Good Blender For Making Smoothies

Why Choose Vitamix Over A Regular Blender

Vitamix blenders are some of the most powerful and versatile on the market. They’re known for being able to blend any recipe you can dream up, from basic smoothies to batters, frozen treats, thick nut butters, sticky doughs, and more. Even the shape of the blender jars has been designed to contribute to superior blends: The angles of the jar help create a vortex that folds ingredients down toward the blades, so every bit of a recipe is blended smooth. In case the vortex power isn’t enough, a tamper is included with each Vitamix to help move ingredients without having to pause and scrape the sides of the jar.

Regular blenders tend to lack power and leave unblended chunks of ice cubes in your recipes. The motors also overheat or wear out. Vitamix blenders are extremely durable, designed to resist overheating, and backed by extensive warranties as well as the company’s stellar customer service.

Highly Rated Blender Models

Many brands promote their high performance and high-power blenders over the lowly and regular standard blenders, but theres not really anyone willing to clarify what this means.

To truly assess long-term performance, we headed straight into consumer reviews on different ecommerce platforms: Walmart, Best Buy and checked Amazon smoothie blender reviews and ratings. We also read articles on top blender picks, juicers and food processors from foodie blogs.

We ended up with eight of the most highly rated full-sized blenders. Each has at least a four-star rating and is popular amongst smoothie aficionados. We also included two personal-sized blenders: the NutriBullet and Osters MyBlend to see how these popular small blenders compared to the larger smoothie makers.

Blender Vs Food Processor: Which One Should You Get

Although theres some overlap in what they can do, blenders and food processors arent interchangeable appliances. A countertop blender is a better tool for making purees, quick sauces, and emulsifications , and its the only appliance that can whip berries and fibrous veggies into a silky-smooth texture. Because a blenders jar is narrow and usually angled at the base, it creates a vortex that helps pass ingredients through the blades more frequently than in a food processor, yielding smoother textures.

Recommended Reading: Whole Foods Tropical Green Smoothie

How To Choose The Best Blender For You

When selecting the best blender for you, start by identifying the type of blender you need. Jug blenders feature a blade inside the plastic or glass receptacle, which spins when connected to the motor in the base units. As a result, they can blend in large quantities but are usually bulky.

Meanwhile, smoothie blenders, also known as personal blenders, come with a small plastic cup rather than a jug. Fill the cup with your ingredients, then attach the blade, flip the cup upside down and connect to the base. When the ingredients are blended to your liking, remove from the base, unscrew the blade, and screw on a to-go lid, then take your drink with you.

Finally, there are also immersion blenders to consider. Often referred to as hand blenders or stick blenders, they are designed to be inserted into a saucepan or container of ingredients you want to puree. These compact appliances should be swirled around in the liquid while the blade spins to ensure its blended uniformly. You can detach the blade from the main unit containing the motor for easy cleaning. For more advice on this, it would be worth taking a look at our jug blenders vs immersion blenders guide.

Also, consider the number of speed and power settings the blender offers. For example, if youre looking to crush ice and grind coffee beans, its worth considering a blender that has more control over how quickly it spins to ensure you can chop the food to the consistency you want.

There Is No Right Or Wrong Way To Make A Smoothie

These are recipes in a very loose sense of the world. Theyll give you a great place to start, but dont feel like you need to stick with them to make a delicious tasting smoothie. I do very little measuring when I make my daily smoothie and often will just throw in what I have on hand. If you are working with frozen fruit, you probably wont need ice. But if you are using fresh fruit, throw in some ice. A super cold smoothie is best if you ask me. If the smoothie is too thick or not blending well, add more milk.

Read Also: Easy Breakfast Smoothies For Weight Loss

You May Like: Veggie Smoothie Recipes For Weight Loss

Which Blender Is The Quietest

Typically, the smaller, less powerful blenders we featured on our list are quieter than larger or more powerful blenders. Also, the ingredients you are blending will affect noise. So, while our best blender, the Vitamix A3500 Ascent Series Smart Blender is judged to be very noisy, it does produce the best results, so you may need to sacrifice peace and quiet for those few seconds your blender is in action.

Best Blender For Smoothie Bowls

Smoothies are popular among health-conscious people and thats why every day new recipes come up. Preparing smoothies need a quality blender and this article is all about the best blender for smoothie bowls.

Smoothie bowls like Acai have been trending due to their health benefits and healing capabilities.

Acai berries are purple in color and they are full of nutrients and also fatty acids like omega 6 and 9.

What is the best blender for making acai bowls? Acai berries are thicker than most ingredients used for smoothies or juices hence the need for a powerful blender. This power enables the blades to totally crush the seeds, ice, and flesh into a creamy texture free from chunks.

Just like other berries, Acai contains antioxidants that help to prevent diseases, skin health, and also heart-related problems.

The challenging part is blending acai bowls because they are small and the seeds are hard to completely blend just like most berries.

