Making good smoothies requires fresh, whole ingredients and the best blender you can find. After all, a smoothie is only great when it’s, well, smooth. The last thing you want to do is chew your drink, so finding the best blenders for smoothies means finding one that can make a smoothie drinkable when paired with a straw is a must.
Most blenders can easily break down soft foods, such as bananas, avocados, and blueberries, into a silky smooth consistences, but that’s like lobbing an underhand pitch to a Major League Baseball pro. Any blender should be able to do that. To really know if a blender is up to snuff, in needs to be able to tackle tougher fare in the way of ice, apples, almonds, and carrots. To lend you a helping hand, we’ve rounded three of our favorite blenders for or your future smoothie-making success.
The 3 Best Blenders for Smoothies
- Ninja Professional Blender 1000 (BL610)
Amazon.com, $79.99
With 1000 Watts of pure power, this blender delivers high performance without the high price tag to match. Equipped with “Total Crushing Technology,” ice and whole fruits and vegetables get smooth in seconds. When you’re done, cleanup is a snap as the appliance is dishwasher safe. On the downside, the container isn’t made of glass, but instead a strong, heavy plastic. While the product is free of BPA, it might not feel as upscale as other blenders if leaving it on kitchen-counter display is what you’re after. And if you plan to use it frequently, leaving it out might be a plus, as some customers found this product to be heavy. Then again, getting a workout while you make your smoothie has it’s advantages.
- Vitamix 5200 Series Blender
Amazon.com, $449.98
When you’re looking to pull out the big guns, look no further than Vitamix. Nothing solid is safe from being pulverized with this bad boy–not even those itty bitty raspberry seeds that can get stuck in your teeth for what feels like days on end. Equipped with a 64-ounce container, you can feed the entire family smoothies from one batch, or set yourself up for a week of food prep with great ease. When you’re done, drop in a bit of dishwasher liquid and water, and it becomes a self-cleaning machine that only requires a bit of rinsing. OK, the elephant in the room: price. At nearly $450, yikes! You really need to like smoothies if you’re up for shelling out the dough. With that said, this is more than just a smoothie maker. In fact, if you want to make soups, the friction heat created by the blades can turn cold ingredients steamy hot in an estimated six minutes. If you plan to set up your smoothies and walk away for more than one to two minutes though, you might come back to a piping hot drink–so beware. Also, with great power tends to come great noise, so know that this isn’t a whisper quiet appliance to use.
- Magic Bullet Blender, Small
Amazon.com, $37.99Compact, cute, and easy to use, the Magic Bullet Blender is the one you’ll currently find in my kitchen. I bought it when I was first new to smoothies, and as a picky eater beyond ice cream, I didn’t know how often I’d really use it. With that in mind, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money nor did I want an appliance that took up a ton of space in my already crowded cabinets. All of the mixing happens within the cups that attach right into the blender, so no pouring is required. It also comes with lids so that you can take your smoothie on the go. While it chops, mixes, and blends most solid foods (albeit with a bit of shaking the machine to get it down to blades), it doesn’t stand up well to cubed ice. I tend to dislike super cold foods (darn my sensitive teeth!), so using refrigerated foods and frozen fruit is enough chill for me. However, if you like a blast of brr, you’d be better off with using chopped ice instead. Also, expect a bit of noise pollution with this blender, as it’s a tad on the loud side.
What is your favorite blender to use? Share with others in the comments!
Carrie Anton is a freelance writer focusing on health, fitness, and sports. She's been published in Self, Women's Health, Oxygen, and Maximum Fitness.
