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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a
demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. Costco is selling the item for $350 base price, which comes with a "wet" blade that works with drinks, soups, etc. The sell another "dry" blade that is used for grinding wheat and other grains ($75). We just had a $30 blender die on us last week, so we've been looking for a new blender. We are also very interested in grinding our own grains, so we've been looking at some wheat grinders (i.e., Wonder Mill), which run about $200-250. If we could get a juicer, mixer, food processor, and wheat grinder all in one machine, then I could see jumping at the $425 it would take to purchase it. I'd like to get some feedback from others who have used the product - especially as a wheat/grain grinder - before I spend the money. Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and its benefits would be much appreciated. Thanks! |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
said...
> I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a > demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I > couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally > amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba > Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup > all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was > amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also > grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. > > Costco is selling the item for $350 base price, which comes with a > "wet" blade that works with drinks, soups, etc. The sell another > "dry" blade that is used for grinding wheat and other grains ($75). > > We just had a $30 blender die on us last week, so we've been looking > for a new blender. We are also very interested in grinding our own > grains, so we've been looking at some wheat grinders (i.e., Wonder > Mill), which run about $200-250. > > If we could get a juicer, mixer, food processor, and wheat grinder all > in one machine, then I could see jumping at the $425 it would take to > purchase it. I'd like to get some feedback from others who have used > the product - especially as a wheat/grain grinder - before I spend the > money. > > Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and > its benefits would be much appreciated. > > Thanks! I gifted one to my BIL about 10 years ago after he wouldn't shut up about it after seeing the demonstration. He's about as down home as they come. Fishing with a .45 etc. He about melted in my arms when he opened it. I'd give it two thumbs up but I don't wanna give him something to shoot at. <VBG> Andy |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Mar 31, 2:29 pm, wrote:
> I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a > demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I > couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally > amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba > Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup > all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was > amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also > grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. > > Costco is selling the item for $350 base price, which comes with a > "wet" blade that works with drinks, soups, etc. The sell another > "dry" blade that is used for grinding wheat and other grains ($75). > > We just had a $30 blender die on us last week, so we've been looking > for a new blender. We are also very interested in grinding our own > grains, so we've been looking at some wheat grinders (i.e., Wonder > Mill), which run about $200-250. > > If we could get a juicer, mixer, food processor, and wheat grinder all > in one machine, then I could see jumping at the $425 it would take to > purchase it. I'd like to get some feedback from others who have used > the product - especially as a wheat/grain grinder - before I spend the > money. > > Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and > its benefits would be much appreciated. > > Thanks! I think $425 is a good price for a vita-mix; however, I don't check prices on them. Maybe it is that Costco offers that better price than Vita-Mix itself. I assume you've compared prices at Vita-Mix. I do not use it for all the things it mentions. I still prefer my Kitchen-Aid food processor, Kitchen-Aid mixer; it doesn't juice, but blends; you will have to have a 'juicer,' if juice is what you want. I would compare a juicer to a Vita-Mix similar to jelly vs. jam in its final stage. I will use it for almonds, not wanting to dull the blade of my fp which I use often. I tried to make bread in it -- yuk! I tried making soup in it, but that's not my style -- I make a huge pot of soup. I have ground wheat in the dry part and it does a decent job -- better than a grinder that I had -- won't mention the brand, but it was a good one. I don't buy juice in a juice bar, but if you like thick creamy juice drinks, and want nutrition, it's great. Another thing: If you are doing something in a fp and it consists of lots of liquids, you're better off using theVita-Mix. Easy enough to clean. And, of course, I don't put any part of it in the dishwasher. All the people I've talked to who have bought a Vita-Mix have been really excited about them and want them RIGHT AWAY! Good luck on your decision. Dee |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Mar 31, 3:11 pm, "Elmo P. Shagnasty" > wrote:
> In article >, Andy <q> wrote: > > I gifted one to my BIL > > no, you gave one to your BIL. > > There is no such word as "gifted". Actually, every dictionary I've referenced (Webster's, Encarta, and www.dictionary.com) all indicate that "gift" can be a noun or a verb, and it appears that Andy - who was nice enough to respond to my post and stay on topic - used it properly. |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article >, Andy <q> wrote: > >> I gifted one to my BIL > > no, you gave one to your BIL. > > There is no such word as "gifted". Verbing weirds the language. -- Blinky RLU 297263 Killing all posts from Google Groups The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html |
Posted to rec.food.equipment
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
In article . com>,
