In a world where blenders are being pumped out left right and center, you really need to know which ones are worth your money. I’ve fortunately had the opportunity to try out a variety of blenders in my life, and there are a few that stand out the most – with the new Breville Fresh & Furious blender being one of them.
While I do own a fair share of blenders, I really wanted to give this one a try, because most of the blenders I’ve been sent from other companies were more high-priced blenders. The Breville Fresh & Furious is moderately mid-priced, coming in at just $199 USD, or $249 CAD. So I gave Breville the green light and in just a weeks time, the mail man delivered my new blender.
The Breville Fresh & Furious Blender
The first thing I looked at when considering if I wanted this blender was wattage (aka. power). I wanted to compare it to the high-speed blenders I was sent previously from companies like Froothie and BlendTec, and my first owned blender, the Vitamix.
The Fresh & Furious blender comes in at around 1100 watts, which is about 280 watts less than the Vitamix 5200, and 1735 watts less than the Optimum G2.1 blender. Given my experience with low-watt blenders, I wasn’t totally convinced that the Fresh & Furious was going to get the job done in terms of texture (I like my smoothies real smooth), but, my oh my, was I wrong. As you’ll soon come to discover, this blender blended the living daylights out of all ingredients I threw its way, resulting in smoothly blended textures time and time again.
Design
The first thing you’ll notice about any blender is its look. I fell in love with the Fresh & Furious when I first opened the box. It is a lot smaller than other blenders I’ve worked with before (more so in terms of the base), but the jug itself still has the capacity to hold a lot of ingredients. The
The jug is made of a heavy-duty BPA-free Eastman Tritan copolyester that is shatter and stain-proof. One of my favorite things about this jug that makes it stand out against other blenders I’ve used is the red ink used to denote measurements. It makes it so easy to read the measurements, and I personally just love the look of red on the slightly blue-tinged blender jug.
The blender base is made of heavy duty die-cast metal, and it comes with little suction feet on the bottom. One of the only cons I have about this blender is the blender base. I wish it was a bit heavier or that the suction feet worked a little better. When blending, the blender did rock around a bit during the more heavy pulse functions. It wasn’t enough that the ingredients would spill over, but it made me moderately nervous in the beginning. As I used the blender more often, I kind of disregarded the rocking, as it really is quite minimal. It also rocked more when I had more ingredients in the blender (probably more than I should have), hence, why they state in the manual to not go above the MAX limit.
The blender base also comes with five-speed and four pre-programmed settings (in the form of push-buttons), along with a brightly-lit LCD display that counts up on speed settings and down for pre-programmed settings (allowing for more control when blending).
Another main highlight about this blender is the Kinetix™ Contoured Blade & Bowl System. It comes with 5 blades: 3 central serrated and 2 wide-sweeping blades. This system draws down ingredients from the top, and also prevents any ingredients from getting stuck on the bottom. The blades are also made of engineered surgical grade stainless steel, so they stay sharp for a very long time.
The Kinetix™ Contoured Blades also creates particles that are up to 50% smaller than those produced during traditional blending, meaning nutrients are easier to absorb.
The way Breville designed their lid for the blender jug was also genius. They call it the “Breville Assist Lid,” which contains a unique ring pull design to ensure the lid is easy to remove, yet sealed tight during operation. I’ve had some smoothie lids pop off during blender, but this lid has some serious suction power and does not come off during blending.
The lid also comes with an inner measuring lid (30 milliliters) to add ingredients while blending. This is useful if you need to add liquids half-way into blending, or even if you forgot to add something during the blending process.
Functionality
The Fresh & Furious comes with five-speed and four-program (Smoothie, Green Smoothie, Auto Pulse/Ice Crush and Auto Clean) settings.
The five electronic speeds include:
– Mix: combines more delicate foods with a folding motion, and is good for combining wet and dry ingredients.
– Chop: chops up vegetables that you otherwise wouldn’t want to do so by hand.
– Blend: combines ingredients into a blend (such as a smoothie).
– Puree: great for achieving the texture of a pureé that some recipes call for.
