Greetings.

Gotta get my basement oasis stocked and outfitted. I've hit a true snag with blender selection. Usually I can shop around to find the ne plus ultra in a given product category, but this blender thing has me flummoxed!

Which is the ultimate blender?

(I've looked at Island Oasis machines, but they are beyond my budget.)

On a semi-related note. If I look for a blender from south of the equator, will it spin the opposite way? Since we like Polynesian drinks, should I be looking for a reverse polarity brand? :lol:

After burning out an Osterizer and typical home version Waring, we finally went to a restaurant supply store to buy our blender. We went professional and got a 2 speed Waring Commercial Blender - we use it daily and have not had any issues with it.

On 2003-01-20 15:33, Futura Girl wrote:
We went professional and got a 2 speed Waring Commercial Blender - we use it daily and have not had any issues with it.

Why is it that commercial blenders only have two speeds, but home models have lots of variable speeds? Is it because commercial ones have more powerful motors?

--cyn

I also use a Waring Commercial Blender, and I've never had any trouble at all with it. It also looks pretty swank. We had trouble with other blenders.

Blender at Williams-Sonoma

I bought it a few years back at Williams-Sonoma, where I'm sure I inappropriately paid top dollar for the sucker. But even at that price, it's been great.

I went with the KitchenAid Professional w/Stainless Steel Jar. It crushes ice like a champ. Makes a mean Painkiller or Soy Protein shake (depending on when my Atkins diet kicks in).

You can't go wrong with the Waring Pro-Model - I have had my for 5 years and haven't had a bit of trouble!

I have a cheap, plastic Hamilton Beach blender with 7 speeds that I have owned for at least a dozen years. It has been used for little other than making drinks, but it has served that purpose admirably. It could probably crush ice a little better, it has a tendency to leave chunks, but other than that I have not had a problem wiht it. Seems to me a blender is pretty much a blender. But I could be wrong.

We bought a cool older Osterizer with the beehive design at a flea market. It works great so far, but we haven't had it very long. Do you guys use a separate ice crusher? We have a 70's Snowflake crusher that works great, so we usually don't use the blender for ice crushing. We also have an old chrome Juice King juicer...what kind of juicer do you all prefer? Just curious about how everyone outfits their bar!

Happy Tiki Hunting!

I just got a seperate ice crusher for x-mas. It has a hand crank. I intend to give it a workout this weekend. I was wrapping ice in a towel and hitting it with a hammer.

We use a vintage chrome Osterizer and it has not failed us. The spindle wore smooth and we had it replaced. Crushes ice, or whatever.

The hand crank ice crushers are about worthless to me. Mine is vintage and it does the job okay, but it melts more ice than it crushes. I helped the problem for a while by keeping it in the fridge, but who has space for that?

I use an old Waring "Blendor" for blending drinks, an old hand crank ice crusher for making cracked ice, a new hand crank ice shaver for drinks calling for crushed ice, a juice-o-mat for serious juicing jobs, and a hand juicer for small jobs.

Just in terms of Polynesian Cocktails:

Tony Ramos, master mixologist at Don The Beachcomber and Madame Wu's, taught me and the Beachbum this:
Part of the lost tradition of authentic Polynesian Potion Mixing is that they are to be mixed with top mixers only, of which the Hamilton Beach blenders are the classics. You can still find those at antique stalls, and they have been re-made by (?) as lighter, inexpensive retro ware.
Glass cylinder bottom mixers are too frothy and came into use when the Margharitas took over from the Mai Tais. As Polynesian cocktails fell out of fashion (and were shoddily mixed, if at all), so did Hamilton Beach blenders.

I've been looking for one of those old Hamilton Beach drinkmasters for a long time. The old ones in good shape usually sell for over $100. They make new versions but they don't have quite the look of the original jadite or black ones. I once bid on an old black ceramic one on Ebay that was sold by Bacardi in the 30's and the metal label said "rum-master" but I got way overbid on it ($275).

Of course at the Tiki Ti all they use are the top mixers.