Making a Smoothie in a Smoothie Maker Doesn’t Mean It Goes Smoothly
Written: Mar 12 '03
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Pros: Makes okay smoothies and easy to get into cup.
Cons: Not really that much different than a blender, cleaning.
The Bottom Line: If you love smoothies and make lots of smoothies, then consider buying this smoothie maker. But a blender will work just the same in the long run.
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| lynus's Full Review: Back to Basics Smoothie Pro 600 Work Top Blender |
From what’s I’ve been able to uncover, the definition of a smoothie is “A blended drink consisting of fruit juice, whole fruit and ice/water.” Such a definition makes it blaring apparent…….if that’s all it takes to make a smoothie – why would one need a “smoothie maker” when a typical blender will do much the same.
Honestly, for no reason at all. But that’s doesn’t mean consumers of America need to stop dead in their tracks when confronted with a device that advertises itself to make a “better smoothie.” For one and is the case with Back to Basics Pro Smoothie Blender, is that there are times you want to not only make a good smoothie, but have a good way of getting said smoothing out of the blender and into your cup.
Which is why the Back to Basics Pro Crushed Crome Smoothie Blender SP600B found its way not just once, not twice, but three times into our household. For those unaware that this review is part of the various wedding presents we received – this means that we received not one, not two, but three of these devices.
Why such the influx of consumers willing to purchase such devices in our honor? Well, it is very psychological I think. One product came from my friends who undoubtedly wanted to honor past smoothies (with alcohol!). Another came from a person who I think wanted to honor the fact that everyone loves smoothies. And the last, probably didn’t know what else to get us and just bought it.
Be it strange or not, but not one of these purchased smoothies in the end showed up on our online registry. Which means, not one of the three who purchased this gift had the store clerk scan the registry to alert others that it had indeed been purchased. Read into that however you want!
But all of that doesn’t and shouldn’t concern you. The Back to Basics Smoothie Pro is basically a blender device with a spout designed on the front allowing you to easily pour out the liquid into your cup. It doesn’t do a darn thing that any other blender doesn’t do, in fact it does less, for it’s main job is to just make smoothies.
The blender comes with three easy to use functions. You either Mix, Smooth, or Pulse. There is of course a fourth button labeled in red so that you can easily turn Off any of the other three. A pole of sorts also comes standard allowing you to move the smoothie mixture in a counter-clockwise fashion (opposite of the clockwise fashion of the blades) to break up any chunks or air pockets that form during the smoothie making process. A nice added feature, but something that has been done for years in the form of a plastic spatula (with the blender off of course!)
For the most part the smoothie works in this fashion. 1) You fill the canister with some fruit or concentration fruit substance that will make up the fruitie part of your drink. 2) You’ll add in some ice and/or water. And 3) You’ll blend. Sounds easy, but it’s not as easy as you’d think.
The biggest problem I have with the Back to Basic’s Smoothie Pro 600 is that it isn’t that basic. The first time I used it I found that I couldn’t just add the fruit concentrate (which by the way a sample comes with the product with apparently easy instructions!), some ice and blend away. In fact, I had to add water to the concentrate and ice and then mix. The instructions said nothing of adding water – but sure that is partly my fault. So I added some water, then more water, and finally got to the point where the mixer was actually mixing, instead of the blades just twirling around in hopes that the mixture would soften to the point that they could actually reach it. Another reason that you need more water is that if the substance is too thick, it won’t pour out of the designed faucet that comes standard with the smoothie maker. It has to be very smoothe for it to work. No chunky pina coladas will work here!
Other than that there have only been two big cons I’ve found with this smoothie maker. One, don’t ever put the left over remains of your smoothie into the fridge unless you pour it into a separate container. The faucet leaks! Over the course of two days our salad drawer located at the bottom of our refrigerator ended up becoming a slow drip bowl for the smoothie mix as it slowly drained down to the bottom of the refrigerator. The second big con is that the smoothie maker isn’t extremely easy to clean. Like any other blender you have dismantle the part and put each one at a time into the dishwasher. But being that this device has a faucet/spout, you have to clean that separately, and at times that means dismantling just the spout to wash in more carefully and effectively. Sure the spout by default makes it easier to get the smoothie out of the device, but it also makes it harder to clean it.
Overall, at least here I think the jury is still out on whether the Back to Basics Smoothie Maker 600 is really worth it in the long run. If you already have a blender that can make a good smoothie then don’t bother with a specified smoothie maker. But, if you were like us who had a blender, but that blender didn’t work really well or started to make that burning metal smell each time you used it, and your primary use of said blender was to make smoothies be them alcoholic or not – then look into a Back to Basics blender.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00
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lynus
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Location: Las Vegas, NV
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Slowly trying to get back to the thick of things.
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