High-tech features are not usually found on blenders. Bluetooth is not needed to make a pina colada or blend a smoothie. Breville does have some user interface features that make for a more intuitive blending experience.

An easy task is made easier. A favorite is the smoothie button. Within a minute, the blender blends and pulses the contents into a perfectly uniform, drinkable smoothie. The only way to make the process easier would be for the blender to fill itself.

Other presets such as ‘puree’ and ‘snow’ highlight the blender’s versatility. Some awesome snowballs could be made with the snow settings, if so inclined. A silly reviewer tested a snowball made from the blender and reported it had a good loft and exploded on impact. Snow cones would be another fun option.

A Breville assist lid, having an inner measuring lid and juicing cone, are included accessories. Other accessories for the blender are sold separately as replacement parts. An inner lid measuring cup is available for use with the blender. It is a clear removal cylinder that fits at the lid center. The measuring cup is used to add ingredients without removing the lid. No tools are needed to install the measuring device.

An outer lid replacement that is identical to a lid before it was damaged or missing is available. Like the original, it has a pull ring to make the top easy to remove. A jar assembly replacement is designed explicitly for Breville blenders.

The assembly locks into the base of the blender and holds liquids and foods that are being blended. Beings dishwasher safe makes clean up easy. Materials used are durable clear plastic and stainless steel. There is also a replacement seal made of rubber. A blender spanner is specifically designed to remove and tighten the blade assembly. It is identical to the one that comes with the unit.

The Breville is a 750-watt blender. It is 16.5 inches tall. The broadest points are seven inches in width and eight inches deep. Being relatively average in size, it might or might not fit under upper cabinets for countertop storage.

The size is not as important as power. It is not the most powerful on the market, particularly when compared to 1500- and 1560-watt blenders. The Breville Hemisphere Control Blender has plenty of power to perform the tasks reviewers used to evaluate it. Blending took longer than high-powered models but produced excellent results.

The pitcher has measurement lines that are standard for the category. They stand out because of how easy they are to read. The most appreciated design element is the hemispherical shape that gives the blender its name.

A rounded bottom prevents food from becoming stuck in nooks and corners. It ensures the contents mix evenly with little intervention from the user. The Breville has an outward appearance that resembles a well-known blender. It is superior in both usability and performance.

Another area in which Breville instituted a fantastic design choice is the blades of the blender. The blender has multiple kinds of blades, Sharp, and serrated central blades do most of the processing. Contoured blades hug as close as possible to the hemisphere shape, which prevents food from clinging to the pitcher’s bottom.

The user does not have to pause every five seconds to scrape the bottom and sides. Some nifty, if not necessary, design bonuses are included. There are loops in the power cord and a lid that make them easy to grab.

The Breville has an on/off switch that allows turning off the blender without unplugging it. The feature may appeal to those who intend to make the blender a permanent countertop feature.

The preset options of puree, liquefy, mix, and snow are useful. A smoothie button activates a pulse-blending sequence with a minute-long timer. The timer is not necessary but may be a helpful feature.

The Breville Hemisphere Control Blender has a standard one-year warranty. A replacement outer lid, inner lid, or pitcher can be purchased from the product web page. A one-year warranty is relatively standard. Breville’s site lists service centers that will presumably repair a blender if the need arises.

The 48-ounce round jug is made of BPA-free plastic. It is not the largest jug on the market for lower-powered blenders.

There is a ‘snow’ function for crushing ice into a fine ‘snow’ mixture. There are also mix, blend, liquify, and pulse functions. It could replace a food processor in a lot of ways, given how well it processes through raw almonds and turns them into delicious almond butter.

With a $199 price sticker, the Breville Hemisphere Control Blender is not for everyone. It is not meant for typical day to day blending. The blender is capable of doing so much more. Consumers pay for those functions. It is a multitasking blender that gives bangs for the buck.

The control panel makes the Breville Hemisphere Control Blender easy to use. It offers specific present options and is concise and clear. The pitcher has no tricky locking mechanism. It simply lifts off the base. Loops on the lid and plug offer convenient, easy use that may be helpful to those with arthritic hands.

Cleaning a blender used to be a pain. The inner lid, outer lid, pitcher, blades, rubber seal, and a screw-on base piece all had to be washed separately by hand. Breville made life easier. The pitcher and blades are inseparable and integrated. Fill a third of the pitcher with soapy, warm water. Run the blender on low speed for five to ten seconds. Rinse and let it dry.

