Magic Bullet Blender - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

Magic Bullet Blender

Magic Bullet Blender
By: Amy Jacquin

Do you wish you could wave a magic wand and make tasty snacks or dips? You may have your own kitchen magician if the Magic Bullet Blender works like makers promise.

Carrie Thompson and her husband are training for a triathalon, and that means healthy eating. They both enjoy smoothies every morning. But making a blender full is not an option.

"He likes lots of protein in his, and I don't care for that," Carrie laughingly explains. "I like flax seed in mine, and he doesn't. I like strawberries and bananas, he doesn't like bananas. And this makes it easy because you can make your own separate one."

The $60 Magic Bullet Blender offers a solution. Blending smoothies and other treats directly in individual-sized serving cups.

"It's easy!" Carrie says right away. "It's very easy to clean, too. Instead of having a big blender out, you just pop these in the dish washer."

The variety of mixing cups and blades are top-shelf dishwasher safe. A flat blade grinds coffee beans, cinnamon sticks or dried fruit.

"The cross blade is the one for the smoothies," Carrie holds up the blade. "That's for chopping, blending, mixing, grating."

Carrie's smoothie has berries, a small amount of protein powder, yogurt, flax seed, milk and ice.

A shaking technique is recommended for certain things. Sometimes directions also call for pulsing, stopping, stirring, and repeating. So claims that your smoothie is blended in less than 10 seconds are a little exaggerated.

"It's been about ten seconds," says Amy Jacquin after Carrie stops the blender.

"There's still a little bit of ice chucks in there," Carrie says, and starts the blender again. It takes several tries to blend all the ice, but still totals less than a minute.

"And then it also says not to hold it down for more than a minute because it can burn the motor," she adds.

Different colored rings add comfort for drinking and easy identification. Plus it's compact and takes up little space.

Next we try some almonds with the flat blade. In a few quick seconds, most of them are pulverized!

"There are still some chunks in there, but..." Carrie shrugs and starts the blender again.

After just a couple more seconds, the cup contains crushed almonds that stick together from all the nut oil. Not exactly what you want for a salad but it would be good for baking.

And the Magic Bullet doesn't exactly "powder your favorite cheese" as the makers promise. But it does finely, and quickly, chop chunks of cheddar. The cheese is too sticky to sprinkle from the shaker lid, but would be good for spooning into salsa.... which is what we try next.

"All right, so we're going to do pulses?" Carrie double-checks with the directions.

Directions call for a few pulses to chop herbs and it does a nice job on some cilantro, with the exception of one stubborn sprigg, which we remove. Next we add garlic, onion, peppers and tomatoes.

The Magic Bullet eats right through the very-full cup - actually too well! We discover the salsa looks more like a sauce.

"If you like it chunky, this would not be the way to go," laughs Carrie.

We discover you have to do individual ingredients in very small amounts to get them chopped and not pureed, which can take almost as long as doing chopping it by hand.

"I think it's just technique," Carrie says. "It's learning how it works, and how long to run it."

The Magic Bullet does make a tasty smoothies or creamy dips. And it's very convenient and easy to clean. But it's tricky when it comes to chopping and making salsas. So overall, the $60 Magic Bullet Blender earns a solid B-.