excalibur Dehydrator
• Breville citrus juicer
• EasyGreen sprouter

With these five essentials, you can grow and / or prep all kinds of healing superfoods right in your own kitchen. These are the five most important appliances in any healthy kitchen, far outweighing the importance of a toaster, microwave, oven or grill.

That's how you can really determine the health of someone you visit, by the way. Go to their kitchen and see what appliances they use. If they use a toaster, microwave and oven, they're eating DEAD foods. If they use a juicer, Vita-Mix and sprouting machine, they're eating LIVE foods.

Which would you rather be? Dead, or alive? You are what you eat. Live foods keep you alive. So here's how to get those live foods appliances that can really have a major impact on improving your health:

Excalibur dehydrators

Excalibur dehydrators allow you to make raw foods snacks, flax crackers, seaweed chips and all sorts of other delicious goodies without cooking the food. Since low-heat drying preserves all the disease-fighting nutrients in foods, dehydrating is the preferred option to cooking if you want to be healthy.

Matt Monarch has also put together a special offer for NaturalNews readers on the ever-popular Excalibur Dehydrators. These are the only dehydrators I will use. They're the best in the business.

Matt's company offers 9 free Teflex sheets, free shipping and the best price you'll find anywhere. Pick up an Excalibur Dehydrator here:

http://www.rawveganbooks.com/index.php?cPath...

Vita-Mix blenders

Speaking of high-quality kitchen appliances, no healthy kitchen is complete without a Vita-Mix blender. I've used and recommended Vita-Mix for years, and I believe it's a far better blender than Blendtec. See my 2006 review here: https://www.naturalnews.com/021247.html

Matt Monarch has a super deal on the Vita-Mix 4500 model, and he's selling them for $369. Note that the 4500 model is the standard Vita-Mix but does not have the variable speed knob. I personally recommend the Vita-Mix 5000, which is more expensive but has the variable speed.

Check these out here:

http://www.rawveganbooks.com/index.php?cPath...

EasyGreen Sprouters

Want to grow your own superfoods? Go with sprouting. By using mineral-rich water (www.OceanGrown.com) and sprouting seeds, you can literally grow powerful anti-cancer medicines right in your own kitchen.

These medicines, by the way, are far more advanced, potent and safer than any pharmaceutical that's ever been invented. Broccoli sprouts are light years ahead of pharmaceutical research on cancer. For a smoother taste, grow clover sprouts (which are also anti-cancer). Sprouts also help reverse heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and numerous other diseases and disorders.

The best sprouter I've ever tried is the EasyGreen Sprouter. Matt Monarch's company is one of the largest distributors of EasyGreen Sprouters on the 'net, and he knows the owner of the EasyGreen company personally. He also carries ALL accessories for EasyGreen sprouters.

If you want to grow your own sprouts, this machine is by far the best way to do it. For a one-time investment, you can grow thousands of dollars worth of sprouts each year:

http://www.rawveganbooks.com/index.php?cPath...

Breville Citrus Press

Although this appliance is optional, I've found it to be a must-have companion to the Breville juicers: the Breville Citrus Press. Available for about $190 at Williams-Sonoma (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/e193...), this citrus press makes juicing oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit remarkably easy.

I know what I'm talking about here, as I spent about $600 on a commercial Sunkist citrus juicer several years ago, only to find that it takes nerves of steel to operate it. Every time you grab an orange and stick your hand in the juicing chamber, it feels like you just might lose that hand if you don't hold on tight enough. One slip and the orange goes flying! (Where's my finger?) Needless to say, I didn't use that juicer very much.

For less than 1/3rd the price, the Breville Citrus Press is a FAR better solution. It's also totally safe because it uses a whole different approach to juicing. Without describing it in detail, let me just say it is the easiest, safest and highest-quality electric citrus press you'll ever buy. There's nothing that juices oranges and lemons faster unless you want to spend $12,000 or more on a commercial orange squeezing machine (the kind they use at juice bars).

The great part about owning the Breville Citrus Press is that you can juice a couple of oranges and lemons, then pour that juice right into the fresh juice you've made from the Breville Juice Fountain (juice extractor). It's the best way to get the most juice out of your citrus fruits.

The conclusion?

Breville juice extractors receive my highest recommendation and my Editor's Choice award for outstanding quality, design, functionality, safety and reliability. I'm absolutely impressed by these machines and this company. That's why I wasn't surprised to find they're headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The Australians are very quality-minded folks (when they're not sunbathing on holiday, anyway), and knowing the tax situation in that country, I'm amazed they could produce such high-quality products at these reasonable prices.

At this point, I have to say that if you want a juicer, don't even think about it. Just buy a Breville. There's nothing else you need to know.

Disclaimer: I have not been paid anything to promote Breville or the other brands here. I use these juicers myself and have absolutely no financial relationship with the brands mentioned here. A portion of each sale from the links here is set aside by Matt Monarch to help fund our health freedom campaigns and nutritional grants (which are being announced next week), so your purchases here help support important programs. That's why I recommend you buy from Matt Monarch. He's also very deserving of your business. His partner is Angela Stokes, the raw foods celebrity, author and public speaker. Together, they're a pioneering raw foods duo!

Legal info: Yes, if you sell Breville juicers (or are the manufacturer), you have permission to use this article under the following conditions: You may replace the web links with your own and remove recommendations for other products, if you wish. You MUST place a clickable link to NaturalNews.com and give credit to the author, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. Under those conditions, feel free to use this article on your own website, marketing materials or catalog!