Product Review: Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL

I feel positively healthy. About an hour ago, I drank my first veggie fruit drink made with my just-out-of-the-box (as of yesterday) Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE98XL. My drink was made with a few handfuls of Spinach leaves, a few handfuls of shredded carrots, and two Gala Apples. You can see the photo to see what my drink and the juicer look like.

Initial Cleaning

The juicer was very well packed. I removed all parts from the box and washed and dried all parts.

Putting the Juicer together

To remind myself how to put the juicer together, I re-watched the following YouTube video.

Out of the Box: Breville Juice Fountain Plus JE95XL 

Then I got in a bit of a panic as I didn’t see a froth catcher. I’m thinking, “Great! I am missing an essential part and can’t use the juicer.” So I called the Breville Customer Service line once they opened up at 8 am Pacific Standard Time. The guy was really nice who I talked with. When I told him that my froth catcher was missing, he explained that since that YouTube video was made, they had made improvements to the product. The froth catcher was now part of the pitcher cover. Sure enough, when I looked close, I saw he was correct. Phew!

The manual and one video I watched suggested you line the pulp catcher with a plastic bag for easy clean-up. I double-lined it with two plastic grocery bags since each of them had a small hole. It worked beautifully. When I removed the bags after making my drink, the pulp catcher was perfectly clean and did not require washing. Woo-hoo!

As for the pulp, it was nicely dry. This shows me that most of the juice was extracted from the food I added. Since I don’t have a compost heap and there was no recipe I was making that I thought would benefit from this particular mixture, I simply threw the bags containing the pulp away.

Making first Veggie-Fruit Drink

For my first veggie-fruit drink, I decided to use three things I had on hand: spinach leaves, shredded carrots, and Gala apples. In the directions, it was suggested that I do not place the spinach leaves in alone as they needed some other veggie to help get the juice extracted from it better. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything that I thought would work. I decided to go ahead and use it anyway.

I turned the motor on to the low setting and added several handfuls of spinach leaves. I did not get a huge amount of juice. Next time, I will find something to add with it.

At one point, the motor got extra loud and I panicked and thought I had overheated the unit. But when I realized that the overheating light had not come on, I realized that perhaps it gets loud on its own. So warning: Don’t make this drink if somebody in your house is trying to sleep.

Next step, I added several handfuls of shredded carrots.

Last, I added two Gala apples that were washed but still had a stem, core, skin, etc.

My juice mixture was green – as you can see in the photo.

I placed some ice cubes in a glass and poured the juice in the glass. I smelled it. It smelled like apple juice. I must admit that I was a bit nervous to try it at first. Of course for me, the litmus test is the smell factor. If I don’t like the smell of something, I refuse to put it in my mouth. Since the smell was good, I was willing to take the risk. I actually took several sips before snapping the photo as this drink was tasty. Yum!

I enjoyed drinking the entire glassful. I would definitely make this combination of fruit and veggies again.

Final Clean-Up

Clean-up was a cinch. I took the juicer apart and rinsed off all parts. Then I used the special hard-bristle brush that comes with the juicer to wash the filter. Then I washed all parts with warm, soapy water. It took very little time to clean-up. That is another litmus test of mine.

Final Conclusion

I think this juicer was a real bargain. I can easily visualize myself using it every day.

Since I am now cancer-free aka in remission from breast cancer, I am extra motivated to make certain I stay that way. So making healthy drinks that actually taste good is going to be part of my strategy to look and feel healthy.

My final litmus test is aftertaste. That juice drink has left a very nice aftertaste in my mouth. I actually look forward to being able to partake of this drink again.