Choosing the Best Smoothie Maker & Blender: A Quick Practical Guide

Are you tired of the same, old dishes and want to mix things up? In this case, a smoothie maker might just do the trick for you. Not only are they delicious and truly refreshing on a hot summer day but drinking smoothies on a regular basis can do wonders to your health and body. Since there are a lot of varieties on the market, you might feel confused as to what specific features makes a unit top quality, and what are those that should be entirely avoided. And the good news is that all blenders are capable of making smoothies.

Here’s a quick, practical guide that will you choose the best smoothie maker.

General Features to Look Out For

Before deciding on a specific model, these are a few characteristics and features you take into account:

• Choose blenders that come with a metal base because unlike those that are made out of plastic; these provide stability and a greater mixing power.
• High-Speed Blenders with fast motors are more convenient in the sense that they allow you to mix frozen fruit and fresh ingredients without wasting time to cut them.
• Look for blenders with at least three different speed settings. The more speed settings the unit has, the better the texture of the mixture will be.
• High wattage – around 500 watts should be more than enough power to prepare an adequate smoothie.
• Ideally, you should avoid blenders that can’t be cleaned without disassembling them. Most top-quality blenders can be easily cleaned by pouring hot water and detergent into them, although these are usually more expensive.
• Pulsing button. This is an essential feature because it automatically restarts and stops so that the easy can be evenly integrated into the mixture.
• Many specialized sites like The Kitchen Advisor recommend opting for blenders that come with a wide variety of attachments. The ideal number should be around three; the more attachments they offer, the better and varied your smoothies will be.

Hand and Immersion Blenders

As you might have guessed from the name, these types of blenders are hand. Besides being perfectly capable of preparing soups and making mayonnaise, they are best suited to smoothies. These blenders are extremely practical because they do not take up a lot of spaces (which is especially useful if you have a small kitchen) and can perform tasks that require extreme precision. Furthermore, they are easy to clean and maintain than their more sizeable counterparts.

However, the main downside of handheld blenders is that they are not capable of handling tough vegetables. Adding to this is the fact that mixing more than three, four ingredients can destroy it, so make sure to use it only for simple smoothies that do not require lots of ingredients.

Bullet Blenders

Another great choice, if you are tight on space, is the bullet blender. These bullet-shaped blenders feature a removable blending cup that can be easily detached for cleaning purposes and an average mixing power. The container of most models can handle up to two servings, which makes them superior to handheld variations.

As for the cons, bullet blenders can create quite a mess in the kitchen due to heir upside down design. Furthermore, some models are not dishwasher-friendly, so you might have to detach the blades and clean them manually. Fortunately, its compact size and affordability compensate for any minor inconveniences it might cause.

High Performance Blenders

These are arguably the best and most expensive blenders on the market. They are perfect if you are the type of person for whom the texture, consistency and overall aspect of the smoothie is important. Typically, they have enough storage space to allow the preparation of more than three smoothies at a time and can handle a high number of ingredients without going haywire.

On the downside, high performance blenders take quite a lot of space, so you will need to organize most of your kitchen items around it. Moreover, they are not ideal if you live in an apartment block because they can get very noisy. And obviously, the high performance comes at a cost – a top quality unit can cost as much as 200 $. But if you are willing to accept these downsides and you are not limited regarding space, do not hesitate to pick up one.

Countertop Blenders

Finally, countertop blenders are the ideal compromise if the types presented above are not to your liking. Countertop blenders come with a higher mixing capacity, but the selection of ingredients that it can handle is much smaller than what high performance and bullet blenders can handle. Moreover, they tend to act weird when mixing ice, are harder to clean and create a lot of noise. On the upside, countertop blenders are very affordable and do not take as much space as high performance blenders. So, whether or not you are fine with these quirks is up to you.

Conclusion

Nobody can deny that smoothies are delicious, healthy and refreshing. Since there are a lot of types and models of blenders on the market, you might have a hard time choosing between them. Make sure to for those that are made out of metal, that have high wattage power and are easy to clean and maintain. Other than that, it all comes down to how much money you are willing to invest and how spacious the kitchen is. Make sure to read through this article and you will get all the information that you will need.