Magic Bullet Express 17-Piece High-Speed Blender Mixing System
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Magic Bullet Express 17-Piece High-Speed Blender Mixing System
Customer Review: Great for smoothies
Summary: 5 Stars
I had seen this so many times on the informercial and was skeptical. I finally bought one at Target and couldn't be happier. We have been using ours for about two months. I got it specifically for making smoothies and love the results. Our family's basic recipe is a handful of any frozen fruit (cherries are my favorite), half a banana, a packet of splenda (or a spoon of sugar or honey) and top it off with orange juice. They turn out wonderful and very smooth. I've also made iced chais by filling the mug about half way with ice, two scoops powdered chai and fill amost to the top but not quite all the way with cold water. Mix for a minute or two and they come out perfect! I have tried chopping tomatoes and they turned to mush. I tried chopping onions and they were pureed in seconds and and runny, not good results. Deviled eggs work good in here but only if you are making at least 6 or more eggs or there is just not enough egg yolks to blend it properly. And it gets the blades pretty gunky, while not hard to wash it takes a few minutes.
Bottom line - if you like smoothies and want something that your kids can operate than this is wonderful. Making the smoothies in the provided mugs is a wonderful conveniece and so easy for my kids to do. It is very easy to wash, I just wash the blades under the faucet with a drop of soap and a little kitchen brush. The cups and rings have washed up in our dishwasher perfectly (top rack). I would not replace my standard full size blender with this but it is a nice addition. I'd recommend it only for smoothies or iced drinks. If you want to dice and chop foods, stick with a food processor.
Customer Review: Not bad so far...
Summary: 4 Stars
Well I got the Magic bullet blender for my husband for his birthday. We both have been "oooing and ahhing" at the infomercials like a bunch of dorks, so we HAD to get it.
So we got it on eBay and it came in.
The first night we made some Strawberry mouse with whipping cream and strawberry syrup. It was easy and you could hear when the right consistency occurred and BAM awesome dessert, in about 10-15 seconds.
The next test was strawberry sorbet. We tossed in a few smaller sized frozen strawberries and some ice cold water, at first it came out a bit chunky for sorbet so we added more water like the manual suggested and then we had a PERFECT strawberry sorbet. It tasted really really good. If you add sugar and blend a little longer it tastes EXACTLY like a strawberry coolata from Dunkin Donuts.
So far so good.
The following morning my husband wanted to make an egg, pepper, and onion omelet. It chopped the ingredients so well that the omelet had a green tint from the pepper. Ha-ha. I don't think he used the pulse function though, so that's his fault.
It's seriously a good machine for the price, and its fool proof.
The manual tells you which blade goes for which recipe, and just be sure not to over blend, that's why I see people complaining that their salsa was mush.
I haven't tried the juicer yet, but I read a review where someone was trying to juice carrots....
LOL the book says to use baby carrots, a normal sized carrot is to touch and big for the machine... this is why I emphasize using common sense with the machine.
Two thumbs up from me!
Customer Review: Painfully Noisy and Inadequate Blender
Summary: 2 Stars
In my opinion: This small blender-like device is perhaps the noisiest home machine that I have ever used in my entire 45 years. The sound is earsplitting, painfully so.
I have only attempted two different types of projects: to make salsa and mixed drinks. Both were failures. I did follow their tips and special instructions closely. Some steps require more preliminary prep time or adding more liquid than one would normally do with a blender. The salsa was foamy, some parts were overprocessed but there were also big chunks of unprocessed vegetables. The herb cilantro just whirled around the edges and was not chopped at all.
The mixed drink I tried was a Frozen Margarita. Although I liked the texture of the blended ice, there were large chunks of of practically whole ice cubes left over. I tried the shake technique to get the cubes in contact with blades to no avail. Worse yet, the motor appeared to cease after repeated attempts and the black blade/lid came loose.
My Oster Blender works better and cost half the price.
The other weird thing I noticed was a strong petroleum-like smell of the two black blade bases even after I washed them in hot, soapy water. This concerned me because the smell was different than a new plastic smell and still exists. I am concerned about food contamination if it is caused by some lubricant being used in its manufacture.
This was a gift so I feel I am stuck with it--I almost wonder if it was a "re-gift." I was disappointed as I had seen the infomercial which made this device look so appealing--I really wished it worked!
Customer Review: Good miniature blender but dangerous to hand wash
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this for one basic purpose: to make smoothies quick and easy. It serves that purpose well. I throw some frozen fruit, yogurt and juice into one of the cups in the morning, blend until the sound of the blade hitting frozen food stops, rinse off the blade and I'm done and ready for another one the next morning.
The only real problem comes when I try to wash the cups at the end of the day. They are a bit on the small side for my hands. This wouldn't be a problem if the plastic on the open end of the cup weren't sharp enough to cut a carrot. When I first tried washing them, I would scrape up the knuckle of my pinky finger and the back of my thumb trying to get my hand far enough inside of it to clean the bottom of the cups. I skipped that and decided to use a dish-washing brush with a handle so I wouldn't need to jam my finger down there. Well in the process running the brush around the circumference of the inside of the bottom of the cup, I still managed to slice my thumb when it got too close to the top of the cup.
I don't go through enough dishes to warrant running the dishwasher daily (or even every two or three days) and I like to keep a clean kitchen so I wash dishes by hand pretty regularly. After the last cut on my thumb, I think I'm going to sand the top of the cups to a smooth finish. If they would have done something similar or rounded the edges, even if slightly, this would get four stars.
PS: If you're trying to decide between this and the cheaper Bella Cucina Rocket Blender, go with this. The Rocket lasted me about two months and their "customer service" was dreadful.
Customer Review: Disappointed initially
Summary: 2 Stars
The pro's - it is small and really doesn't take up much counter space. It is very easy to clean. Like the set up of it, with the blades being the lids you screw on.
The con's - it mushed veggies. I followed the instructions exactly. I made five batches of salsa tonight, and although some were marginally better than others, I would never serve it. I used pulse technique a instructed. BUT... ended up over=processing some things because other things were bouncing around whole and not getting chopped at all. So tomatoes were total mush and onions were almost whole.
This is all I have made so far, but very disappointed as I was looking forward to having fresh salsa everyday.
UPDATE - I've tried making additional things now. It does make great scrambled eggs and veggies with cheese.
Made an iced mocha and it there were small ice particles throughout drink, which I didn't like.
Have learned to get better results by NOT doing things "by the book" WHen making chicken salad or egg salad, I don't put the mayo in at all - that tends to gunk it up. It works better in small batches, empty into bowl, and process more small batches. Then I just add mayo, relish, whatever to the bowl itself and stir it together. Works much better that way.
Made salsa last night. Chopped the onions seperately, took them out, then put in all the other ingredients and pulsed them, then added them in bowl with onions and mixed together. Much better results.
I would upgrade to 3 stars now.