– Liquify: the fastest setting – ideal for breaking down ingredients to prepare soups, make cocktails and other finely blended mixtures like juices (you can strain with a nut-milk bag after the fact if you want to completely eliminate the fibre from your juice).
These speeds are great for getting the texture you desire, but if you want to kick it up a notch, you can use their pre-programmed settings. These settings make it super simple to blend the perfect smoothie, and the auto-clean function makes cleaning the blender an incredibly easy task.
The Green Smoothie Program is optimized to break down whole hard ingredients like fruits, tough leafy greens like kale, seeds, and allows them to blend together with other soft and liquid ingredients.
The Smoothie Program is optimized to aerate frozen and liquid ingredients together. It works by blending the denser ingredients at a high speed, then reduces its speed to combine ingredients together. This programming also circulates the ingredients to ensure a ridiculously creamy texture and maximum aeration.
The Auto Pulse / Ice Crush Program is optimized to crush ice, and is also good for processing foods that need a quick boost of power. It allows ingredients to move quickly throughout the jug. This program comes with an intelligent sensor that stops the motor when the ice is done. Breville recommends not using more than 1 cup of ice at a time when using the program for crushing ice.
And of course, the Auto Clean function. This useful function helps clean your blender jug in under 60 seconds, and it does it all by itself (well, I mean, you need to add some soap and water – but that’s easy). All you need to do is add around 2 cups of warm soapy water to the blender jug, and press the Auto Clean button.
While this blender does have the Kinetix blade system to move ingredients from top to bottom, I do wish it came with a tamper like other companies include with their blenders. While I didn’t ever find a need to use it while I was making smoothies, I can imagine you might need it to make more thicker blends like raw sauces I frequently eat on salads or zucchini noodles.
Performance
Using the Fresh & Furious was simple and straight-forward. This was my favorite thing about the blender. I find that so many blenders nowadays have a bazillion functions and knobs and dials and switches. It can get really confusing. This was probably one of the first blenders I’ve used where I didn’t have to struggle figuring out what function did what (without reading the manual).
I really love the ease of use of all functions. If you want to pulse-blend the ingredients in the beginning, you simply click auto-pulse. Then from auto-pulse you can select “3” to blend the rest of the ingredients (this is a method I use with other blenders. I usually pulse blend first to incorporate, and then blend everything for a steady period after the fact).
And in all honesty, the 1100 watts of the Fresh & Furious blender performed just as well as my 1735 watt Optimum blender. The texture was practically the same (when comparing smoothies), so if you’re looking for a cheaper blender that provides similar results to more expensive blenders, the Fresh & Furious will be your next favorite kitchen gadget.
Another function that I thought was useful was the “Overload Protection.” This message will flash on the LCD display and tell you to unplug the blender and wait 30 minutes until turning back on again. While I didn’t get this message myself, it is a smart safety mechanism that prevents the blender from over-heating (and potentially destroying the blender). Once the machine has cooled down, you’ll be able to use the blender again.
Breville Color Me Healthy Blending and Juicing Guide
While on the topic of blenders, I also wanted to bring your attention to Breville’s Color Me Healthy Blending and Juicing Guide. This super fun-to-use program helps you find out which appliance suits your needs the best. Or, if you’re just looking for a little recipe inspiration, they give you a huge range of recipes to choose from (plus downloadable 5- and 7-day recipe planners for blending and juicing).
My Video Review
Take a look at my video review for a comprehensive review of the Breville Fresh & Furious blender.
More Information: https://www.breville.com/ca/en/products/blenders/bbl620.html
Tropical Berry Ginger-Spiced Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients:
– 2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
– 2 cups fresh pineapple
– knub of fresh ginger
– 1/2 tbsp. chia seeds
– 2 cups mixed frozen mixed berries (preferably organic)
– 1 cup fresh or frozen spinach (preferably organic)
Method:
Stick all of the ingredients into your blender. If you’re using the Fresh & Furious, select the option “Smoothie” and wait until your smoothie is blended to perfection!
Disclaimer: All views and opinions are my own. This particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer. However, the manufacturer did give me the product for testing and review purposes.
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