Grad school D has been home for a few weeks but will probably head back to her apt out of town soon. She has been making lots of smoothies while home. She has a blender but I often feel like a blender is lot of “mess” for making one smoothie - especially if it’s not a giant one.
I thought I might treat her with a Magic Bullet type appliance. I can see her also doing blended coffee drinks in it. (can you do hot beverages in it or only cold??)
Looking for specific recommendations. Something I can order on Amazon is even better.
Also what are other food/beverage items you use your MB for? Salad dressings???
She might love it - many of my friends do - but I had one for a while then went back to using the blender because the Magic Bullet wasn’t any less mess than the blender, was sometimes a little too small and I hated drinking out of those threaded cups even with the screw on “lip”. So I gave my Magic Bullet to a friend and am back to making smoothies in my ancient Vita Mix.
We make a lot of smoothie bowls which are smoothies but the fruit is frozen so they are thicker. So we need one that is fairly powerful. I like this one because you can turn it on and walk away (some you have to hold a button or hold the cup down). I will often put ingredients away while it’s processing. But it also shuts off after a minute. I think to protect the motor from overheating.
When done I just rinse it out and stick the pieces in the dishwasher. I think it’s super easy and use it in place of a blender for most things.
This thread is timely bc right now I am scouring the Crate and Barrel website for a new blender. For over a decade, I had the Breville Hemisphere; however, over the years, D made so many smoothies from rocks (extremely frozen foods!) that it finally gave up the ghost…BTW - I don’t think the magic bullet is any less mess than a traditional blender, it might even be less versatile, but I don’t know that for a fact.
I love my nutribullet. It has all different size containers. Really easy and really easy clean up. I don’t drink out of the container…I never drank out of a blender container either. I pour into a cup with straw.
Takes up far less space than a VitaMix…and costs way less too.
Makes sense. Then the Magic Bullet thing would be good if she doesn’t leave a blender on the counter. Very portable.
I’ve had my VitaMix for over 20 years (and it still works like new so has in the long run been less expensive than a blender that needed to be replaced once or twice during that time), but if I didn’t want something on the counter and the initial price had to be low then the Magic Bullet would have been great.
I’m sure whatever you send her, she’ll appreciate. It’s a thoughtful gift.
I bought a Ninja Blender that also came with a single serve cup based off recommendations from a friend and one of my kids. I looked at Vitamix but decided I didn’t want to spend that much.
I make marinades, salad dressings - occasionally a smoothie. College daughter makes smoothies and smoothie bowls.
My daughter has had this inexpensive (under $20) blender that is one serving for 5 years and it works great for her - “Hamilton Beach Personal Blender for Shakes and Smoothies with 14 oz Travel Cup and Lid”. She uses it only for smoothies and since she lives alone having a big one doesn’t make sense (as a matter of fact the big one she had is sitting in a box in my basement). She has the red one which she leaves out on her very small counter all the time. At one point she had severe TMJ and was using it daily (now she uses it less often maybe a few times a month)
