Breville BL6 > Reviews > Smooth operater

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Well made, easy to clean, variety of settings, looks good
Disadvantages:	None at present

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I wanted to start making my own smoothies & two years ago went out & purchased a basic blender for the job. Nothing too flash, just something basic, it cost £19.99 from Comet & did the job quite well. However, it was basic with just one speed (a rather noisy speed at that), a plastic jug which looked rather weather beaten after being washed countless times & it had a tendency to move around the kitchen counter when blending.

Recently my partner bought me a Breville Blender with a brushed stainless steel finish, £39.99 from John Lewis; she chose this model after reading glowing reports about it in a magazine. It certainly looks impressive with its glass jug & stainless steel finish.
Its main features are the 1500ml capacity glass jug, 600 watt motor, durable stainless steel blades, rubber sealed top & jug, integrated measuring cup, non skid feet & three speed operation with pulse setting.

The first thing you notice about it is that its quite heavy, the weight mainly coming from the glass jug, the advantage of the heavy weight is when its blending it doesn't move around unlike my older but lighter blender.
Another bonus about this machine is its easy to wash after use, my old one had to be hand washed after it was dismantled, this became a real pain. However the Breville just needs warm water & some washing up liquid added to the jug & switch it on for a few seconds & it will clean itself out very well indeed. Just pour out the soapy water & dry off, job done.

The manufacturer states that you must keep your hand on top of the lid when blending but to honest it's probably for health & safety reasons they have stated this as the top is a secure fitting on the jug. The machine performs very well indeed with a smooth operation of the motor, the fastest speed is used for crushing ice cubes & the pulse setting is very powerful indeed.

Unlike some blenders, to engage the jug to the motor you just line up the two arrows & place it on top of the motor & switch on. No engaging & turning to lock the parts together, it's really idiot proof. The measuring jug which disconnects from the lid doubles up as a removal tool to disconnect the jug from the blades. A very clever idea.
A nice touch is the rubber seal that surrounds the lid & the seal that mates between the jug & the blade casing.

It performs well with chunky pieces of fruit in the jug; many blenders often stop performing efficiently in this situation but not the Breville. Of course it will do more than just blend fruit for smoothies & they even give you a few recipes in the manual for cocktails, milk shakes & even houmous.

This is certainly a blender I would recommend & listed below are three of my favourite smoothies for you to try; all those listed are servings for two people.

BREAKFAST SMOOTHIE
Half a pineapple cut into chunks,
One large banana cut into chunks
The juice from one orange
75ml of skimmed or Soya milk
100ml Coconut milk
Add to a blender & blends until smooth, pour out & add a sprinkle of oats (optional)

BANANA & CINNAMON SMOOTHIE
One banana cut into chunks
250ml of Soya milk or semi skimmed milk
Two table spoonfuls of clear honey
Add to blender & blend until smooth, sprinkle cinnamon on top

APPLE & CREAM SMOOTHIE
250ml of low fat vanilla ice cream
125ml of unsweetened apple sauce
¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
125ml of skimmed milk
Add to a blender & mix until smooth