Today I decided to try out my brand new Vitamix. I had been hesitant to take it out of its box because I am about to move house and it was so neatly packed. But in the end my curiosity got the better of me and I could not help but unpack my new, bright red 5200 model and eagerly set it up on my kitchen benchtop.
I was surprised to discover that the container is not actually held down to the base at all. I do not know the physics behind why the liquid will rise but the container will not, but it works. The container simply sits on top of the motor, and the power pushes it sideways, to be caught by four corner plugs. It s a very simple design, and I much prefer it to my Sunbeam Cafe Series blender, which is almost impossible to use now as it is been designed to lock in place and the locking mechanism has been worn away.
At full speed the Vitamix blades travel at 384.26 km per hour, which tends to liquidise the contents very quickly. I’m also happy that the blender has a seven-year warranty because my last blender started to break after only one week.
I decided to break the blender in with a very difficult task to see how well it would respond: blending a whole pineapple. Well, without the skin of course. Normally pineapples are very stringy and a standard blender cannot break through the tough fibres which makes it unpleasant to drink in a smoothie. I put the pineapple and some water in the blender, flicked the switch and WHOOOSH! the machine was busy blending. It was not as noisy as I expected, and when I came to pour the drink it was smooth and creamy with a lot of ‘head’.
I was actually taken aback by the smoothness of the drink, even though there were a few small lumps left. I was not sure how long to blend for so I only blended a short while, but I could have blended a bit longer (in fact, I did afterwards and the remaining few lumps disappeared). I think it takes a bit of experimentation as to how long to blend and whether to add ice, because six minutes blending sould have turned my pineapple smoothie into a hot pineapple soup!
I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes that came with the Vitamix. The cook book is very good quality and has been well thought out in terms of design. The book actually come with its own in-built book stand.
Want to find out more about the Vitamix, then visit Petra Smirnoff’s site on how use the Raw Food Diet to lose weight and become healthy.