Jug blender first look reviews Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre blender
This Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre blender costs an eye-watering £450, but the manufacturer claims that it is much more than just a blender. So, what does it offer for that premium price tag that a regular blender doesn’t? We take a first look to find out.
The Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre blender is marketed as a quality kitchen investment, designed to last a lifetime. It comes with an impressive seven-year full guarantee and instructions on how to replace the blades if needed.
If you did invest this much in a blender, you’d rightly expect it to be a long-lasting product. But does it give great results?
Excellent blending
Our researcher was certainly impressed with both the build quality and blending power of the Vitamix. Everything we made seemed to come out smooth and lump-free.
Out of habit (and a hatred of lumpy smoothies), our researcher put the fruit smoothie through a fine sieve after blending in the Vitamix and there wasn’t a visible lump or fruit pip left in the sieve.
Not just for smoothies
The Vitamix blender claims to blend, cook and freeze all in one versatile machine. While it doesn’t actually freeze food – you have to add ice if you want to create ‘frozen’ food - you can make both hot soups and frozen desserts from scratch in a matter of minutes.
It comes with a DVD, recipe book and getting started guide which contains plenty of tips for using the blender.
Make soup from scratch in minutes
Our researcher was impressed at the Vitamix blender’s ability to make steaming hot soup from raw veg in just six minutes. The instructions explain that friction generated by the blades when left running creates enough heat to cook the soup while blending. This isn’t enough to safely cook meat though, so many of the included recipes require some ingredients to be precooked.
You can also make frozen desserts using frozen fruit or ice. We found it easy to whip up an icy treat using the recipes provided, although you have to be careful not to over-blend as, when we tried it out, the heat from the blades softened the mixture fairly quickly if we left it on too long.
Noisy in use
In our experience, blenders are one of the noisier kitchen gadgets. As part of our full lab tests, we measure noise, helping you to weed out any blenders that are excessively noisy.
The Vitamix seemed fairly loud on full power – we could barely hear raised voices over it. This may be a problem when making soup as you have to leave the Vitamix running for six minutes. When our researcher tried this out she found that it caused the neighbour’s dog to get quite agitated!
Our smoothie turned out super-smooth when using the Vitamix
Fuss-free blending
We found the Vitamix simple to set up and use. It has three main controls including a 10-speed variable control, allowing for precise blending.
You can place the jug in a left-or right handed position on the base, and there’s no need to lock it in place, although some may find this disconcerting. The jug is fairly light too, as it’s made of heavy-duty plastic instead of glass. We found the base heavy, though, and it takes up quite a lot of worktop space.
The Vitamix didn’t seem too tricky to clean, despite the fact that you can’t remove the base to clean the blades, something which in our experience makes cleaning easier.
First look verdict
In our first look trial, the Vitamix handled everything we threw at it with ease. However, you need to be pretty serious about your smoothies to shell out £450 for this blender.
For making soup, our tester felt that the traditional way (cooking then blending) isn’t much more hassle, and would be less of an assault on your eardrums. If you’re on a budget, check out our Best Buy jug blenders for a cheaper alternative.
The Vitamix blender is available from John Lewis.
Pros: Can make hot soup from scratch, long guarantee, good blending results when we tried it
Cons: Very expensive, large, the base feels heavy
- Read our blender reviews to find the best blender for your needs
- Check out our first impressions of new juicers in Juicer first look reviews
- Find out more about hand blenders