I’m totally immune to TV commercials *cough*, and I accidentally saw an ad for the Smoothie Maker. It seemed to be the right gadget to make me eat more fruit, so I bought it. Not via TV because I don’t trust them; I bought it safely at Ebay. Want to know if the Smoothie Maker works as described?

The Smoothie Maker’s body is made of plastic, but it is quite robust and doesn’t look as cheap as I had expected. It’s available in white or red. I chose the latter because it looks nice in our apricot-colored kitchen. The suction cups on the Smoothie Maker’s bottom are supposed to attach firmly to your working surface. Ours is slightly textured, though. Duh.
You can see how easy and mess-free (LOL) the handling is supposed to be in various commericals: Simply fill the cup with some fruit and juice, attach it to the device, turn the cup upwards. It makes “SHRRRRRR”, and ten seconds later you can press the button and turn the cup downwards again, release it with a turn to the right and enjoy your fresh Smoothie.
So far for the theory.
In reality, the following happens: Anke doesn’t make sure that the cup is affixed tightly enough to the base unit, so when turning the cup upwards, the contents (healthy orange slices mixed with cherry juice) jump at the chance to explore the kitchen’s working surface and floor, fleeing their container in huge sploshes and covering the Smoothie Maker in sticky not-quite-smooth fruit slush. Startled and in a hurry, Anke forgets to press the button on the base unit’s side before turning the cup down again, causing the darn thing to almost topple over. Anke remembers to push the button, turns the cup downwards and tries to unscrew the cup. Which is impossible because everything’s slippery and the cup – thanks to faulty handling – was wedged in the base unit. So swipe everything clean first, unscrew the cup with some effort, feel like a complete idiot and try again. Only using water instead of juice this time.
My advice: Really try it with water first, attach the cup accurately to the base unit. The adjustment marks on both the cup and the base unit are foolproof (shame on me), the cup just has to be gripped firmly. You’ll soon get the hang of it ;)

As soon as you can handle it and don’t act like a complete fool, the Smoothie Maker is a great product! It’s really fast and easy, cleaning is a no-brainer just like in the commercial: Fill a cup with water, attach it, let it whirr. Do it a second time, and everything’s clean. Dab the water droplets away with a kitchen towel and you’re done. Some fruit tend to stick to the mixing unit, but these remaines can easily be removed with a toothpick. And once in a while you should clean the rubber gasket with a damp cloth.
Another advice: Work with dry hands, otherwise you can’t grip the cup firmly enough.

Want some recipes? I created my personal favorite:

Peel and break a ripe banana into pieces, put them in the cup and fill it with milk. Add 3 teaspoons of cocoa, mix it – mmmh!

Or cut up two peaches, add cherry juice and some vanilla sugar. Delicious! But believe me: Canned tangerines don’t make it better, on the contrary – the result went straight into the toilet.

Awesome yoghurt: Mix a cup of plain yoghurt with frozen or fresh raspberries, that’s a wonderful, refreshing snack!

Do you have a Smoothie Maker? If yes, are there any recipes I simply HAVE to try?