Choosing The Best Blender For Making Smoothies
Any blender will mix fruit and vegetables together to make a smoothie. However, choosing the best blender will result in enjoying the best smoothies. Top-of-the-line blenders include the ever popular Vitamix brand, but if you don’t have a few hundred dollars to spend, a decent mid-range blender in the $80-120 range will at least get you started for now.
Cheap blenders might save you money in the short term, but they wear out and you will quickly outgrow their capabilities for making smoothies on a regular basis. You will find yourself replacing a $30 blender soon after you purchase it. Even a $100 blender will disappoint after a few months. There are advantages to spending the extra money on a high-end blender.
Mid-range blenders in the $80-$120-plus range are generally well-equipped for making decent smoothies, but after some time, you’ll want (need) a higher-end machine. There are some features that high-end blenders have that make smoothie-making easier, but you can manage quite well starting out with any name brand blenders in this dollar range provided they have the features described below.
The best blender on the market right now is the high-end units from Vitamix. They are amazing machines designed for heavy duty, daily use. These are professional appliances and you will enjoy using them as much as you enjoy making your healthy green smoothies!
Unfortunately, high-end blenders start selling at almost $450, but it will likely be the very last blender you will ever need to purchase. Here is an in-depth comparison between the Vitamix and the Blendtec (another high-end brand).
A less expensive option for a high-end blender is the JTC OmniBlend V. It costs almost half as much and performs almost as well. Read our review here.
When it comes to choosing the best blender for your needs (smoothie making!), here are some suggestions for what to look for:
- Look for blenders with a wide, metal base for stability.
- The best blenders to use for smoothie-making should have a high powered motor with at the very minimum, 500 watts or more. Ideally, you want WAY more than 500 watts. You are going to want a blender that can easily handle frozen fruit, berries and ice. You also want a high-powered blender to puree and liquefy a variety of ingredients to make a creamy, flavorful smoothie.
- I recommend finding a blender with a large, glass pitcher for scratch-resistant durability and easy cleaning. Plastic pitchers are prone to scratching and are not usually dishwasher-safe. (High-end blenders do come with very durable plastic pitchers, however.)
- Touch pads are easier to clean than push buttons. My blender has touch pads on the base which make the buttons much easier to wipe off spilled residue.
In addition to a high speed blender, you might want to pick up an inexpensive coffee grinder to use for grinding flax or sesame seeds, fresh spices such as cinnamon or cacao beans and nibs for healthy, antioxidant-rich chocolate smoothies.
Purchase the best blender you can afford and enjoy the results – yummy, nutritious and health-enhancing green smoothies every day!
What Blender I Use
I just started using a Vitamix 5200 blender again. It’s one of the most popular smoothie blenders on the market and when you use one for the first time, you’ll instantly know why. The Vitamix gives you a lot of control over your blends which is great for making all sorts of creations in the kitchen! It’s one of the best smoothie blenders on the market, and a bit quieter than the Blendtec. Read more about the Vitamix 5200 blender.
I have also used a Blendtec Total Blender. It’s more “automatic” than the Vitamix but you lack some of the fine-tuned control that the Vitamix provides. The Blendtec is also louder, and the lack of a tamper tool can be frustrating at times.
Your Blender Is Only As Good As What You Put In It
Even if you have the best blender that money can buy, it will only do so much for your health unless you know the ins and outs of maximizing the health benefits of green smoothies. A good blender like the Vitamix is a great start, but there’s a fine art to mixing certain fruits and greens together to address specific health goals.
For example, you might want to make a smoothie that contains half a day’s worth of calcium without adding any dairy. Perhaps you need a smoothie to keep you resilient against that cold or flu going around. Maybe you just want to add muscle and recover from workouts faster.
We’ve created a program that shares absolutely everything we know about green smoothies, health and nutrition. It’s called the Green Smoothie Health & Weight Loss Program and it’s got everything you need to revolutionize your health (except for the blender).
Find out more about the Green Smoothie Health & Weight Loss Program!
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1. great tips on your site — i was web surfing and found you: i am concerned with plastic straw’s chemical migration into liquids that run thru it. I may get a glass straw — but are there companies that make non-bleached non-chemical treated paper straws, like some make all-natural non-bleached tea-bags and coffee filters?
2. what are the top two blenders that use GLASS containers? Seems like someone aught to make and market thick durable glass containers for use with blendtec &/or vitamix!
rich in st louis, mo
Hi Rich,
Re. #1: You can’t really make a paper straw. Even a BPA-free plastic straw will still have other chemicals from the plastic, although it remains to be seen if these chemicals in plastic are really that much of a threat, especially when it comes to straws. For me, glass straws are an environmental purchase and as far as I am concerned, they are the only way to go.
Re. #2: I don’t know of any high-end blender manufacturers who are using glass pitchers with their blenders. There might be an engineering reason behind it, I don’t know. Perhaps the vibrations caused by a blender motor that cranks out 1500-2000 or more watts of power is too much for glass? I don’t know. Both Vita-Mix and Blendtec make BPA-free plastic pitchers. I don’t worry about plastic pitchers in blenders because a 30-second blend cycle isn’t going be contaminated from the plastic. Plastic containers is mainly an issue when you cook (microwave) with them or use them to store food in.
I don’t know how old you guys are, but I’m in my early thirties and even I remember when places used paper straws! That’s what they used everywhere before plastic. So you certainly can make them, and they are still being manufactured and used today. I don’t know if it’s easy to find them retail, but I easily found a manufacturer who interested parties might contact for more info (I’m linking to the history page so you can see people have used paper straws for over a century).
http://aardvarkstraws.com/history.php
Thanks for your website’s info. Though I wish I could, I can’t afford any of the blenders you recommend, so I’m going with the Kitchenaid KSB 560, which is a high-ticket item for me.