My husband recently started going to the gym heaps more and he wanted to get on board the 'green smoothie train' so he was at the point of also wanting a better blender.
I watched countless comparison videos, comparing the Vitamix to other high speed blenders. They left me more confused and a little apprehensive. Which one do I buy??? When presented with too many options, I get a little overwhelmed.
As we all know, the Vitamix costs a LOT of money. This, obviously is a massive deciding factor for many people, us included! The reviews I had read online are not great. They are ok, but for that price, the blender should also be able to wash the dishes and vacuum the floor for me!
I was under pressure, I was *this* close to ordering one a few months back, seriously, I was going online to buy one. I googled 'Vitamix Australia' and the first thing that came up was an advert to the Froothie website. It had the description "do not buy this blender - trial the Optimum blender for $471".
It was a sign! I was actually terrified of buying a Vitamix anyway, just in case it didn't live up to the hype... Or in case something went wrong with it, from what I've read, their customer service isn't great.
So, I clicked on the Froothie link to check it out!!
The Optimum 9400 blender looked JUST like the Vitamix, it had the tamper tool and everything. The specs on the Optimum showed it was even MORE powerful (a video showed it grinding up garden stones into dust!!!!!) than the Vitamix and it was HALF the price! I was pretty much sold at this point, however, I jumped onto the review sites, as you do, and had a bit of a read. I was very impressed with what I was seeing. It was really reassuring to read that people were extremely happy with the Optimum blender AND that the Froothie customer service team were also fantastic. Some people that had reported issues/faults with the blender on the review sites, had Froothie comment and help them out with replacement parts with no questions asked. THIS was the final decider for me.
I didn't have the gut wrenching, bad feeling I had when I was about to purchase the Vitamix.
So I purchased the Optimum 9400 from the Froothie website straight away! I ordered the silver one.
Shipping was supposed to take only 1-2 days (we are located in the same city as the warehouse) but because they were waiting on a shipment of the silver ones (just my luck!), I received mine in about 4 business days, which is still pretty good.
Unpacking the box was exciting, the blender was well packaged and it came with a raw food recipe booklet, a nut milk bag and the tamper tool.
I gave it a clean straight away and then made a fruit juice in it. I was really keen to see how it handled harder vegetables like carrot and beetroot and also how smooth it made the drink if it had seeds or nuts in it.
I made a juice with beet root, apple, orange, coconut water and some flaxseeds.... To my delight, it turned out smooth as silk. It makes a mean smoothie, I've made orange and poppyseed cake batter in it, I've made fresh fruit icy poles for the kids with it. It is actually, so good.
It had a pretty awful burning chemical smell that came from it while blending, which concerned me, but in the booklet it assures that this is normal for new machines. It is excess motor oil burning off and will go away within a few months of use.
It has now been a few months, with regular daily use and the smell has mostly gone away but not entirely.
Back onto a positive note though...!
I have made flour from quinoa (in photo below) that turned out amazing.
I've made almond meal, flax meal and one of my personal faves, hoummus! Yum!
I use it almost daily for smoothies, juices and dips and my husband uses it daily also, for smoothies after the gym.
When making anything thicker than a smoothie, it is quite hard to get the last bit out of the bottom of the blender because the blades are in the way and you can't remove them.
When making anything thicker than a smoothie, it is quite hard to get the last bit out of the bottom of the blender because the blades are in the way and you can't remove them.
The clean up is easy though. I usually just give it a rinse with water straight away to prevent stuff getting stuck to the jug. You can also half fill it with warm water and a tiny bit of detergent and pop it onto the base and turn it on. This ensures it gets any bits that might have been trapped in the blades.
Easy as!
The ONLY real problem I've had with it so far, is when I was making chocolate blackbean brownie batter in it, it overheated and turned itself off. I was a little worried that it blew up :-/
I turned it off, took the jug off and let the motor cool down while I finished stirring the batter with a spatula and scooping it onto a tray to go in the oven.
After 10 minutes I put water in the jug to clean the chocolate batter out. I put it back onto the base, turned it on and hoped for the best.... It worked. Phew!!!
I can only think that the batter was a little thick for the blender? I'm not sure... As it's coming into summer here in Australia, it's going to get a very thourogh work out making raw cakes and ice creams, so I'll update this post again in a few months to let you all know how it's going and if I've encountered any more problems.
One thing I do recommend buyng though, that doesn't come with the Optimum, is a silicone scraper. Using a metal spoon is not a good idea to scoop out your food because it WILL scratch the jug badly.
I purchased a bundle of 3 or 4 silicone spatula spoons with wooden handles, from Coles, for about $5.00. So worth it t keep your jug in tip top shape!
So far though, I'm VERY happy with the blender!!
So far though, I'm VERY happy with the blender!!
PS. Sorry for the lack of photos, I honestly didn't think I'd ever write a review for this, but because I'm so happy with it, I kinda felt like I needed to!
