Breville Juice Fountain: Fun New Kitchen Toy!

My new, pre-owned Breville Juice Fountain Plus, with Green Juice.

I love my old, single gear Omega 8005 juicer. I really do. I've featured it in post after post on this blog, and I am 100% satisfied with the superior quality juice it provides. But how could I say "no" to a mint condition Breville Juice Fountain Plus today, at my neighbor's tag sale, for only $25?

Let's see... A $190 juicer. Like new. For $25.

Sold!

I confess that secretly, I've always wanted a Breville Juice Fountain in addition to my Omega. Greedy, I know. But what can I say? Martha Stewart's classic Green Vegetable Cocktail video is enough to make anyone want to go out and buy a Breville right this minute. And then there was Natalia's glowing recommendation in The Raw Food Detox Diet. But when it came time to purchase my first juicer, I went with the Omega 8005 (now the 8006) for two reasons:

1) more versatile (can use attachments to make frozen banana ice cream, nut butters, etc.)
2) slow, quiet, single gear mechanism better preserves enzymatic and cellular integrity of the juice

The down sides of the Omega 8005 are:
• small feed tube (requires more pre-chopping)
• more effort required to push veggies through (actually have hurt my shoulder a few times, due to pushing carrots at an awkward angle)
• S S S S L O W W  juicing speed

That last one could be annoying. Well. Just let me say that the Juice Fountain is not slow. Not slow at all. It's so fast my juice was done in about half a minute. I was cracking up the whole time, it was so fast. Reminded me of how I couldn't stop laughing the first time I tried riding a mountain bike with a granny gear. Climbing was so easy! After standing up to power my way over hills for so many years on a beat up old Gitane 10-speed, to actually sit down on the seat while going up steeps? Hilarious.

I'm doing a modified Extremely Green Detox right now so my maiden juice was an all-green veggie concoction containing 1/2 English cucumber, 5 celery stalks, half a lime and a big bunch of fresh green herbs from my garden, namely parsley, peppermint and comfrey. These before and after pictures were taken 30 seconds apart.

Before:

After (still cracking up):

So yeah, the motor on this thing is phenomenal. I used the high speed option and Whooosh! Juice in 30 seconds. The fat feed tube just gobbled up the cucumbers, celery and greens like it was starving, and the green juice shot out with force, like—well, like a FOUNTAIN!

They're not kidding with that name.

As for the actual juice, it's fresh and delicious. But I do notice it separates a lot faster than green juice from my Omega 8005, maybe due to the cellular integrity issue. And the taste is not quite as...rich, perhaps. As complex.

So fear not: I'm still keeping my trusty Omega. I love the juice it makes. I love the banana ice cream. And speed isn't everything. In fact, I'm a big fan of going slow. But it is fun having a new toy in the kitchen. Can't wait to go to town with some carrots and ginger!