By Favorite Kitchen Tool

After burning out a Brawn and then a Kitchen Aid stick blender I decided to try something a little more powerful. After a lot of research I decided to get the Bamix Deluxe (De Luxe). I have used my Bamix almost on a daily basis (often more than once) for about six months and I can say that I’m very happy with this purchase; this product does a great job. I would definitely recommend spending a little extra on this for anyone who wants:
• Extra power
• To froth up milk
• Use the blender for several minutes without worrying
• If you have blown out a stick blender in the past
• Want a new fun toy for the kitchen

The blender comes with three blades, a dry spice grinder, a CD and recipe book and a stand/wall mount).
Does not come with a cup or anything to mix in, an optional meat mincer blade (I’m not sure you would want to use this to mince meat anyway but I don’t know how well this works) (more details on this later)

I busted a Kitchen Aid crushing ice and my Brawn trying to grind flax seeds. My Bamix can easily do both. For the amount of money I spent on it I was hoping it could crush ice as quickly as a non-stick blender but it doesn't. Also, when I am making several shakes in a row or doing a lot of involved cooking where I need to use it several times in a short period, it gets warm. I don’t know if this is a problem. The instructions say not to use it for more than 5 minutes at a time. If I want to make several shakes I’m not sure how long I’m supposed to let it rest before I can use it again. I’m sure I have really pushed the envelope on the 5 minutes.

By far my favorite aspect is frothing milk. I use 1% milk (I assume you could use skim or any other type). I make a banana shake with a frozen banana about ½ to 2/3 cup of milk and a few pieces of ice (optional). I use one attachment to blend it together and a second attachment to whip it up. It comes out almost like whip cream. The Bamix doesn’t create flavor so if I whip a banana and a ½ cup of milk into 3-4 cups shake I sometimes add a little flavor (occasionally I add either protein powder, a few tablespoons of chocolate syrup or peanut butter, I also sometimes add a small handful of frozen berries, a packet of sweet n low, or even a little ice-cream).

One thing to note, rather than having separate heads for blending, mixing and whipping the Bamix was designed different. Just the tip comes off. There are 3 different tips. One is a chopper/mincer (great for fruit, vegetables, ice, blending soups, sauces…) , the second is a beater it's a small round blunt tip (aerates egg-whites, froths milk). The third is like a whisk (also it's round and looks similar to the beater making an emulsion, mayonnaise, drinks and other thick or creamy consistency). Also it comes with the dry grinder (for spices, cheese, chocolate, garlic...)There is an optional fourth blade (not included) that is used for grinding meats and vegetables with course fibers(like celery).

I have used all of the attachments many, many times (other than the meat and vegetable grinder that I don't own) and they are all great. Although the whisk does not look anything like a traditional whisk, it does a MUCH better job than my old immersion blenders did. Also, much less food gets caught in it because it’s just a little tip as opposed to beaters or a wire whisk. I wouldn’t think of using any other kitchen appliance for whipping stuff up.

The little attachment tips are good and bad. It is a pain to unplug the blender, stick your hand in the food to pull off a tip and replace it with a different tip. Also when I am cooking and I need to stop blending, I need to worry about what to do with the entire blender. I don’t trust it not to tip over if I leave it in a cup or another container. (The Brawn and Kitchen Aid the part that got in the food was separate from the base so I could leave the dirty part in the food to grab something and put the body of the blender on the counter, now I can’t do that. I need to get something dirty to rest the blender on until I’m done and ready to clean it. It’s a little messy when you are done you can’t just pop the top half off and stick it in the sink. I generally wash it right away but it’s a little of a pain. Also the tips are small. Rather than washing it right away (which I recommend) I once left one of the tips in the sink. I have an automatic disposal in my sink. Somehow the tip ended up getting into the disposal. (This happened the other day). The tip got knocked around a bit but we were able to fish it out. It still works great (It’s just scratched up)

On a positive note the tips are generally very easy to clean and much less food gets caught in them than in the other stick blenders I have used. They all work great. Also, the beater attachment is much more durable than the whisk type attachment that I had on my previous stick blenders. They ended up getting all bent out of shape

Of the blenders that I looked at only the Bamix listed the RPM's (rotations per minute) (10,000 on low and 15,000 on high). I don’t know what it was on the Brawn or Kitchen Aid but this is much more powerful.

The only other stick blender I found that said it could crush ice is the Brawn. There is a separate attachment and blade just for ice. (This is the Brawn I busted on the flax seed). This was a very slow two step process. Additionally it was really loud. I believe our neighbors knew when I was blending ice. (Now I grind my shakes on just one step. Add everything and blend). Other than that (as far as I know) none of the other stick blenders I found in my research said they could or should be used for crushing ice (which is one of the main things I use it for.) It is also an indication to me about how durable the blender is.

The Viking does not come with a dry spice grinder (that is a separate purchase for around $30).

The Bamix instructions say not to wash the dry spice grinder but just to wipe it out. They also say you can use it for garlic…? I wash it after I use it (maybe they meant not to put it into the dishwasher), and I have never had a problem.

The Deluxe does not come with the 900ml polycarbonate container for mixing that I have seen in many pictures. My wife thinks plastic is not safe anyway so we bought a 1L stainless steal cup at a restaurant supply shop. It works like a charm for my shakes. Additionally I noticed that I can blend/mix/whisk in almost any type of bowl or cup (as long as the head can fit inside). I’m not sure if this is recommended or not but I have used it in glass, ceramic bowls, I even made pesto in a Chinese takeout plastic soup container and then just stored it right in the same container.

My Bamix, it is much more quite than any of the other stick blenders I have used in the past.

The hand blender comes with a cookbook and a video. I’m an experienced home cook and I have just used them for ideas rather than following recipes so I can’t tell you the quality of the recipes. The recipes look good and are pretty varied.

There is one blade for grinding meat and stringy vegetables that does not come with it. Although I really don’t think I would use a stick blender to grind raw meat (I would use my food processor) I decided to order the additional tip anyway. It will arrive later this week. At this point it is almost like a toy for me and I just want to get some celery just to see what this blade can do. I truly don’t think I needed it but it was pretty inexpensive so I couldn’t resist.

I have many powerful gadgets in my kitchen. Most often when it comes to crushing, blending, mixing or whipping I turn to my Bamix. I work my equipment hard. My Bamix has never let me down.