On a scale based on ratings from one to ten, reviewers of the blender gave the following ratings - Design 8, Features 7, Performance 9, and Usability 8. The blender has enough horsepower to perform heavy-duty tasks such as grinding almonds into flour.

It can process the flour into almond butter with no oil or additives required. Delicate tasks, such as whipping cream, can also be performed. The blender could replace a food processor and a hand mixer, which makes it an ideal choice for those who appreciate appliances that multitask. Its multitasking ability and versatility fits the bill nicely.

Performance tops the list of any appliance a consumer purchases. The Breville does not disappoint. Reviewers devised a series of tests that simulate usage scenarios to assess the limits of functionality.

Tests included crushing ice and making pancake batter, pesto, and smoothies. More rigorous testing involved milling almonds into flour, trying to blend/shred/grate an 8-ounce block of cheddar cheese, and making whipped cream was more revealing.

A couple of ice crushing options both worked well. Perfectly acceptable ice for frozen drinks is created with the ice crush preset. The snow present gives fine snow-cone-quality ice. Whether making snowballs or margaritas, the blender gets the job done.

It breezed through smoothies also. The smoothie present pulverizes the ingredients and mixes them evenly without heating them. A smoother preset is an unnecessary but convenient design touch that makes the Breville easy to use.

Pesto making tested the blender’s ability to process leafy greens and foods of different shapes and sizes into a uniform blend that does not require a lot of liquid assistance. Olive oil, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, and spinach were turned into a uniform pesto. The pesto was chunkier than that made by some other blenders but still impressive. Those ingredients were blended without intervention, and the bowl did not have to be scraped between pulses.

Making pancake batter answered two questions. Would the height of the blades, location, and shape of the pitcher leave dry ingredients under the blade, against the pitcher, or wedged in corners? Could the blender mix powdered ingredients with liquid to make a smooth batter? This test also resulted in good performance. A spatula had to scrape the sides where some batter was stuck, but the pancake batter was perfectly smooth.

Handling a delicate operation was tested by whipping cream. It is a test of finesse as all blenders can make whipped cream in under a minute. Using the Breville Hemisphere Control Blender is a time saver, especially for those who have used a hand mixer for the task. Whipping cream is not a typical use of a blender. It demonstrates the Breville versatility. Delicious, fluffy whipped cream took 30 seconds to make.

Other blenders claim to have the ability to make almond butter. The testers used a more rigorous test to make almond flour. Other blenders could not finish the task. In 20 pulses, the Breville made uniformly ground almond flour.

Almond butter was made by processing the flour until the oils were released. The mixture became almond butter with no additives required. A food processor recipe suggested the process would take ten minutes.

If the Breville could make almond butter in less than the ten-minute time frame, the test would be deemed a success. It required a bit of coaxing. The pitcher had to be scraped frequently. Within ten minutes, a smooth almond butter, tasting better than some store-bought brands, was produced.

The torture test was to drop an eight-ounce block of cheddar cheese in the pitcher, turn it on high, and see if it could pulverize or grate the block of cheese. Breville easily passed the test. The block was reduced to finely chopped pieces that would be excellent melted on a casserole.

Most blenders either heat up and melt the cheese or create ‘cheese snow.’ The cheese crumbles produced by the Breville were the most usable with no distortion or melting. The outstanding performance of the blender made it a top recommendation by those who conducted the tests.

* 48-ounce capacity
* 750-watt power
* Color is Black Sesame
* Complimentary recipe cards
* Dimensions: Height 16 inches, Width 6.5 inches, Depth 8 inches
* Has five speeds
* Heavy-duty blades
* LCD display and timer
* Preset options
* Pulse feature
* Worktop blender

If a blender is going to be used for nothing more than frozen beverages or smoothies, the $199 Breville blender is not a wise choice. Those looking for a blender that offers a lot from the money in terms of versatility and doing the work of other small appliances would do well with the Breville Hemisphere Control Blender.

This is a top choice blender. It has nearly perfect performance and state-of-the-art features that include an LCD timer for pre-programmed settings that counts up and down, lighted buttons on the smooth electronic control pad, five variable speeds, and smoothie and ice-crushing settings.

The beautiful design of the Breville has red measurement markings that are easy to read. The 48-ounce capacity plastic jar as a ring that makes removing the lid easy. There is cord storage in the die-cast metal base. Margaritas are thick and extra smooth, and smoothies come out velvety smooth. Tomato sauce will leave small marks around the jar bottom.