says... > I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a > demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I > couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally > amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba > Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup > all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was > amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also > grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. > > Costco is selling the item for $350 base price, which comes with a > "wet" blade that works with drinks, soups, etc. The sell another > "dry" blade that is used for grinding wheat and other grains ($75). > > We just had a $30 blender die on us last week, so we've been looking > for a new blender. We are also very interested in grinding our own > grains, so we've been looking at some wheat grinders (i.e., Wonder > Mill), which run about $200-250. > > If we could get a juicer, mixer, food processor, and wheat grinder all > in one machine, then I could see jumping at the $425 it would take to > purchase it. I'd like to get some feedback from others who have used > the product - especially as a wheat/grain grinder - before I spend the > money. > > Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and > its benefits would be much appreciated. > > Thanks! > > The Costco price on the VitaMix is a pretty good deal. You do save a bit over buying new from other sources, including the factory. The machine definitely will do all the stuff that they demonstrated and more, and will do it for a long time. Among the few people I know that own or have owned them, I've yet to hear of a problem that wasn't self- inflicted. I tried making bread dough from wheat berries in our VitaMix once, and didn't think the results were worth the bother. YMMV. The machine does do a decent job of chopping whole grains, but the results will be pretty uneven if you stop processing before the flour starts to heat up perceptibly, which is supposed to be a bad thing. No way can the VitaMix be considered the equivalent of a grain mill To me the VitaMix's value as a grain processor is that it gives me a way to efficiently crack/chop useful quantiites of whole grains for adding to bread or cereal mixtures that will then be prepared and cooked "normally"; e.g., dough kneaded by hand and baked in the oven or kneaded and baked in a bread machine, whole-grain cereal slow-cooked in a crockpot, etc. Bob |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
In article >,
"Elmo P. Shagnasty" > wrote: > In article >, Andy <q> wrote: > > > I gifted one to my BIL > > no, you gave one to your BIL. > > There is no such word as "gifted". Of course there is, how silly. |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
Elmo P. Shagnasty said...
> In article >, Andy <q> wrote: > >> I gifted one to my BIL > > no, you gave one to your BIL. > > There is no such word as "gifted". If Uncle Sam says I can gift $10,000 annually to whomever I please, that's good enough for me. Stay in school! Andy |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:13:05 -0400, "Elmo P. Shagnasty" >
wrote: >> > There is no such word as "gifted". >> >> Of course there is, how silly. > >There is no verb "to gift". > >How silly to think there is. Wrong. Better read William Safire's "On Language" from the Sunday before last, specifically about the continuous "verbification" process of the English language. -- Larry |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Mar 31, 2:29 pm, wrote:
> Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and > its benefits would be much appreciated. I have one. Even bought an extra blending container with the nifty pouring spigot. Do I use it? About twice a year to powder egg shells for fertilizing the fruit trees. And hey... it does a great job making powdered sugar too. Otherwise it sits in the cellar. A powerful immersion blender (not the same as the stick blenders seen on TV) is orders of magnitude more useful. You can mix/blend/puree right in your sauce pots (or crock pots) while cooking. With the Vita Mixer... blending hot food is a sure fire way to have stuff on your ceiling (and everywhere else as well). You can bet the demo showed everything from a cold start. I often make smoothies for the kids with the immersion blender. Even the cleanup is easier. |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
Elmo P. Shagnasty said...
> In article >, > pltrgyst > wrote: > >> >There is no verb "to gift". >> > >> >How silly to think there is. >> >> Wrong. Better read William Safire's "On Language" from the Sunday >> before last, specifically about the continuous "verbification" process >> of the English language. > > AKA the "stupidification" process brought about by stupid people. Elmo You easily managed to elevate your status way beyond stupid to laughable. Save your IQ! Don't type. Andy |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On 31 Mar 2007 11:29:13 -0700, wrote:
> I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a > demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I > couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally > amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba > Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup > all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was > amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also > grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. > OK, I am the proud owner of a Vitamix Maxi-4000, the last stainless steel version made... and it's been with me for gotta be close to 20 years. Other than that the plastic Action Dome is developing cracks, it works fine, no problems. But then, it had a 7 year warranty on the motor when I bought it, LOL! Anyway, there's only one choice of blade on my model and it does both wet and dry. I have used it in the past to grind wheat berries into wheat flour. It did this just fine. However, it *does* heat up the flour somewhat, which may not be entirely desireable. I didn't have a problem with it. As I've married since I bought my Vitamix and hubby is diabetic... I don't do the wheat grinding thing so much anymore. I still DO regularly use the Vitamix to grind flax seeds into meal. Just did a batch the other day. In the past, I tried the ice cream thing and it works, but I'm not that big of an ice cream person, so never really did that more than a couple times. Chopping veggies... I didn't care for that done in