Breville AWT Juice Extractor > Reviews > Juice Do It

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Good
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Long
User's Manual	Good
Value for money	Good

Advantages:	Very Healthy way to gain essential nutrients
Disadvantages:	Initial cost layout

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Wow, that was the quickest response for a new product ever, about fifteen minutes. Thanks Ciao!!

If you have read my opinion on my trip to Ayurveda UK, you will doubtless know that I have turned over a new leaf, with regards to nutrition and health. (Well ok, apart from the few glasses of wine on Friday night, last, but I had an excuse for those). It is with this in mind that I bought the Breville AWT Juice Extractor.

There are various types of Juicers on the market, and some of them can cost £400 or more. It all depends on the technology. Obviously, the more the pay, the better quality the finished output, i.e. the juice itself. However, the proprietors at the Health Farm I visited strongly recommended the Breville as a great Juicing machine, and one that does not cost the earth, while you determine if juicing is for you.

The Breville AWT Juice Extractor is sold by Argos, and retails at £89.99. There is a range of products in the AWT range, and these are all endorsed by Antony Worrall Thompson, the chef. Hence the AWT, you see.

There is lots of material out there to suggest that Juicing is good for you. We miss out on a lot of essential nutrients. There is even evidence to suggest that Juicing aides serious illness and cancer victims.

The Ayurveda way of nutrition recommends a Juice drink to start the day. The nutrients in the drink, as they are being taken in liquid form, are able to get straight through the stomach and into the large intestine where their goodness can be absorbed.

The Breville Juicer is an example of a Centrifugal Juicer. This type of machine grates the fruit or vegetable and passes the grated foodstuff through a screen which rotates rapidly. There are some lethal moving parts in this product. Centrifugal juicers allow more oxygen into the juice than the more expensive juicers, and therefore the juice should be drunk within a few hours, before it starts oxidising.

Using the product is quite simple. You pick the vegetables that you are juicing, and you load them into the tube at the top of the machine. There is a solid tube that you then place in the tube to hold the vegetables down. You press on this quite slowly, to get the most benefit from the vegetables. The juice pours out of a spout on the right hand side. Make sure you have placed the measuring jug that comes with the unit under the spout before you switch the machine on, or you will end up with carrot juice all over the worktop. Doh, guess who did that on her first attempt…..

The juicer has a wide chute, which means you can get fatter fruit and veggies down the chute, without having to chop them up first. This is marketed as a Patented Feature, Wow!

At the left hand of the unit there is a receptacle for the pulp. It is recommended that you line this compartment with a small food bag before using the machine. The benefits of doing this are two fold. Firstly, it makes cleaning up a little less messy, and secondly because the pulp can be used in some recipes, and doesn't go to waste.

There are plenty of recipes for the pulp, too, in the recipe book that come with the machine, and we have already tried the Carrot Cake which was my Birthday treat this year! It can also be used in flans, and soups, depending on what it is you juice up, obviously!

I used some carrot pulp however, in a recipe for an Ayurveda Curry, which we eat, a lot. The recipe usually calls for 2 carrots, grated. I used the pulp from the mornings, juice, and I found it made the curry, far too thick and pulpy, and the texture was all wrong. I rectified this, however I feel that some experimenting may be required, to use the right amounts of pulp, if you don't follow a recipe book designed to use vegetables in this way.

The Juicer is an attractive silver and black in colour. It comes apart quickly and easily for cleaning. The trickiest parts are the graters, and the blades. The blade plate is very sharp, and you should not wash this with just your hands, but use the washing up brush provided. The whole appliance goes back together very quickly and simply, despite all the little bits that need to be washed up afterwards.

It takes quite a lot of vegetables to make a couple of cups of vegetable juice. Typically I would use about 16 oz (sorry, I don't know the metric equivalent yet, despite it having been in place all my life). Most juices used for health and healing are comprised of two or more vegetables. My favourites are Carrot and Spinach (weight loss) and Carrot, Cucumber and Beetroot (Good for blood, circulation). Carrot is used quite a lot.

Norman Walker is an acclaimed writer for the benefits of juicing, and he has written many books including one called Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices, for about £7. He lived to 109, so there must have been some benefit!

Another good source of information is the Juicer Company, based in York, Tel 01904 541541, who sell Juicers, and recipe books in the main.