Here’s A Cheaper, Smaller Vitamix That’s Totally Worth It

For Bon Appetit, by Chris Morocco.

Living in New York City has compelled me to make some hard choices about kitchen appliances. So has my wife, who has now instituted a one-in, one-out rule about bringing anything new into the kitchen. (Luckily she doesn’t know where I keep my collection of cooking knives). My food processor didn’t make the cut, or the slow juicer. Any tool that does just one thing and has to be stored in the closet under our towels—they don't stand a chance.

One appliance that has earned its counter space for the past three years is my Vitamix S30. It’s smaller than the regular model, and very compact, but the small footprint is just one of its many virtues. You can leave it on the counter all the time, where it waits for you to realize that it is the perfect thing to puree your hummus, crush your ice, or shred your stale bread into crumbs. Oh yeah, and Parmesan? Just blitz chunks of Parm into perfectly-sized granules in seconds. It will make it that much easier to put more cheese on everything. Forget trying to store those food processor shredding blades (each one of those is like a coupon for a day in the ER with my toddler).

It's absurdly powerful, even for the smallest amounts. Unlike most blenders that go from 0 to 60 when turned on, sending everything flying against the sides of the blender and nowhere near the blades, it starts with a whispered rumble, before going all the way to a big V8 howl that gets the kids screaming right along with it. It’s expensive, but using it feels like that time you got to drive your uncle’s Porsche when you were 16, only this time you get a smoothie at the end.

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