the Vitamixer. Use a knife or food processor. Making soup... I think I did that once or twice, but really prefer to make a large pot of soup on the stove. Tried making bread dough in it once... didn't care for it for that purpose, my bread machine does it better. I do remember it made a SUPER fresh applesauce when my landlady had an apple tree. Never tasted anything like it before! May have partly been the fresh grown apples though. I use my Vitamixer constantly for shakes and smoothies, which it does a ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL job on! Last night, after a hard weight workout, I popped an apple (cored, but NOT peeled) in, some plain yogurt, some cottage cheese, some rolled oats, flax meal, almonds, protein powder, greens plus vitamins, cinnamon and ice in last night for a delicious shake. Anyway, if you want a blender that lasts... they do! And are easy to clean. If the cost is bugging you, you could probably pick up an older model like the 4000 on eBay for $150-250. I know if mine ever goes, I'll probably be trying to replace it, with either a new one or another old steel one. Cynthia |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article >, > pltrgyst > wrote: > >> >There is no verb "to gift". >> > >> >How silly to think there is. >> >> Wrong. Better read William Safire's "On Language" from the Sunday before last, >> specifically about the continuous "verbification" process of the English >> language. > > AKA the "stupidification" process brought about by stupid people. Our language is being stupided! -- Blinky RLU 297263 Killing all posts from Google Groups The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 11:53:04 -0400, "Elmo P. Shagnasty" >
wrote: >In article >, > pltrgyst > wrote: > >> >There is no verb "to gift". >> > >> >How silly to think there is. >> >> Wrong. Better read William Safire's "On Language" from the Sunday before last, >> specifically about the continuous "verbification" process of the English >> language. > >AKA the "stupidification" process brought about by stupid people. Right. And you'd still be comfortable speaking Elizabethan English? -- Larry |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On 1 Apr 2007 18:59:49 GMT, Blinky the Shark > wrote:
>>> >There is no verb "to gift". >>> > >>> >How silly to think there is. >>> >>> Wrong. Better read William Safire's "On Language" from the Sunday before last, >>> specifically about the continuous "verbification" process of the English >>> language. >> >> AKA the "stupidification" process brought about by stupid people. > >Our language is being stupided! Thank you, Mr. Bush... 8 -- Larry |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
In article . com>,
says... > I was just at Costco this week (in Arizona), and I started watching a > demonstration of the Vita Mix machine. (http://www.vitamix.com/) I > couldn't pull myself away from the demonstration, and I was literally > amazed at how the machine made a fruit smoothie (just like Jamba > Juice), a frozen ice cream mix of fruit, and some hot tortilla soup > all in less than 10 minutes. I sampled each of the products and was > amazed at how good they were. Then, when I learned that it can also > grind wheat and other grains, I was almost sold on the product. > > Costco is selling the item for $350 base price, which comes with a > "wet" blade that works with drinks, soups, etc. The sell another > "dry" blade that is used for grinding wheat and other grains ($75). > > We just had a $30 blender die on us last week, so we've been looking > for a new blender. We are also very interested in grinding our own > grains, so we've been looking at some wheat grinders (i.e., Wonder > Mill), which run about $200-250. > > If we could get a juicer, mixer, food processor, and wheat grinder all > in one machine, then I could see jumping at the $425 it would take to > purchase it. I'd like to get some feedback from others who have used > the product - especially as a wheat/grain grinder - before I spend the > money. > > Any feedback on the product in general and on the dry blade setup and > its benefits would be much appreciated. > > Thanks! > > I do not have any experience with the machine, but I do know that any tool that claims to do so many things really well is a rip-off 99.9% of the time. Remember that those demos are cleverly scripted to wow the audience. -- Peter Aitken |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
On Apr 3, 5:10 pm, Peter A > wrote:
> > I do not have any experience with the machine, but I do know that any > tool that claims to do so many things really well is a rip-off 99.9% of > the time. Remember that those demos are cleverly scripted to wow the > audience. > > -- > Peter Aitken- Hide quoted text - > They do make many claims for the machine, and I've tried some, if not most of the chores that it says it will do. It is a powerful machine. I can't equate it with the TV commercial-type machines; it's much more. My recommendation: if you can afford it and want it, buy it. It is not a necessity, no need to get worried about it. Dee |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
The Vita Mix is a great blender. But no, it is not a universal machine that
takes the place of a food processor, mixer, stick blender, stock pot, and clock radio. For smoothies, shakes, turning almost anything into liquid / paste, etc, it does a wonderful job. It is not reasonable to compare this powerful and pricey machine to a $30 blender as some do. There are other powerful blenders on the market, and it is more reasonably compared to those. |
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Vita Mix blender/juicer/grinder at Costco
We just lost our blender (a cheap, simple model) from trying to make
too many shakes and smoothies in it. We're also interested in buying a wheat grinder, but I'm becoming convinced that the Vita-Mix is not the best machine to use as a wheat grinder. Can anyone recommend a high-quality blender that could compare to the Vita-Mix in terms of blending power? Also, another "all in one" machine I've been hearing about as I've shopped around is the Bosch system. I know there are a bunch of attachments for the Bosch (and maybe this would be better off as its own thread), but I'm wondering if it's a better "all in one" machine than the Vita-Mix. Thanks for all the info. |
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