Our Smart Vitamix
As aspiring home chefs and fans of Top Chef and other cooking shows, we have been coveting a Vitamix for years. We have seen them demonstrated at Costco and other kitchen stores with someone whipping up all kinds of yummy and healthy food effortlessly. But why get a regular blender when you can get a connected, smart Vitamix?
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Finally, Vitamix added connectivity this holiday season so we splurged and bought a Vitamix from their new Ascent line, the A3500 Brushed Stainless Steel blender and the accompanying Perfect Blend Smart Scale and Recipe app.
The Ascent series of blenders are the same high-performance precision blenders you would expect from Vitamix, with the addition of wireless connectivity and a system of Self-Detect containers and accessories to help you measure ingredients and prepare recipes with ease. By using the smart containers, your Vitamix knows exactly what size vessel you are using and adjusts the blend settings accordingly, giving you a perfect mix everytime.
Our Ascent Series 3500 Vitamix Smart System Blender came with a standard 64-ounce Smart Detect Container that will work for most cooking jobs. We also added a smaller 48-ounce container which is great for smoothies and the Perfect Blend Smart Scale.
Our primary motivation for buying our Vitamix was to start making more healthy fruit smoothies. Making a smoothie yourself isn’t really that hard, but it is difficult to get the balance right of liquids, ice, fruit and greens to make something that has just that right consistency that you want to enjoy morning after morning.
There are hundreds of recipes in books and online to help, but when you are following them, they call for ingredients like “200 grams of spinach,” or “half a cup of banana.” How do you figure out what 200 grams of spinach or half a cup of banana actually is? Do you get a home scale and weigh the spinach out everytime? Or do you smash a banana into a dry measuring cup? Experienced chefs probably can just eyeball it but we don’t have those skills.
That’s where the Perfect Scale comes in. Just find your recipe on the Perfect Blend app, connect the scale to your phone, and the app guides you to put in just the right amount of each ingredient in the connected container without guessing. And if you put too much, the app adjusts the recipe accordingly, including figuring out the difference in calories. Once you have all your ingredients, the app sends the perfect blending cycle to the Vitamix via Bluetooth.
The Vitamix and Perfect Scale were so easy to use, we were able to make our very first smoothie and get it on video in just one take.
There are dozens of other recipes that come with the Vitamix app. So far we have only used it for smoothies, but we look forward to trying many more, especially the soups as the weather gets colder. Vitamix has also added many other new containers with the Self-Detect technology, ranging from blender bowls to blender cups, so you can make meals and store and serve them in the same container.
The app also has some other great features – you can adjust the serving size so you can make the exact amount you want, you can add items in your pantry so it will suggest recipes for what you have on hand, and it has a shopping list so you can get just what you need at the store for what you are creating. On iOS, it also syncs with Apple Health to keep an accurate count of your calories for the meals you make.
While our first experience with our smart Vitamix and the Perfect Blend Scale was flawless, it hasn’t always been perfect since. We have had occasional problems connecting with the Bluetooth both between the scale and the Vitamix itself. Generally we can address them by cycling power on the scale or the blender and re-calibrating. After a few frustrating errors and app updates, it does seem to have stabilized and it works more consistently now.
In addition to the Ascent 3500 we bought, Vitamix now offers a full range of connected and smart Vitamix blenders in more price ranges. If you are shopping for a connected Vitamix, make sure it includes the built-in wireless technology. It was difficult for us to find ours and at first we weren’t sure if we bought the right one.
We are looking forward to many more delicious meals with our smart Vitamix and trying out new and exciting recipes from the Vitamix app, and sharing them with here or in future videos.