Its time to start blending acai bowls with your blender and if you dont have a great blender, I have the best and powerful blenders that can handle smoothie bowls with precision.

Don’t Miss: Substitute For Yogurt In Smoothies

Ninja Mega Kitchen Bl770

Looking for a blender that can handle everything, from chopping vegetables to making smoothies to blending hummus? Then the Ninja Mega Kitchen smoothie blender may be what you need.

A powerful 1500 watt motor drives this blender through the most strenuous blending tasks. Youll be able to pulverize ice to powder, and blend frozen fruit and veggies.

A uniquely designed stacked, offset blade arrangement enhances the blending effectiveness of the Ninja Mega Kitchen smoothie blender. There are 4 pre-programmed speed settings that you can choose from through buttons on the front panel.

Its interchangeable power pod is compatible with several attachments, like a 48 ounce pitcher that can be used to make delicious smoothies, a 40 ounce bowl that serves food processing needs, and a smaller 16 ounce chopper bowl for mincing herbs and nuts.

Each attachment comes with storage lids and all components are dishwasher safe. This makes disassembly and cleaning after use easy and fast.

The only drawback with the Ninja Mega Kitchen smoothie blender is the lack of a hole on top that might allow additional ingredients to be tossed in while blending.

Pros:

Dont Miss: Easy To Clean Smoothie Blender

Budget Pick: Kitchenaid K150 3 Speed Ice Crushing Blender

If you blend only the occasional smoothie, daiquiri, or soup, you dont need an expensive high-powered blender. The KitchenAid K150 3 Speed Ice Crushing Blender will serve your needs. Offering a low profile and a 48-ounce blending jar, this blender is the most compact of all our picks. In our tests, the K150 proved adequate at blending thick smoothies, but not without a couple of stops and starts or our having to add a little more liquid to get a consistent vortex going. It cant puree tough berry seeds as our top pick can, nor can it produce such velvety-smooth frozen drinks. However, the K150 has a mighty motor for the price and will handle most simple blending tasks.

The KitchenAid K150 offers three speeds plus a pulse setting for crushing ice. For frozen drinks and smoothies, the second speed seems to be the sweet spot, as thats where we encountered the fewest air pockets. As with most blenders at this price, you need to add more liquid to get smoothies and frozen drinks to blend with a continuous vortex otherwise, you need to stop it a couple of times to break up air pockets. Overall, we were satisfied with the drinks we made in the K150. The piña colada was a little icy but not offensive, and the smoothie was what wed expect from a good $100 blender: very drinkable, with whole berry seeds and tiny flecks of kale.

Read Also: Dr Oz Belly Fat Smoothie

Other Models We Tested

Hurom Hexa Power Speed: If you’re looking for simple functionality and pure power, this is our top pick. The Hurom Hexa doesn’t have many fancy presets and functions but does have 1,600 watts of power to whip the crap out of anything that you put inside. It almost feels industrial grade and creates a vortex inside akin to something you’d see at a science museum. We also love how this blender looks with its shiny stainless steel armor. Worth noting that it’s the tallest of the blenders we tested so it won’t store as easily as some of the others.

Oster Versa Pro Series: This Oster model is a good performer and includes a few extra features we found helpful. It’s on the expensive side, but this price includes a beverage container and a set of bowls and blades for food processing. You’re almost getting two appliances here, a blender and a food processor. It also has a reverse blend button which is great for crushing ice and making nut flour.

Vitamix Explorian E310: I don’t have much bad to say about the Vitamix Explorian. We used it plenty and loved doing it but it is rather pricey when you get right down to it. That said, there’s a reason Vitamix has a cult-like following and this model will do just about any standard kitchen blending task and then some. Even if we had an extra hundred or more to spend on one of Vitamix’s premium models, we’d still opt for the Explorian. It also includes a great recipe book and custom tamper.

Blendtec Total Classic Original Blender

Blendtec blender is a multipurpose machine for perfect smoothies, cocktail drinks, crushing ice, shakes, margaritas, and more.

It comes with a large 75 ounces 4 sided container and a 32-ounce blending capacity for wet and dry blending. The container contains 80% thicker stainless steel blades that can warm soups through blade frictions and also crush tough ingredients.

When blending with a Blendtec blender, you wont need a tamper since the blender uses its patented technology that can pull ingredients towards the blades.

Recommended Reading: Slim And Trim Veggie Smoothie King

How Do I Clean A Blender

Staying on top of cleaning your blender is vital if you want it to last as long as possible and if you want to avoid any nasty odors building up. You can place many blending jugs inside the dishwasher, but you can also clean them by adding warm water and dish soap to the blending jug, putting the lid on, and blending up the soapy solution.

If youre struggling to get rid of any stubborn stains, create your cleaning paste using one tablespoon of baking soda and mix it with one teaspoon of white vinegar. You can add this solution to the stains using a clean scrubbing brush or a clean toothbrush.

