Breville Blend Active Review - Low Cost Personal Blender


  • Low Priced
  • 300 Watt Motor
  • Easy To Clean
  • Single Button Control
95%
Overall Rating

Price

9/10

Build Quality

8/10

Ease Of Use

10/10

Image of Breville Blend Active Bottle | AmateurChef.co.uk
Image showing Blend Active Blade | AmateurChef.co.uk
Image showing Blend Active Smoothie | AmateurChef.co.uk

PROS

  • Great Quality Product
  • Low Price
  • Easy To Clean
  • Quickly Blends Frozen Fruit
  • Easy To Control
  • Blends Into Bottles
  • No Leakage
  • Bottles With Comfortable Grip

CONS

  • Cheaper Looking 
  • Struggles To Blend Pips

Weekdays for me are usually very busy and over the years this has resulted in me normally skipping breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, therefore I wanted to find a way to get a breakfast into my daily routine.

As well as wanting to make sure I have breakfast every day, I also wanted to find a way to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables I eat on a daily basis. Something I always find hard is to get my 5 a day, some days I would only have a few bits of fruit. (although I do tend to eat plenty of vegetables in my main meal)

Smoothies have become pretty popular over the last couple of years as they are not only healthy but are very quick to make, perfect for me on busy week mornings. There are many choices when it comes to a blender and I decided to go with the Blend Active by Breville. I was not gifted the blender, I purchased it and do use it as often as possible.

This Blend Active review is based on my personal experience.

What Is The Breville Blend Active?

The Blend Active is a personal blender, made by Breville. Overall it is a very good blender and can manage to blend most things including ice, although it can sometimes struggle with seeded fruit such as raspberries. (Something most personal blenders will struggle with….).

When using simply place the liquid ingredients into the bottle and then place the fruit/vegetables. The blade section then screws onto the top of the bottle to form a sealed lock, this will prevent any leakage during blending.

Flip it over and place the blade section onto the base of the blender and then turn to lock it into the blender. It is then controlled with a single button, which can either be held for continue blender or pressed if you want a pulse action.

As a safety precaution, the button will not work unless the blade section is turned into the lock position. Once blended simply unlock the blade section from the base of the blender, unscrew and replace with the bottle top.

Some reviews have complained that the capacity is not very good, since it is a personal blender it is more than enough for a single smoothie.

Why Did I Buy The Breville Blend Active?

When looking for a personal blender to make smoothies, there are so many options available. It was important for me to pick a good one, as I naturally wanted it to not only be good value and last but blend up the fruit and vegetables so that they were nice and smooth. (A smoothie with lumps in is not a nice thing!)

Before buying the Blend Active, I did try a couple if others. These didn’t blend the vegetables very well and you would have to use fresh fruit which became more expensive and caused some wastage.

As mentioned before there are a number of different blenders on the market and I was debating over 3 different personal blenders. These were NutriBullet, Nutri Ninja and the Breville Blend Active. I had spoken to people that had used the NutriBullet as well as read reviews and it looked like a popular choice.

I did however decide on the Blend Active by Breville and the main reason was the price. It was almost a 3rd of the price and since I had only gotten into drinking smoothies, I didn't want to spend a lot incase I didn’t get the value out of it.

When I purchased the blender, it was only £19.99, which I think is really good value for a blender that does everything I need. Some people have commented on it looking cheap but I actually think its really good quality and even though its made of plastic, it does feel solid and sturdy.

What Comes With The Blend Active?

The contents of the box does depend on which model you decide to go for, there are 4 different options

  • VBL075 - This is ideal for one person as it comes with 1 600ml bottle.
  • VBL062 - Ideal for two as it comes with 2 600ml bottles
  • VBL096 - This model is for families, it comes with 2 600ml + 2 300ml bottles
  • VBL120 - The pro blender offers improved dry blending and 1 600ml bottle

We decided to go for the VBL062 model as we both wanted our own bottles and you are pretty much paying the same price but getting an extra bottle. Each bottle also comes with a screw top lid which makes it very easy to drink from and clean.

As well as the bottles all models come with the standard breville blend active base and detachable blade section, which as I mentioned makes cleaning so much easier.

Breville Blend Active Recipes

When I first got the blender, I was not really sure what smoothies to make. I have tried so many different variations, some worked and some simply tasted horrible! I have included a couple below, these are my favourite recipes that I made using the Breville Blend Active.

It’s important that you do NOT just use fruit in your smoothies. Fruit does contain a lot of natural sugar which can cause weight gain. I would always aim to use a couple portions of fruit and then combine this with a couple of portions of vegetables.

