Five a day is the mantra for ‘fruit and veg’ but then all the things you like do not count so not your potatoes even when they are steamed. However if you make your items up into a smoothie or drink they do count and this makes it easy.
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The container is 23cm tall with spill prove lid attached and the unit is circular at 7.5cm it is made of clear strong plastic that should even stand a dishwasher. It is stated to hold 600ml of liquid and is marked at 200ml, 400ml and 600ml the last measure 4cm below the top.
The lid unscrews and the top has a solid clip that should not unclip in your bag so you can make at home and drink while out on a run or just at the office.
You get two of these containers and lids in the box.
Also in the box is the base unit that you screw the bladed bottom to the top of the bottle before turning through 180 degrees to attach to the base unit. With the two firmly attached you then press and hold the single ‘blend’ button until you are satisfied you have the consistency you want.
The base unit is square at 12.5cm across and is 18cm tall, there is a one metre long hard wired lead. The 16 page A5 instruction booklet is clear and easy to read, you are warned not to operate the unit for longer than 30 seconds without a 60 second rest so as not to strain the motor. One error – or difference I found is that it says it comes with one 600ml bottle and one 300ml bottle mine had two 600ml bottles.
The unit is said to be able to crush ice but there should be some liquid in the bottle and the ice should be added a little at a time.
The only vegetable mentioned in the 12 sample recipes is carrot but experiment others are possible. One word of caution over beetroot it will work but you will probably find that your urine will turn red. They also give a recipe for a Frappuccino.
The base unit should never need washing and only the occasional wipe with a damp cloth as everything should be in – and stay in the bottles.
Several of their recipes used milk and one even soya milk to make shakes. I tried using only fruit and then freezing the results in ice cube trays so that even when your favourites are out of season you can still enjoy them.
You do need to exert a good downward push to unscrew the blade unit from the motor part while still keeping the bottle from unscrewing, if this starts to happen as it did with me on occasions just re-screw and then push down harder.
I tried several of my own recipes as we are currently in the soft fruit season I used ripe plums with apples and mandarins, it tasted delicious I print it below.
Take six plums two mid-sized apples and two mandarins or the like providing they are seedless. Cut the apples into small pieces around eight for a mid-sized apple remove the core but not the skin, peel the mandarins and segment and cut around the plums to remove the stones, place all in the container – probably 50% first - then as the volume reduces add the rest, I found that after this was all combined I had 550grams of a thick shake. This is close two days of your five a day.
The Breville Blend Active is available from Currys and Dixons stores or online at the link below for £22.99.
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