Test Kitchen Tuesday

I get so many questions about how the Ninja Professional Blender stacks up against the Vitamix, and most often, I really don’t know, as I had never used a Vitamix until last week. However, I do know quite a few folks that own Vitamixes, so when I get questions, I often ask one of them, “How does it do X?”

I’m sure they really appreciate tolerate this questioning.

To see this blender first hand, last week, I went over to my friend Lisa’s to do a head-to-head showdown with a green drink I make quite often. It’s an iteration of the Dr. Oz Detox Drink, and contains:

• 8 ounces coconut water
• 2 handfuls kale
• Juice from one lemon
• 1/2 a cucumber
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
• 4-5 mint sprigs
• Small chunk of ginger
• Handful of ice

As most people that have blended greens with the Ninja standard jars know, it doesn’t fully pulverize greens and leaves little flecks behind. This is primarily due to the blade design, with the blades running through the center instead of being at the bottom. The single serve cups (if you have one) successfully pulverize greens into oblivion, but the standard jars really don’t completely obliterate them.

The idea with this test was to blend exactly the same ingredients for exactly the same amount of time, and see what happened. We had a little helper in this process, who is a much better model for these drinks than I am!

Neither he nor his older brother cared for the end result much, which is honestly not surprising! What was surprising was their willingness to try. I can’t even get 2Chili to try one, so, that is really saying something about their willingness to experiment with new things. If you want to give green drinks to kids, be sure to hide the greens in something dark, like blueberries or strawberries, and add 1/2 a banana or so for sweetness.

Since we don’t have a kitchen right now, it was great to go to Lisa’s and do this project in a proper setting. She even took the photos! I need to to projects at her house more often.

Anyway, on to the test. Here we have the Ninja Mega Blender and the Vitamix as we started adding ingredients. I don’t know what model Vitamix this is, but it does have variable speeds. I found out this is a Vitamix 5200.

Here is a little video we made if you prefer to see them in action.

If you’re more about photos, here you go…

We loaded these up with plenty of kale (the more the better, right?)

And then topped it with pineapple. I added exactly 6 ice cubes (not pictured) to each jar before we blended.

After 45 seconds of blending, this is what we had. To be fair, I have created smoother versions of this drink at home — when it wasn’t based on time — but I wanted the test to be under exactly the same conditions and time constraints. You can clearly see that the Vitamix made a much smoother drink with fewer kale flecks.

Here is this same drink that I made when I was reviewing the Ninja. The difference is I made this without coconut water (just used ice only for liquid) and probably blended longer. As you can see, it’s much smoother.

Bottom Line: Due to the design, the Vitamix makes a smoother drink faster, but does that mean it’s better?

You know, I just don’t know that I’d say that. The Ninja is just so versatile (and less than half the cost), so it really depends on what you want it for and your budget. If you want to only make fast smoothies (but don’t care about single serve cups), then yeah, Vitamix wins. Although, did you notice I had to really work the smoothie with the little prodding device to get it all incorporated? That was not necessary with the Ninja. 

If you want to make to-go smoothies in a single serve cup, my homemade Lara Bars, or even homemade nut butter, I believe the Ninja is better. But, since I don’t have absolute proof, it looks like I will have to go back and do more tests, huh?