Very Helpful Blender Review & Bonus Smoothie Recipe
Written: Jan 06 '03 (Updated Sep 21 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Powerful! Efficient! E-Z 2 Kleen!
Cons: Loud! But hey, there's work being done here.
The Bottom Line: Who needs Jamba Juice?
|
|
|
| sundogg99's Full Review: |
I used to eat Cheerios for breakfast. Every day. Every day -- for years. But I don't do that any more. Don't get me wrong - I still think they're great. I love the surprisingly assertive flavor of those little O's, particularly when compared to many of the dumbed-down, overly sugared breakfast cereals out there. But I rarely eat Cheerios any more.
For one thing, that whole oat bran thing was a complete farce, and it irritated me that the Cheerios people allowed their decades-old reputation to be sullied by a flavor-of-the-month dietary fad. And recently I saw that instantly recognizable yellow box plastered with a new claim - this time it's about how the "soluble fiber" in Cheerios can help reduce your cholesterol. Give me a break.
Partly in a fit of self-righteousness against advertising hyperbole, but mostly because I was really, really tired of eating Cheerios every morning, I started making smoothies for breakfast. I first ran into the smoothie concept in Mexico over 20 years ago, where they were known as "liquadas" and were the only liquid other than beer that I consumed during visits there.
Of course, nowadays you can get a smoothie-like concoction in virtually every strip mall, but they're usually overly sweetened, gooey kid drinks that make my molars ache. Plus, the braces-and-Accutane teens who work in those places make me feel like I'm a thousand years old.
Anyway, I got this blender. The KitchenAid 5 Speed Ultra Power blender. I love that "ultra power" part, don't you? As with most appliances made by KitchenAid, this is a fine, well-made, powerful thing. When I crank it up to "liquefy", the blender frightens children, which is an added benefit.
This particular unit was refurbished, which suits me just fine. It came with a standard warranty, looked brand new, and cost a third less than a brand new one. And, let's face it - it's an appliance. It's not like I'm using someone's refurbished jockey shorts.
So let me tell you about it - the blender, I mean.
As the name indicates, it operates at 5 speeds: stir, chop, mix, puree, and liquefy. I usually get the smoothie results I want with the "mix" speed, finishing with a short "puree" flourish.
The motor in this unit is quite powerful - dare I say "ultra powerful"? It doesn't bog down at all under normal loads. As a safety feature, I suppose, there are two separate power buttons, one labeled, appropriately enough, "On", the other, "Pulse". After pressing one of these buttons, a small red light indicates that the unit is powered on, at which time I am (and you would be too, were you fortunate enough to own one of these fine blenders) free to choose one of the five speeds.
There's another feature on this blender that, if I could find the operator's manual, I could describe for you in dulcet promotional tones. Instead, I'm reduced to simply saying that once a speed is selected, the blender sort of starts up slowly for a second or two before launching into full RPM. I'm not quite sure what benefit this serves, but it has the always-amusing effect of causing me to momentarily wonder if I've finally overloaded the thing. And every time I'm startled when it suddenly kicks into full throttle.
The canister on this blender is made of heavy glass. It has graduated measurements to 40 oz / 5 cups, but that's well short of what the thing can actually hold, which is probably closer to 7 cups. I think the reason for stopping the measurement at 5 is because this blender can rapidly beat air into contents, thereby increasing volume. When I make smoothies, I generally dump about 5 cups of ingredients in, but end up with over 6 cups of good frothy stuff when I'm finished.
The flexible rubber lid has that dumb porthole thing that you can remove to pour stuff in while blending. I never use it. On the plus side, the lid is extra deep, extending over an inch, maybe two, inside the canister, thereby assuring a leak-free blending experience.
I like the design of the canister and blade unit. Unlike some wimpy blenders with those aggravating knurled blade assemblies that are all the time getting stuck on the canister, the KitchenAid canister screws into a large plastic base that is the same diameter as the canister itself. This base is in turn knurled on the bottom, and fits over a matching pattern on the motor base. The result is a solid fit, a sleek profile, and easy removal and cleaning of the canister and blade unit. Oh, there's a nice thick, spongy black rubber gasket that keeps stuff from leaking out the bottom during operation. It's held up very nicely.
Speaking of cleaning, this blender features a touchpad type of button setup that is easily sponged clean. The whole base unit has smooth curves and not a lot of places for pureed crud to get stuck and petrify. The canister, lid, blade unit, and canister base can all go in the dishwasher.
So when you get one of these babies, you're probably going to want to make a Sundogg-style smoothie. Admit it. If you do, here's how to do it:
Throw in 2-3 frozen ripe bananas. Fresh are okay in a pinch, but frozen nanners really make this smoothie sing.
Add 8-12 ounces of plain nonfat yogurt.
Add 12 ounces of frozen, or 2 cups fresh berries. When strawberries are in season, there's no reason to use anything else. Later in the season, raspberries, blackberries, and/or boysenberries are awfully nice. This time of year, I buy a bag of unsweetened frozen raspberries and throw the whole thing in. Not the bag.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of frozen orange juice concentrate.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla.
As noted above, pulse on "mix" until well blended, then throw it into "puree" and watch the content level rise in the cannister until it seems just right.
Makes four or five damn good 12 ounce servings.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.