Breville the Juice Fountain Cold Review

This review of the Breville Juice Fountain Cold takes a deep dive into the unit's juicing capabilities and ease of cleaning. We look at the quality of the juice across a wide variety of fruits and vegetables as well as complete recipes. Additionally, we assess the yields rendered by the machine in individual ingredients. Read on for test results and insights.

Juice Quality

While the Breville Juice Fountain Cold doesn't top the charts in our juice quality tests, it does far better than average, particularly for a centrifugal machine.

We're looking for a smooth, full-bodied juice that isn't pulpy, soupy, or foamy. Such a standard is tough to meet but not unreasonable. The Breville performed best with our beet juice blend recipe; however, the renderings from the other two recipes were close seconds.

Centrifugal devices do best with firmer fruits and vegetables. Standout criticisms here are that the Breville tended to produce quite a bit of foam and pulp or graininess that required the liquid to be strained to achieve the desired smooth texture. Once strained, the juices have a good texture that ranges from medium to thick, with well-balanced flavors and rich colors.

Soft Produce

Softer produce like cucumber, celery, oranges, and apples can poses specific challenges to a juicer. Well, we should say most juicers, because the Breville is at the top of the class in the processing of soft produce.

The Breville delivers perfect juice with every produce except celery. While the celery juice's texture and flavor were satisfactory, there was just very little of it. We could not give a device higher praise for the apples, oranges, and cucumbers. These ingredients' yields were smooth, separation-free, foam-free, nicely colored, and delicious. All in all, the Breville performs remarkably well with soft produce.

Hard Produce

Given that the Breville is a centrifugal device, we were somewhat surprised that its performance wasn't better with hard produce. It did better than average, but it wasn't a standout here.

Though it did outstanding with sweet potatoes, it wrung out a lot of liquid from the beets, but the quality of that liquid was poor. Specifically, there was a lot of pulp and some foam, but once strained, the juice had good color and improved consistency. On the other hand, the carrots had no pulp or foam, but the liquid yield was decidedly low. In the Breville's defense, the carrots used in its analysis appeared drier than usual, and thus there was less juice to be made despite the effectiveness of the machine.

Leafy Greens

Leafy greens are the bane of the centrifugal juicer's existence. Over the years, our testing has revealed that the low mass of leafy vegetables and the high RPMs of the centrifugal juicers don't work well together. So, while the Breville did quite poorly compared to the masticating machines in the class, it was above average when put into a subgroup with centrifugal machines.

The Breville doesn't have trouble with separation, pulp, and (with the exception of spinach) foam. The color of the juice is nice and rich as well. The trouble is yield. While the Breville did reasonably well with wheatgrass and spinach, it struggled mightily to yield liquid from kale.

Cleaning

The Breville is that it ranks well above average for ease of cleaning. While some sharp bits require attentive care during the cleaning process, the biggest complaint was the difficulty in removing the juice cup's lid — it is ridiculously hard to remove. While we didn't rate the Breville on the following, it's worth noting that sloshing some of the contents out of the cup is all but inevitable when removing the lid.

Should You Buy the Breville Juice Fountain Cold?

Ultimately, the juicer you select is a personal decision based on juice desires, kitchen space, and finances. That said, we highly recommend the Breville to those who do not foresee the majority of their juicing to include significant amounts of leafy greens. Aside from that, this juicer is a good value as it provides great performance at a substantially lower price than many other top models. It is certainly a kitchen appliance we'd allot counter space.

What Other Juicer Should You Consider?