Print

Strawberry, Mango and Spinach Smoothie

In the summer months I love to eat as many fresh strawberries as possible, this smoothie is not only healthy but is also refreshing. It contains a nice mixture of fruit and vegatables to help ensure you get you 5 a day. The strawberries help to give it that little extra sweetness and even though it has carrots, you cannot taste them.

  • Author: Martyn
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 600 ml 1x
Scale

Ingredients

  • 200 ml Water
  • 6 Strawberries Sliced
  • 1/2 Mango chopped finely
  • 1 Sliced Carrot
  • 1 Handful of spinach roughly chopped

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients into the blender
  • Blend until smooth with no bits or chunks
  • Either drink direct from bottle or pour into a glass

Notes

I use water to keep the calories low, you could also replace this with coconut milk or almond milk if you wanted it to be a little thicker.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 151
  • Sugar: 28.8g
  • Sodium: 74mg
  • Fat: 0.9g
  • Saturated Fat: 0.2g
  • Carbohydrates: 36.7g
  • Fiber: 6.1g
  • Protein: 3.1g
  • Cholesterol: 0mg
Print

Kale and Strawberry Smoothie

This smoothie might look a strange colour but believe me its jam packed full of nutrients. The strawberry gives it a nice sweet taste, where as the banana gives it a creamy texture. Most smoothies do just have kale or spinach, however this one features both for additional benefits.

  • Author: Martyn
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 600ml 1x
Scale

Ingredients

  • 200 ml Almond Milk
  • 5 Strawberries sliced
  • 1 Sliced Banana
  • 1 Handful of Kale
  • 1 Handful of Spinach

Instructions

  1. Place the almond milk into a blender
  2. Add the strawberries and banana
  3. Finally add the spinach and kale and give it a good blitz until smooth.
  4. If you want it to be less thick then simply add more almond milk

Notes

Almond milk is healthy but does come with additional calories, if you are controlling calories then reduce the amount or replace with water.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 631
  • Sugar: 24.3g
  • Sodium: 85mg
  • Fat: 49.1g
  • Saturated Fat: 43g
  • Carbohydrates: 50.9g
  • Fiber: 10.4g
  • Protein: 9.2g
  • Cholesterol: 0mg
Print

Kale and Spinach Smoothie

This smoothie recipe is perfect for breakfast, it gives you plenty of nutrients to get you started without the calories. The Kale and Spinach are a great combination but with the addition of orange and pineapple it helps to sweeten it.

  • Author: Martyn
  • Prep Time: 5 Minutes
  • Total Time: 5 Minutes
  • Yield: 600ml 1x
Scale

Ingredients

  • Handful of Kale
  • Handful of Spinach
  • 1 Orange
  • 200ml of Coconut Water
  • 60g of Frozen Pineapple
  • 1tsp Chia Seeds

Instructions

  1. Put the coconut water into your blender
  2. Add all other ingredients
  3. Blend until smooth

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 259
  • Sugar: 29.9g
  • Sodium: 268mg
  • Fat: 3.8g
  • Saturated Fat: 0.4g
  • Carbohydrates: 51g
  • Fiber: 13.8g
  • Protein: 9.5g
  • Cholesterol: 0mg

FAQ's

Since posting this review, I have received a number of questions via email. I thought it would be a good idea to include these here, incase you had the same questions. If you do have a question or comment, please feel free to post it in the comments section below.

Can you buy additional bottles for the Blend Active?

The bottles are pretty tough, I have dropped mine a few times and they have been fine. If you do need replacements or want to buy additional ones, it is possible to purchase them from Amazon.

Blend Active Vs NutriBullet - Which is better?

I personally think both are great products and you will get value for money whichever one you decide to go for. As mentioned before, I went with Breville because of the price. I have not tried the NutriBullet yet but people at work have and have said it’s a great personal blender.

Will it blend frozen fruit?

Yes, as it can blend ice it can also blend up frozen fruit. I prefer to use frozen fruit as it makes it nice and cold, it is cheaper and avoids food waste.

Can it also blend soup?

I have not used it for soup but it should work perfectly fine, if not easier than smoothies since all veg will already be cooked and soft.

Does it make a lot of noise?

It does make a little noise but it is not the worst I have heard. It shouldn’t take very long for it to blend your smoothies so the noise has never really bothered me.

My Overall Impression

If you are looking to get into making smoothies, I would recommend the Breville Blend Active. It is powerful enough to blend fruit, vegetables and ice but doesn’t come with a high price tag. It is very simple to use with just one button and also very easy to clean the detachable parts.

One of the things that I love about these personal blenders is that you can blend the smoothie directly into the bottle, saving washing and transfering to other containers.

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