Best Blender For Green Smoothies

Making green smoothies require a really good blender.

The same blender that your friends might take out for summer parties when they are blending up a batch of frozen daiquiris or margaritas, is not the type of blender you want if you are making healthy green smoothies.

That said, a blender that can handle a green smoothie can also make an amazing frozen margaritas.

You can get away with using a cheap blender for frozen drinks, whereas you really can’t make a green smoothie with a cheap blender.

What you will end up with is a mess that doesn’t taste good, has a bad texture, and will turn you off drinking health smoothies.

Table of Contents

Why Do You Need A Special Blender To Make Green Smoothies

That’s the big question people have when they first start looking to make green smoothies. Why the expensive blender? Why can’t you just get a cheap blender? Well, it all comes down to the ingredients that constitute a green smoothie. If you were to blend up only frozen fruit and milk or yogurt, then you could probably make due with something like a high end bullet blender (even when buying a bullet style blender you want to make sure you don’t get a cheap one, for reasons I’ll explain later).

But green smoothies are made of vegetables that are often referred to as “fibrous vegetables”. Things such as kale and spinach are the two main ingredients that you need a good blender for. They just won’t blend up properly in a regular blender. If you try and make a green smoothie in bullet blender it just won’t blend up properly unless you only use microgreens and also have a top of the line blender.

What Problems Do Cheap Blender Pose?

The problem with cheap blenders are:

Excessive Heat
Poor Blending Ability
Leakage

Each of these things on it’s own is something you never want with a blender. But when you get a cheap blender, you will get all of them. The excessive heat is terrible because it makes the smoothie warm, which will make it taste gross. Secondly, the excessive heat also can destroy some of the important nutrients. Which is terrible thing, you’re not drinking green smoothies just for the taste right? You want the health benefits. And while the fiber will remain unharmed by the heat, things such as antioxidants and phytonutrients. So, the heat issue is a very serious one.

The poor blending ability of cheap blenders is the biggest problem that most people face. Cheap blenders simply won’t be able to blend up what you need. The resulting “green smoothie” will most likely turn out to be a mess that is simply disgusting to try and drink. You might liken it to a stew. It won’t be smooth enough or drinkable at all. The type of blender that is fine for making milkshakes and even fruit smoothies, simply can’t handle leafy greens and other ingredients necessary to make a green smoothie.

Leakage is another big issue. Some of the cheap blenders don’t have a tight seal and what you end up with a lot of the time is a big mess. You never want to have to deal with the blender base being mess up with spillage because that will require you cleaning it, and with cheap blenders, the more you have to clean the base, the higher likelihood that the blender will get water damage, which is a real concern with cheap blenders.

The Problem Of Heat and Green Smoothie Blenders

What you want to do is get a blender that is designed to process anything you might put into a green smoothie. This means that the blender needs a powerful motor and strong stainless steel blades.

These features will allow the blender to really blend up kale and spinach, whole lemons, almonds and walnuts, chia seeds, oats, avocado, coconut, and leafy greens. If you’ve already tried to make a healthy vegetable based smoothie in a small bullet style blender or a regular blender then you know how poor the results will be. It can be simply undrinkable. What you are left with is unblended soup.

A good green smoothie will be smooth, evenly textured, and taste great. It will also be cool. Remember that. You don’t want to have to keep your blender on for a long time because the heat created by low quality blenders is destructive.

Too much heat will destroy the enzymes in the fresh vegetables (this is one of the big reasons that cold press juicers are so popular). Also, besides the health factor that is involved in heat transfer, there is a also a problem of taste. Do you really want to drink a warm smoothie? No, of course not. This is one of the big reasons you want a powerful blender that can process everything without having to blender for a long time.

What To Look For When Choosing A Blender For Green Smoothies?

When you are looking for a smoothie blender, specifically one that will handle green smoothies, you need to look to make sure that the blender has all of the following features. Here’s some of the most important ones to check for.

Low Temperature

As mentioned earlier in the article, you should always opt for a blender that doesn’t create too much heat. Just remember heat destroys nutrients.

Strong Motor

A strong motor is essential for green smoothies because you are going to be blending up fibrous vegetables, remember them? They are the tough ones, the super healthy ones like kale and spinach. The stronger the motor, the faster the blender can blend them up. This means less heat, as well as a complete blend.

