[2 - 2] hi this is lisa mcmanus from america's
[2 - 3] test kitchen gearheads and i'm here to
[3 - 4] answer some of your questions on a
[4 - 7] recent video about blenders they were
[7 - 9] terrific questions so let's get started
[9 - 11] first question was
[11 - 13] why don't you guys have a ninja in the
[13 - 16] testing um we do actually already have a
[16 - 18] recommendation for a personal blender
[18 - 20] and our winner there is the ninja nutri
[20 - 24] ninja pro it blends into 18 or 24 ounce
[24 - 26] travel cups so if that's all you're
[26 - 28] going to do is smoothies or really small
[28 - 30] jobs like making some salad dressing or
[30 - 32] something um they're pretty good and
[32 - 34] that's our favorite costs about 70 to 90
[34 - 36] depending on where
[36 - 38] you get it the price varies a little bit
[38 - 39] so that said if you're going to get into
[39 - 41] that price category why not spend about
[41 - 43] that same amount and get the nutribullet
[43 - 45] which has a 64-ounce jar personally i
[46 - 46] don't really have a problem with
[46 - 48] blending in that jar and pouring it into
[48 - 50] a smaller container and then you get
[50 - 51] some more versatility you can make a big
[51 - 53] picture of frozen margaritas for your
[54 - 56] friends whatever um but you know your
[56 - 58] call if all you're gonna do is personal
[58 - 61] blending uh the ninja nutria ninja pro
[61 - 62] is our pick there
[63 - 65] someone asked are all these blenders
[65 - 66] good for grinding coffee beans or do you
[66 - 69] recommend a separate coffee grinder um i
[69 - 71] would say go ahead and get a separate
[71 - 73] coffee grinder two reasons one is our
[75 - 77] inexpensive coffee grinder is only about
[77 - 79] 20 bucks it's by crops and does a great
[80 - 82] job and two once you start grinding coffee
[82 - 85] and two once you start grinding coffee coffee is super aromatic as we all know
[85 - 87] it will leave those oils and that flavor
[87 - 90] in the jar and as much as we did try um
[90 - 93] a test with chipotles and adobo and you
[94 - 97] know to try to see if like flavors and smells
[97 - 99] to try to see if like flavors and smells stayed in the jars and these are all
[99 - 101] pretty good all of our three picks we're
[101 - 102] very good about not
[102 - 106] transferring flavors and scents
[106 - 108] i think once you're doing a coffee every
[109 - 111] day in there it's gonna be everything will
[111 - 113] in there it's gonna be everything will be a little bit coffee
[113 - 115] your call but i would probably just go
[115 - 117] ahead and buy a purpose-built coffee
[117 - 120] grinder for 20 bucks and leave that to
[120 - 122] that we don't even like to mix spices
[122 - 124] and coffee in the same coffee grinders
[124 - 126] uh we would say buy an extra one to make
[126 - 129] to grind your spices because then all
[129 - 131] your coffee is gonna have interesting
[131 - 134] spice flavors which if you want okay
[135 - 136] okay someone said i would like to see
[136 - 140] you have demos of us making um
[140 - 141] almond butter and mayonnaise instead of
[142 - 144] the same smoothie we picked the smoothie
[144 - 145] for two reasons one is it really does
[145 - 147] show differences in textures
[147 - 148] specifically we chose that smoothie
[148 - 150] recipe i think as hannah pointed out
[150 - 151] because it's a challenge and we do it in
[151 - 153] every blender because
[153 - 154] they don't all perform as well as the
[154 - 157] three you just saw um in that video a
[157 - 159] lot of them leave you stuff with stuff
[160 - 162] like liquid and chunks of kale we call
[162 - 165] them nano salads you know ones with huge
[165 - 167] pieces of kale in there or pieces of
[167 - 169] pineapple that didn't process or they
[169 - 171] just don't have a nice consistency
[171 - 172] they're too aerated they taste like
[172 - 175] tastes more like froth than a smoothie
[176 - 178] so it's a really great test to show the
[178 - 180] differences between blenders and
[180 - 182] honestly what you saw was that they all
[182 - 185] did almost the same job and so
[185 - 186] it's a great way to compare across the
[186 - 188] broad like how does this one do versus
[188 - 190] this one and this one that said they all
[190 - 193] did make almond butter well and except
[193 - 194] for the one that i pointed out the
[194 - 196] inexpensive blender they all made
[196 - 198] mayonnaise so
[198 - 200] you know you would kind of see the same
[200 - 201] thing again here they are again and
[204 - 206] um how does the nutribullet full size do on
[206 - 209] pesto we do not test pesto but that's a
[209 - 211] great question um honestly i'm pretty
[211 - 213] sure it would do fine it does leafy
[213 - 215] tough kale so it could do basil very
[215 - 218] easily um pine nuts are no challenge
[218 - 220] after toasted almonds which are quite
[220 - 222] hard and crunchy and then you know it
[222 - 224] was able to turn into a creamy
[224 - 226] almond butter um
[226 - 229] olive oil cheese it does it could do all
[229 - 230] those things so i'm sure it would make a
[230 - 233] great pesto um if if you're gonna do it
[238 - 238] how are they at chopping up ice someone
