Review: The Ninja Ultima blender

It’s been a while since I’ve done an old-fashioned product review! I’m excited to tell you about the Ninja Ultima blender. This thing is sweet! But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

First of all… look how pretty it is.

It’s lovely, but also quite functional. The base is very sturdy (read: heavy) and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to rocket off my counter when it’s blending at full speed!

Speaking of full speed – this thing has serious power. In fact, it has a 2.5 Peak Horsepower Motor (whatever that means) and can go as fast as 24,000 rotations per minute. That is a lot of blending! In addition to the sheer power, the blender works so well because it has two sets of blades – one at the bottom, where you’d find them in any blender, and the other in the middle of the pitcher itself. They call it Dual Stage Blending, and only the Ninja has it.

Of course, the way I first tested out this blender was with my famous green smoothies. I threw in spinach, cucumber, celery, parsley, apples, lemon, ice and ginger. I hit the “pulse” a few times and then turned the blender up to speed eight, and in less than a minute I had a seriously smooth smoothie.

Now, I’ve made a lot of green smoothies in the past couple of years, and I’ve used everything from another high-end blender to a stick blender, and while they got the job done, I ended up with chunky smoothies. No one wants to eat smoothies with a spoon, let me tell you. The fact that I could pour this concoction straight from the pitcher (using the handy built-in pour spout) was very impressive to me. Honestly, it was nearly the consistency of juice – but with all the fiber from the fruits and veggies that a juicer would have removed.

My next test was another of my favorite things – salsa.

Tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, garlic, lime – I threw it all in there, either whole (the tomatoes) or in big chunks (the onion).

Again, I pulsed it a couple of times and then turned the blender on, and within seconds I had restaurant-style salsa.

(As an aside, the Roma tomatoes gave the salsa the pinkish hue, which was weird. I won’t be using those again!)

Here’s another cool thing about the Ninja Ultima – it comes with two single-serving tumblers that you put directly onto the base of the blender. You get the full power of the Ninja, but in a ready-to-go cup.

I have been really, really impressed with this blender. It’s sturdy and safe, and really does an incredible job. It’s also dishwasher safe and easy to clean, which is of HUGE importance to me. Best of all – the Ninja Ultima blenders start at $199. While that’s an investment, to be sure, it’s about a third of the price of the only comparable blender.

I am already dreaming of making frozen drinks in it this summer!

To learn more about the Ninja Ultima blenders, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook!