Got a ‘must-have’ home appliance gadget that you can’t live without? Gadgetguy.com.au home appliance editor Ella Smith asked Breville design and innovation director Richard Hoare about his hot favourites.
What home appliance gadgets can’t you live without and why?
|  In my job I get to take lots of appliances home to test. The one that’s stayed the longest, and that I could least do without is the Juice Extractor (Breville 800JE-pictured). We make juice every morning for my wife and three kids. It’s so quick and powerful, a great way to start the day. We love the stainless steel and thick plastic parts: very robust, feels like it’s going to last a long time. We rinse all fruit and veg before juicing to remove any pesticide/ herbicide residue. The wide feed tube means normally no cutting for apples, carrots, celery, and small amounts of cutting for pineapple or beetroot depending on the size. We use all organic produce that’s in season which we either get delivered or from local growers markets. You can make some amazing juice combinations, and of course everyone has different tastes. |   |
To start with, our children had a narrow palate but now they love all sorts of combinations of juice. Commonly we will do apple, carrot, ginger, beetroot and celery. Pineapple or rockmelon are great additions to juice also. Things that don’t work in a juice extractor are mango and banana (as they go straight to the pulp) and blueberries (you really don’t get enough juice for the cost!). These are all better for blending.
| Some mornings I use the juice to add to a smoothie which I make in a blender (Breville BBL600, my second favourite, also pictured). All juice extractors require a bit of cleaning but I find this one not too bad – we either put all the parts in the dishwasher or wash them by hand. The pulp goes in our worm farm so eventually it ends up on the garden. We also love citrus juice. You can make orange juice in the juice extractor and it tastes great – a more frothy flavour, but it means cutting the orange outside part of the skin off to avoid a bitter taste. More commonly for orange juice we use our citrus press (Breville 800JE – equal second favourite). The juice from the citrus press has that wonderful fresh hand pressed flavour and texture, and it’s a much quicker way to do it. | Â |
Is there a home appliance tha’s been sitting in your cupboard collecting dust?
Collecting dust? My footspa. It helps keep dust off the top of the fridge. It was a gift we have never used. Perhaps it’s time to give it away.
