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Magic Bullet Blender - High Speed...
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Cat's Review
Biting the Bullet with the Magic Bullet Mixer
married to a health nut, a busy professional, a gadget geek
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AUG
18
2007
About the Magic Bullet Food Processor
This is a bullet-shaped food processor, that's compact and fits easily on a countertop. The compact footprint alone is one good reason to at least consider the Magic Bullet, but there are other interesting features to note as well. The Magic Bullet "system" that we were given for Christmas came with a number of very useful pieces. The "brains" of the whole product is the power base, which is the bottom half that plugs in, contains the motor, and provides the horsepower for everything else.
Additionally we received two types of blade bases, a cross blade and a flat blade. We mostly use the cross blade for everything that we blend or pulse on the Magic Bullet. The Magic Bullet website advertises that the cross blade is for chopping, grating and blending foods (your cheeses, frozen drinks, etc.) while the flat blade whips creams and grinds up hard stuff like spices or coffee beans.
We received a number of cups to screw onto the top of the blade bases. We have a single tall cup, with no handle. And a single short cup, also with no handle. In addition, we also received four additional cups with handles that the website refers to as "party mugs". Basically these are tall cups with handles and color-coded rings that you can screw on the top to make a mug to drink out of. The color-coded rings are useful if you're serving mixed drinks and everyone wants to keep track of which drinks are theirs.
Finally, the kit we received contained shaker/steamer tops for using with grated cheese and suchlike, and two resealable lids that you can screw on to any of the cups, to keep whatever you've got in the cup fresh for storage. The kit is great, but we chucked the tops and lids lids into a drawer when we brought the system home and haven't touched them since.
Uses For and Using The Magic Bullet
Okay, so we received this as a gift, and right when we unwrapped it I thought it was junk, but after seeing a demo from my FIL, I was sold. Why? Simple: My husband is a marathon runner and a weight lifter. The man drinks a lot of shakes, protein-based and otherwise. Once I saw how easily and quickly the Magic Bullet processed things, I was thrilled to bring it home. On a weekly basis, we use the Magic Bullet at least 5 out of 7 days. Some weeks we use it every day. Mostly my husband uses it for blending up shakes, and it does this function wonderfully and without complaint.
Other things that we use the Magic Bullet for include making marinades and sauces for meat and fish. We make several meals each week that involve marinating steak or chicken, or making a sauce for a light fish such as tilapia.
No matter what we're making, using the Magic Bullet couldn't be easier. When I completely clean the kitchen from top to bottom, I store the Magic Bullet base in a cabinet, but otherwise we leave the base out on the counter. It's unobtrusive in our kitchen, taking up about the space of a drinking glass.
To use the Magic Bullet, you fill one of the cups (tall or small, or the drinking mugs) with the ingredients you want to blend up. You screw on a base (as I mentioned in our case, almost always the cross-blade base) and then you invert the pieces and drop them into the Magic Bullet blender base. You can simply push down to "pulse" your blending action, or if you want heavy-duty blending action you can twist the base just a fraction until it catches under the lip and puts enough pressure on to keep the blender going until you untwist it.
When we're done, we pull up the base and cup, unscrew the blending base, toss it into the sink and use whatever's in the cup. Washing the blending base is as simple as running it under hot water with a soapy sponge. The Magic Bullet website advertises that the bases are dishwasher safe, but we have never used them for anything that left enough residue to warrant a run through a dishwasher.
If we blended a drink or a shake, we then just screw on one of the color-coded lids. If we blended a marinade or a sauce, we just pour it into wherever it's final destination would be and toss the blending cup into the sink as well. If we get backed up on the cups tossed in the sink, we wash it in the dishwasher on the top shelf with no problem. Otherwise, again it's a quick rinse with a soapy sponge and into the drainer half of the sink area.
One thing that the folks at Magic Bullet advertise is this product's ability to be a compact, easy-to-use "food processor". I don't agree with that assessment. If you'll notice, we primarily use the product for its "blending" capabilities. We have tried the product as a food processor for salsas and other items that required more complex structural integrity beyond just "slamming everything together in a liquid" and we found that the Magic Bullet simply came up short. It seemed to liquify salsas, and wasn't very good with egg salad either. If you need a daily, compact "food processor" solution I would recommend looking elsewhere. But if you're looking to blend things into an unidentifiable pulp nearly every single day, this is your device!
Magic Bullet Reliability
I have read complaints about the reliability of the Magic Bullet. One major complaint that I do see some concern about is that surrounding the rubber gaskets that seat in the blender bases. I know there are other complaints, but this is the only one for which I have some concern, because our overall blender base is working just fine.
When you get your Magic Bullet you get a handful of these white-ish rubber gaskets to put into the blender base. They're simple things, little small circles of rubber that keep things from spewing everywhere. In the first three months we went through one of four, that I believe came with our kit. This, to me, indicates that they are somewhat "disposable" and will require replacement on a regular basis.
Since then, we haven't had any others go bad, but this is my major concern with the Magic Bullet. When you go to the website and see their list of "What You Get" with your system, no mention of these gaskets is made. There is also, so far as I can tell, no way to order more gaskets, and only the gaskets online, or to purchase them in stores. This is a problem, in my opinion.
I have not yet contacted Magic Bullet about this problem, but if we run out of gaskets and I need to, I will update this review with the company's response.
Speaking of Reliability, All About the Warranty
The Magic Bullet comes with a one year limited warranty, and an additional four year warranty that is also limited. I have not contacted Homeland Housewares about needing extra gaskets, so they may or may not be covered by the warranty. For full details on the exact warranty specifications, plug this site URL into your web browser:
http://www.buythebullet.com/warranty.php
I have not personally had to contact Homeland Housewares for warranty service, so I'm not certain how well or poorly they abide by their warranty, or how good a job their customer service department does in responding.
Cat's Bottom Line
This was one of our favorite Christmas gifts last year, because the Magic Bullet makes blending things easy. We have a very nice blender that we received for our wedding, but we never pull it out because this is such a compact, easy-to-use alternative. My husband particularly likes this product for blending up his shakes after his workout, and I like it for blending up marinades and sauces for our meals at home. This product isn't the answer to everything, in spite of what the website and commercials on television might have you believe, but it is an amazing blender that's very compact and works well. I have rated the product four stars, because in my experience the rubber gaskets that come with the product will eventually need to be replaced, and I don't see that the company has provided a good replacement or purchasing program for these simple pieces. If they get on the ball with figuring out how to make replacement gaskets easily accessible to the customer, I would recommend them more highly.
Regardless, if you're looking for a blending solution in your kitchen, that takes up very little space and is very easy to use, I certainly recommend the Magic Bullet Food Processor.
Company Information
Homeland Housewares
Website: http://www.buythebullet.com/
E-mail: customerservice@homelandhousewares.com
Phone: 1-866-4HOMELAND
Last edited on Aug 18, 2007
Magic Bullet Blender - High Speed Mixing System is recommended by Cat
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