Blender Juicer Combo – Convenience or Compromise?
For anyone seeking to integrate a plant based diet into their wellness routine, we’ve spent over 20 years advocating juicers and blenders as the primary appliances to purchase first. For equally as long, some people have been arguing the false dichotomy of which is best, juices or blended smoothies? Our answer is that both are best and you don’t have to choose one over the other. We also suggest that many blended smoothies and soups are improved by adding juice as a liquid base. (Read about why juices and blends are categorically different, but equal here).
Even today we find people are sometimes confused by internet pundits referring to juice from a blender, and smoothies from a juicer. Is either even possible? Well, kind of, but generally speaking the best smoothies can’t be made in a juicer and the best juices can’t be made in a blender without a significant amount of faffing about.
Juicers allow the extraction of the easily digested, highly nutritious ‘essence’ of fruits and vegetables, leaving the fibre behind. Blenders can whizz up more substantial fruit and vegetable soups and smoothies, protein drinks and health shots, with the fibre left in, for anything from a snack to a full meal. Both machines take pride of place in the healthy kitchen and both do their own job. But what about combining the two machines?
Convenience Is Key
It’s certainly a great idea to have multi-functional kitchen appliances that save on the space needed for separate machines. If your kitchen space is compact, just this feature alone can be a deciding factor. Motor bases for blenders and juicers can be hefty objects that you would prefer not to be lifting in and out of storage when you need to use them. A combination unit with just one motor base reduces that hassle and for most people it can be left in situ on the worktop without taking up too much space. If designers get the functionality right, a blender juicer combo might well be more convenient for everyone, regardless of kitchen space. Unfortunately the performance of many of the examples available leaves much to be desired. However, recently there has been a huge leap forward which we’ll get to below, after understanding a little more about where the limitations of combining these appliances have previously been noticeable.
Design Compromise
Blender Juicer Combos have been around a long time. But finding one that is capable of all the juicing and blending tasks that are typically carried out in a healthy plant based kitchen has not always been easy. Many of the commonly available examples are based on a slight design compromise – they can’t offer the power needed to drive the blender blades fast enough for perfectly pulverised results across the full range of tasks commonly expected of them.
Until recently we have preferred to advise customers to purchase a separate high power blender. One with the horsepower needed for blending and heating soups from scratch, making nut butters and milks, and blending frozen desserts. This is because the majority of blender juicer combos are based on centrifugal juicers, which rarely generate enough blender blade force for smoother results on the tougher tasks. So generally speaking until recently many health enthusiasts would opt for a separate ‘super blender’ like a Vitamix or a Sage Super Q.
It is widely believed that the more finely pulverised and smoother the results, the better the availability of nutrients from your blends when you consume them. Discerning health enthusiasts look for the power needed for finer particles in the blends they create, particularly for recipes like plant based milks or green smoothies for example. However, if you are prepared to accept only a slight compromise on the versatility of the blender component The Sage 3X Bluicer Pro may be all that you need. This is a far more powerful example than most of the centrifugal juicer blender combos out there, with a 1350 watt motor that will give great results without constraining your repertoire too much.
The Nama C2 Juicer + Blender Combo – A Real Game Changer
It’s a tired cliché but every now and then a new development comes along that genuinely deserves the moniker of game changer. American wellness brand Nama has a reputation for excellent product design and this talent has previously put their ground breaking Nama J2 Batch Juicer into the ‘game changer’ category. Recently they’ve knocked it right out of the park again, with their new Nama C2 Juicer Blender combo. With this exceptional machine, Nama have addressed every limitation that previously had us recommending the ideal of owning a separate juicer and blender.
A Genuine, Zero Compromise, Juicer & Blender In One
The functionality of the Nama J2 Cold Press Batch Juicer is replicated with the same low speeds in the Nama C2 Juicer Blender combo. The no compromise ground up design of the high power dual function motor of the C2 allows eye watering blending speeds that effortlessly obliterate every ingredient you challenge it with. The blender side delivers silky smooth results with all fruit and vegetable blends and it has all the horsepower needed for all your plant based recipes. Whether it’s nut milks, raw soups, frozen desserts, health shots or green smoothies, the Nama C2 Juicer and Blender takes anything you can throw at it in its stride.
Nama’s reimagining of how to equip for the wellness lifestyle shows exceptional product development skill that continues to amaze us here at UK Juicers. Their growing family of kitchen appliances all have the same feature: everything they develop immediately outstrips the competition on any criteria you care to compare. Whether it’s pure performance, aesthetics, functionality, versatility, or any other metric, in our opinion they are just the absolute best in class.
The application of the latest technology in conjunction with the sheer beauty of how the engineering is presented in such an elegant machine has us in a quandary. We can no longer recommend that our customers buy a separate premium juicer and premium blender. The Nama C2 performs both functions just as well as – if not better than – owning separate appliances. It’s an object of rare elegance, and even with all its future tech of programmed cycles and hands free juicing, it will still come in at a lower cost than two separate machines that would struggle to match it for quality. Nama have answered the question in the title of this article. The Nama C2 offers convenience without compromise, and so much more besides.