How Long Should You Blend A Smoothie

Start off on a lower power setting and increase your speed for the ideal consistency and texture. On average, it usually takes about one minute of blending to nail a lump-free consistency. How long your smoothie should be blended also depends on how many servings you’re making and how bulky the ingredients are. The more ingredients, the more blending time.

Read Also: Apple And Banana Smoothie Recipe

Oster Versa Countertop Blender

The Oster versa is a blender equipped with 1400-watt power and a cross-rigged blade that spins at about 250 mph for maximum breaking and grinding. It features a low profile, 64-oz. jar with measurements and shaped with a narrow bottom to pull ingredients towards the blade with the tampers help.

The lid is made of rubber and can fully seal with a removable cup where the tamper is inserted. The jar also has a non-slip handle making it easy to shift throughout your kitchen.

It comes with a speed dial that has low, medium, and high-speed options and three pre-programmed functions for smoothies, soups, and dips/spreads. It also features two cookbooks for delicious and easy recipes. Certainly best fits one budget, for a high-performance and highly precise blender.

Pros

• Might shake when used in high-speed mode

The 5 Best Blender For 2022

We tested over a dozen models to find the best cheap blender, best smoothie blender, best splurge model and more.

David Watsky

Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen

David lives in Brooklyn where he’s logged more than a decade writing about all things edible, including meal kits and meal delivery subscriptions, cooking, kitchen gear and commerce. Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he’s toiled in nearly every aspect of the eats business from slicing and dicing as a sous-chef in Rhode Island to leading complex marketing campaigns for major food brands in Manhattan. These days, he’s likely somewhere trying the latest this or tasting the latest that – and reporting back, of course. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.

• Well notify you whenever the product drops 10% below the original price.

  You’re Missing Out!

  Youve blocked notifications – to follow your interests or set price alerts, please update your browser permission settings.

Since no two cooks or kitchens are exactly alike, the best blender for you will hinge greatly on your lifestyle, eating habits, kitchen space and budget. Speaking of budget, we’ve found you don’t have to drop $300 on an eye-catching and powerful Vitamix to get professional quality blending, although we certainly wouldn’t blame you if you did.

In all, we tested these 17 popular models over the course of several weeks running various tests. These are our picks for the best blenders available in 2022.

Recommended Reading: 50 Smoothies For Weight Loss

How Can I Make My Smoothie Healthier

The smoothie recipes below are plain, but if you want to expand your smoothie horizons, go for it! Toss in chia seeds or protein powder or hemp seeds or flax or whatever else makes your heart happy. If you have a standard set of mix-ins you like, you can even freeze them into booster packsgreat for really quick and easy smoothies!

Best Professional Quality Blendtec Total Classic

Our next competitor in the battle of the best blender for frozen fruit smoothies is the Total Classic. This professional-grade bundle from Blendtec can do it all, though this does come at a higher price. If youre simply looking for a blender for one or two people, for mainly one purpose, this expensive appliance is probably not the one for you.

One purchase contains a powerful motor base and additional jars for different results.

The thick stainless steel blades are 10x stronger than comparable blender blades. The patented technology from Blendtec forces the ingredients towards the blade so you arent stuck with stubborn pieces that avoid blending, leaving you with perfect smoothies every time. If your blender starts to get dull blades, we have tips for how to sharpen your blender blades.

With pre-programmed blending cycles, you can opt for the exact one youre looking for, or you can switch between the 10 manual control speeds and cater it to you! If youre looking for a particular texture, setting your blender at a lower speed will provide you with a thick frozen fruit smoothie. Its also one of the top blenders for vegans due to the power!

Not only is this blender excellent at blending ice and frozen ingredients, but you can make hummus, dips, and even nut butter. Simply switch it on, select your program and watch as the LCD timer displays the remaining time! This appliance is so easy to navigate, you will barely have to lift a finger.

Don’t Miss: Ninja Or Nutribullet For Smoothies

Yellow Fruit And Turmeric Smoothie

Turmeric is a time-honored superfood with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Powered by curcumin, one of its primary substances, the spice may help boost memory, ease joint pain, lower the risk of certain cancers, and lessen the symptoms of depression. What are you waiting for? Make this smoothie thats bursting with the stuff.

Hamilton Beach Power Elite Blender

Amazon

• Customer Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
• Power: 700 watts
• Dimensions: 8.66 x 8.5 x 14.69 inches

Coming in at under $50, the Hamilton Beach Power Elite Blender is an excellent budget-friendly option. It has five buttons that allow you to cycle between 12 different blending functions that run the gamut from milkshakes to smoothies to salsa. While it doesnt include a tamper, the 700-watt motor operates on a Wave Action system that pulls the pitchers contents down into the blades, so you get peak performance every time. In addition to a 40-ounce pitcher, you also get a 3-cup food processor thats perfect for chopping, grinding and other cooking tasks.

You May Like: Surf City Squeeze Smoothie Mix

Don’t Miss: Hotels Near Smoothie King Center New Orleans La