All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Yes, Vitamix blenders are the very best. Yes, they remain undefeated champions each year when we retest thebest blenderson the market. The truth is, Vitamix blenders changed, for many cooks, the entire idea of what blenders should be able to do. Where once we were satisfied with meresmoothie-making and soup pureéing, with the occasional lumpy frozen margarita thrown in there, now we know to expect more from a blender: A blender should be able to crush tough fibers into silky celery drinks. A blender should be able tomake nuts into milkand butter. A blender should operate at a horsepower higher than the electric ATV my 5-year-old brother drives around the neighborhood at frightening speeds.
The hitch in all this, of course, is the cost. Vitamix blenders run from around $350 to upwards of a thousand dollars depending on the model. Until this past summer, when the company released its most inexpensive model to date, the Vitamix One, which retails at around $240 at the time of writing. Yes, this is still much more expensive than most other brands. But, you’re getting—in theory—a machine from the best in the blender game, at around $100 cheaper than any of their other models. I put this blender to the test to see if it came close to the performance we’ve come to expect from this premium brand. Is the Vitamix One worth buying, even though it costs more than most blenders on the market?
The performance
With just the one dial on front, the Vitamix One is ridiculously easy to use and set up out of the box. And my tests found that the Vitamix One is a high-functioning blender. It made creamy smoothies, velvety puréed soups, and a smooth batch ofFrozen Rosalitas. I madethe smoothieEpicurious always tries when testing blenders, consisting of a tough-to-crush combo of kale, whole almonds, medjool dates, orange, and banana. It blended this in about 20 seconds, without needing to be scraped down. When I tested higher-powered Vitamix models, I found that this particular smoothie usually takes 10 to 12 seconds when there’s more horsepower involved. However, the larger containers would often require scraping down flung-up pieces of kale, which wasn’t necessary here. My Zwilling mini blender blended the smoothie in the same 20 second time window, however, the result was noticeably less smooth and creamy in texture. I also made a particularly creamy, delightfully smooth-textured batch ofbutternut squash soupin the Vitamix One.
However, I wasn’t impressed by the blender’s ice-crushing capabilities: Even with the dial cranked all the way up to the highest power setting, the blender kept stalling when attempting to crush ice, requiring me to stir and pound the ice down to the bottom. In the end, I was only able to achieve a really fine, smooth blend when adding liquid (in the form of mezcal and lime juice, so not a bad way to live my blender testing life, really). Higher price Vitamixes are more adept at ice crushing and don’t require nearly as much effort. All of this could be related to the shape of the blender's container: More on thathere.
I also attempted blending frozen fruit with virtually no liquid in this blender, to make an extremely thick smoothie bowl. It didn’t do well, and would only blend when enough almond milk was added to the frozen strawberries and mango that the consistency could no longer hold up to smoothie bowl standards. That said, I’ve had trouble with this in the other Vitamix models as well. In order to really crush fruit with little to no liquid, I find that you need to use the food processor attachment, which is currently not available for this model.
The takeaway
总的来说,这个搅拌机执行领先if you’re not comparing it to $400 or $500 models. It produces a velvety-smooth blend—in less time than other non high-powered blenders. However, it’s also two to three times the price of those blenders—and it still doesn’t perform to the standard we’ve come to expect from Vitamix. And the design and finish quality don’t offer more luxury than what you’d get from an inexpensive blender, either. Overall, if you’re looking for an inexpensive non-high-powered blender, I’d opt for something cheaper, like the KitchenAid blender we recommend in ourblender review.If you’re willing to shell out more cash for a blender that’s built to last, and can perform a whole host of duties beyond what’s typical of blender, we’d go for the higher end Vitamix Explorian or, better yet, the A200.
Read ourVitamix buying guidefor more information on the differences between Vitamix models.