Easy To Clean

You never want to get a blender that is a headache to clean. What you will end up with is a very expensive of kitchen furniture. The harder it is to clean something, the less likely it is that you will use it. Most people don’t like extensive cleaning, so they just eventually stop using there blender.

Easy To Operate

Lots of bells and whistles isn’t necessarily a good thing. This is one reason that the Vitamix is so popular, it’s super easy to operate considering it’s the best blender for green smoothies on the market. You want a simple to use blender, not something

#1 Best Blender For Green Smoothies – Vitamix

Seriously, there is not other option if you are serious about making green smoothies. This is the single most reliable and easy to use blender for your goals. It handles any task you throw at it. It’s simple to use, hardworking, and super durable. Just read some of the reviews and see for yourself.

It’s the best. That’s all that you need to know. It is an easy to clean blender (just add a bit of soap and blend up some water). It’s simple to use. And most importantly, it will blend up the greens better than any blender for the money.

These blenders are really quality.

They are designed to heavy work.

Everything from Green Smoothies, Soups, Nut Butters, and anything else you could think of.

There are other blenders that you can get that are fine for making fruit smoothies or if you’re looking to make protein shakes (I’ve got a review of the best blenders for bodybuilders which covers how to blend up protein powder) but if you’re looking to juice leafy greens to make green smoothies to benefit from all of the health benefits, then you really need to get the Vitamix.

Read Reviews Here

#2 Best Blender For Green Smoothies – Ninja Professional

The Ninja Blender is my second go to recommendation. It’s a great all around blender, and you can make green smoothies in it. But you have to use microgreens and baby spinach for best results.

I like the Ninja blender, and I have blended up greens in it. While it does not work as well as a Vitamix, in my opinion, it’sa viable option if you don’t have the budget for a vitamix right now.

I’ve even used the Ninja blender to blend up parsley,which is a very tough green, so it is capable. Just not the number one pick.

I’d consider this a good entry level blender. This blender would be for the people who are not sure that they’ll end up making smoothies consistently and want to ensure that they are not going to waste money for something that they don’t end up using. If you buy this blender and end up not using it that much because you simply aren’t into making smoothies for some reason after a few weeks, then you’ve not spent much money.

And, if you decide that you do want to move up in year, then you can always get the more expensive BlendTec or Vitamix.

Even though I’ve listed this as #2, it’s not a good pick if you want to use regular Kale or Spinach. You have to use microgreens and baby kale/spinach

The Ninja Foodie Cold and Hot Blender (Glass Pitcher)

So, this is finally a blender with a Glass Pitcher. I know that there are a lot of you out there that ask about these. And for good reason, not many people like to use plastic.

Now, when it comes to making green smoothies, I actually don’t have an issue with using BPA free plastic blender pitchers. It’s not a huge issue because you are not going to heating up the greens when you’re making a green smoothie.

On the other hand, it’s always nice to have a green smoothie blender that can do other things as well!

And one of the best uses for a blender is to make and puree soups. I’ve made soups before using a Ninja blender and what I had to do was let the soup cool down. It’s not a good use of time. It’s better to either have an immersion blender that you can use and stick right into the soup, or else get a blender that can handle heat!

This Ninja blender does just that. It’s made with a heat resistant glass blender pitcher. So, you can make hot (or cold) items in it.

The reason that I include it here on my review of the best blenders for green smoothies is that it’s also so good at making green smoothies.

There is even a touch button on the blender control panel that tells you its for Smoothies!

And Ninja has even taken the idea of a plunger and incorporated it into their design. It’s something that used to be only found in Vitamix blenders. But it’s something that is very useful, especially when you’re trying to make sure that the kale or spinach gets down to the blades.

That’s one of the issues when you make green smoothies. The kale or spinach tends to get bunched up and doesn’t get to the blades. So, having a blending plunger is a really nice feature to have on your blender.

You can read reviews about the Ninja blender here.

Do you have a favoriate blender that I forgot? Let me know down below and also don’t be shy about letting me know your experience with any of the blenders I’ve written about above!
Thanks!

Jenny