Want some smoothie?

If you're wondering what we do with our five-gallon batches of yogurt, it's all about the daily 6-cup smoothie. 2.5 cups of yogurt, 2 bananas, and orange, some frozen mango and berries, and a touch of honey. It's the perfect recovery drink and the perfect pre-workout fueling drink as well.

Yesterday I did a guest post on the Stanford Alumni blog site, Living Well. Check it out for more info on making smoothies.

Also check out yesterday's breakfast in progress in this video:

And now for a a word on blenders. The ultimate blender is the Vitamix 5200. It will spin your smoothie into a frenzy for at least seven years-- since that's how long the warranty is. It's got a large blade and a deep cavity in the blender container, so that that all of the frozen fruit in your smoothie will easily get sucked into the blade. Lots of power, to crush frozen fruit and even flax seeds. But it costs about $450, so you've really got to want it. Or, get the refurbished model for $380.

I'm currently using a $60 Centaur CEN50 semi-pro model. It's been working like a charm for the past two months, I'm hoping to keep it going for a few years. The 0.5 hp motor is plenty enough to churn through 2-inch chunks of frozen bananas and pulverize flax seeds. I got it on a promotion at Economy Restaurant Fixtures in San Francisco. You can also find them online. You do have to be careful with any of these professional models, as the warranty is typically only a year. Manufacturers assume that a restaurant will beat the life out of the blender pretty quickly, so they offer only a short warranty,

Some blenders I've broken in the past include: a Waring consumer model, a Kitchen Aid consumer, and the Waring MX-1000. Needless to say, I would avoid all of these, and any blenders like them. The consumer Waring (which they call a "Professional Bar Blender" on their web site) and Kitchen Aid have an under-powered motor. If you're making thick smoothies--and really those are the best kind--then you'll start to smell burning clutch, and then pretty soon, nothing. That is, nothing will happen when you turn the blender on. I've broken one of those each.The container on the Waring is also too skinny, so your blade will end up spinning while the solids are suspended untouched above.  The KitchenAid model has various modes on it, like puree and ice crush, but none of these is powerful enough to smoothify a thick smoothie.

The Waring MX-1000 has the opposite problem. It has a 3 hp motor, enough to mow your lawn. But, if spins the blade so fast and with such torque, that when it hits a frozen chunk, the blade shaft breaks. After I broke two blade shafts, I just grave-yarded the whole assembly.

Also look for a blender with a one-piece polycarbonate container with a metal blade shaft bottom where it engages with the blender base and motor. I much prefer the polycarbonate because it is much lighter and won't break nearly as easily as a heavy glass container, like in the Waring consumer model. The metal blade shaft bottom is much more durable than a plastic or rubber coupling. You need the metal coupling if you've got a strong motor. Plus you won't keep getting gunk stuck in the rubber gasket for any removable container bottom.

I would either go for the Centaur or exercise the Williams Sonoma 100% satisfaction guaranteed policy, to see if there's any good consumer models out there. That's what I did with the Waring and Kitchen Aid models, returning two broken blenders to them in a month. Then I bought a Hamilton-Beach professional model, which is still going strong after 10 years of daily use. I'm using that for smoothies at the ski house.

Let us know what you think of your current or new blender. I'd love to get some feedback.

Comments

[Stephanie]

yum! I love TJ's frozen fruit for smoothies. Costco's huge bag of frozen organic berries is another good option. Hope all is well at the Shwe house!

[Mike Shwe]

Is this Stephanie Haun? TJs in Minneapolis--that's great that you've got TJs out there. if you're doing costco, I'm guessing you've gotten your kids into smoothies. Alex is not a fan, I'll keep working on him.

[Aftedbill]

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