You’ll get great margaritas no matter which blender you go with. Both blenders receive a top-notch rating here, serving up fruity drinks with a smooth, consistent texture. Icy drinks: To see how well blenders handle making smoothies, our testers whip up piña coladas, then drain the blended mixture through assorted sieve sizes to check how many bits of fruit and ice remain after blending. It’s available in black, white, stainless, graphite metal, copper, and red, and it has a generous 10-year warranty. The Ascent series also comes integrated with wireless connectivity so that you can download new programs and updates from its smartphone app. This Vitamix has a programmable timer for custom recipes-you set the desired time and the blender will turn off automatically. Starter kits that include an adapter and a cup cost $145 additional cups are $30. There’s a compatible 8-ounce cup and a 20-ounce cup that you can purchase separately, and you’ll need an adapter to use them with the blender base. Like the Ninja, this blender automatically adjusts its program settings and blending times to the container size you use, but you’ll get only the 8-cup jar with your purchase. You use a dial to choose one of 15 speeds, or you can pick a setting on the LCD touchscreen for smoothies, frozen desserts, dips, hot soups, or self-cleaning. At 17 inches tall, it’s only slightly shorter than the Ninja, but that difference means it will fit under most kitchen cabinets. Vitamix: The 1,440-watt Vitamix 3500, which is part of the brand’s Ascent series, has a plastic jar that holds 8 cups. It has a 1-year warranty and comes with a personal blender attachment, a food chopper attachment, and two 24-ounce cups with lids for taking smoothies on the go. The Ninja measures 18 inches high-a bit too high to fit under standard cabinetry on the counter. This blender features Ninja’s Auto-iQ technology, which automatically senses which jar is on the motor base and suggests presets to match. It also has a pulse function, a useful feature when you need a quick boost of power to get the right consistency and texture for a smoothie, for example. The touchpad controls have five speeds and preset buttons for making smoothies, crushing ice, extracting nutrients, chopping, and creating up to 2 pounds of dough.

Ninja: The Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System BN801 is a 1,400-watt blender with a 9-cup plastic container and removable blade.

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