[238 - 240] asked we do ice as a test across the
[240 - 242] board with blenders um all three of
[242 - 244] these did a great job with ice
[244 - 246] one of this was one of the flaws for
[246 - 248] instance when vitamix was tested against
[248 - 251] a blendtec the ice just kind of flew to
[252 - 255] and stayed there and that narrow jar and
[255 - 258] the vitamix and the action of the um the
[258 - 261] motor kept that ice processing
[261 - 263] and made a nice uniform texture same
[263 - 265] with the breville gorgeous it even has
[265 - 267] an ice crush button so you just like
[267 - 269] push that and go and it's perfect
[271 - 273] uniform the nutribullet is very manual as i said
[273 - 275] the nutribullet is very manual as i said it only has like slow you know
[275 - 277] it has low medium high and pulsed so you
[277 - 280] know a couple pulses and maybe some high
[280 - 282] speed and it broke up the ice just fine
[282 - 284] and kept it moving
[284 - 288] the bad blenders that i tested had that
[288 - 289] same problem as the very high-end
[289 - 291] blendtec they would throw the ice to the
[291 - 293] walls and you'd get some little pieces
[294 - 295] that were melting in some big chunks you
[295 - 296] couldn't get back in there you're in
[296 - 298] there scraping while everything is
[298 - 300] turning into slush it's
[300 - 302] not not good so
[302 - 304] trust us we did the ice these ones can
[309 - 311] someone pointed out
[311 - 313] that the cheap blender at almost 90
[313 - 316] dollars is still high-end to them um and
[316 - 317] so they weren't going to spend over 30
[317 - 319] dollars for blender
[319 - 323] um i tried a 25 blender in my testing
[323 - 325] lineup of inexpensive blenders where the
[325 - 327] cutoff was a hundred dollars
[327 - 328] not worth it you don't have enough time
[328 - 330] in your life to spend waiting for that
[330 - 332] thing and working with it to get to chop
[332 - 336] things it's so annoying uh it kept
[336 - 339] stalling out everything would cavitate
[339 - 341] is what the term is
[341 - 344] it would start and then 10 seconds later
[344 - 346] the blades were spinning in a little
[346 - 348] bubble like a little cave of ingredients
[348 - 350] and you had to stop and shake it and
[350 - 353] push it down and start over again it
[353 - 355] took nearly six times as long as the
[355 - 358] other blenders to make a smoothie it was
[358 - 360] forget it so you have to spend a little
[360 - 362] more in this case blenders have a hard
[363 - 365] geometry of how they work with the jars
[365 - 367] and the blades and everything else
[367 - 370] really makes a big difference
[370 - 372] so the testing is frustrating and
[372 - 374] rewarding i mean you do see the ones
[374 - 375] that perform but you also have to
[375 - 377] struggle with the ones that don't can a
[377 - 379] good immersion blender do as well as one
[379 - 380] of the mid-price or budget blenders
[380 - 382] especially if you use the right vessel
[382 - 384] like a tall narrow container
[384 - 387] you could it would probably take a while
[387 - 388] and i'm not sure on all the different
[388 - 391] textures of things um
[391 - 393] you know we have made smoothies in them
[393 - 394] and doing other things with immersion
[394 - 397] blenders in the course of testing
[397 - 399] i just think it's a lot of manual labor
[399 - 400] because you are controlling where the
[400 - 403] blade is and you're holding it
[404 - 406] so yeah it does a pretty decent job
[406 - 407] chopping things up but i think some of
[408 - 409] the more challenging things like i'm not
[409 - 410] sure i'd want to be standing there long
[410 - 412] enough to do almond butter life is short
[414 - 416] sometimes you want it to be more
[419 - 421] um and the last question are the blender
[421 - 424] jars made of glass or plastic okay all
[424 - 427] three of our winning jars have bpa free
[430 - 432] plastic so they are you know they don't leach
[432 - 434] so they are you know they don't leach any chemicals they're very durable and
[434 - 437] tough and they're also lightweight glass
[437 - 440] blender jars can be pretty heavy but we
[440 - 442] do have some recommendations for
[442 - 444] blenders with glass jars one is the
[444 - 446] instant ace plus cooking blender it's
[446 - 448] about 150 dollars sometimes you get down
[450 - 452] and it does a really nice job it's a
[452 - 454] really good blender and the other is the
[454 - 456] black and decker quiet blender with
[456 - 459] cyclone glass jar and that was about
[459 - 461] sixty dollars it was our best buy in our
[461 - 463] inexpensive store so it's couple 20
[464 - 466] bucks cheaper than the um the
[466 - 468] nutribullet full size does a nice job
[468 - 470] not quite as good as
[470 - 472] the nutribullet on
[472 - 474] power and capacity and all those nice
[474 - 476] things that you want a little more
[476 - 478] stopping and scraping to get some more
[478 - 480] difficult things processed but a really
[482 - 484] nevertheless and has a glass jar
[484 - 486] so i hope those were helpful answers to
[486 - 488] your questions keep them coming we love
[488 - 489] it and we hope you see you next time on