Epica Personal Blender with Take-Along Bottle

The media could not be loaded. This is exactly what we needed - a small efficient power-packed blender that’s very easy to use. It serves many purposes for making smoothies, soups and icy/slushy frozen drinks. .We have a full size Cuisinart Food Processor, a full size Hampton Beach Blender, and another full size food processor from Black and Decker. And yet we rarely use any of those appliances because they are too big, too heavy, taking up too much room, and limit our workspace. In addition, they are all far too large for our daily needs. Therefore, it is more convenient and easier to chop, mince or dice by hand, because we generally only need a small amount for whatever we are making. Consequently, those other appliances are all stored in the bottom cabinets of our kitchen, more or less collecting dust, and we hardly ever use them.General Description:This is basically a 2-piece set, the base is the blender and the top part also doubles as a travel bottle with a leak proof cover. The base is a square form but the corners are rounded and smooth, and the measurement of the base is approximately 5” x 5” with a 7” height. On the front is one power press button.The top of the blender, doubles as a plastic travel take-along bottle, and when attached to the base adds about 7” inches of height. The plastic top/bottle has three measurements on the side, 200 ml, 400 ml, and 600 ml at the top. Personally, it would be easier for me to have the American standard measurements to save me from looking up conversions; however, 600 ml is the equivalent of a tad more than 20 ounces. However, the great thing about the travel bottle is that it is spill-proof and leak proof. Whether it’s lying on its side or held upside down, nothing spills or leaks out at all.SMOOTHIES - are fast and easy to blend and although there are hundreds of recipes for smoothies, I prefer the simpler ones that only take 60 seconds or less.One of my favorites:1 C. orange juice½ banana5 or 6 strawberriesI blend this simple mixture for 10-20 seconds for a smooth and frothy tasty smoothie and without any chunks.SOUPS - this blender has the capacity to handle hot liquids and therefore I can use it to make hot soup. However, due to my mishap on my very first attempt, I made an interesting discovery for another use.My first endeavor was to make some chicken soup, which is good for a cold winter’s day. First I poured in the heated broth and added large chunks of cooked chicken, onions, celery and the hard carrots last of all. This resulted in a very thick consistency similar to a paste or a sauce. Even the hard carrots ended up liquidized, and there were no chunks of any ingredient that I added, therefore everything turned into a thick mash. Consequently, for a chunky style soup, I need to pour any blended ingredients over separate chunky pieces otherwise they process quickly into a sauce. However, this blender does make the best soups for a thick and rich creamy consistency, and it’s ideal for making homemade baby food.FROZEN, SLUSHY, AND ICED DRINKSI love to make slushy cold drinks for my grandchildren, with fresh fruit, fruit juice and ½ a cup of crushed ice. First I add about a 1 cup of juice, several strawberries, pineapple chunks or whatever fresh fruit we have on hand. Sometimes I add some other ingredients such as walnuts or shredded coconut and then as the last ingredient I’ll add ½ cup of crushed ice. For us adults, I’ll add a little rum, brandy, vodka or Bailey’s Irish Cream and we can enjoy our own versions of an icy cold cocktail with crushed ice too.Cleaning is so very easy, even when the bottle has not been washed all day with dried food stuck on the sides and the bottom. I don’t even bother using a bottle brush and instead I just pour about cup of water into the bottle, add some dish detergent, put the bottle back onto the blender and push the power button for about 10 seconds. The bottle is immaculately clean after I rinse out the sudsy water, an efficient and effortless way to clean the bottle.In conclusion, this little powerhouse performs as well as my larger full sized heavy and bulky appliances that took up too much counter space. Previously we would use the other larger ones only four or five times a year. However, even though the Epica is a smaller blender, it is just as efficient and much more convenient. Therefore it is easier to operate and we use our new Epica personal blender, multiple times a day.

Buy it. DO IT. DO IT NOW. This thing is a bighorn ram in sheep's clothing.I saw this pop up as a related item to who knows what I was buying and decided on an impulse to get it. It was SO cheap I felt like I couldn't NOT buy it. Plus I was tired of getting out the giant Vitamix assembly from the cupboard above the fridge every time I wanted to make myself a smoothie. I also didn't feel like cleaning that giant thing and having it take up all that counter space all the time.That said, I also was also very tired of buying blenders, as I've had 4 of them die on me in a matter of a few years, and usually within the first year of consistent use. Like vacuum cleaners, they just aren't built to last, and the ones that are, well they're as expensive as 10 of their cheaper competitors, so you can pick your poison. There's no middle ground, and the only reason I even had a blender before the Epica is because my roommate forgot his ungodly expensive Vitamix when he moved out, and he clearly hasn't tried to make a smoothie in the last 3 years. So uh... if you see Mike go ahead and just don't bring that up. But I digress...I love the idea of the small "bullet" type blender for single servings that can be easily used, cleaned, and stored. The ones tried previously did all that to some extent (Ninja, Magic Bullet, some Macy's brand with an Italian name I forget), but also promptly died, and two of those I would not have even tried to crush ice with. Compared to those, this thing works like you dropped a corvette engine into a chevy cruze. Unexpected beast mode. I nervously loaded ice in here for the first time, along with frozen fruit, protein, peanut butter, and who knows what else. aaaand BRRRT! Perfect smoothie. The thing barely flinched as it sliced through it all. Not only does it work way better than expected, but the stainless base blends in well in the kitchen and is small enough to leave out on the counter. Score.Sometimes it takes a few pulses to get everything in the cup to cycle around and get crushed, and you may have to detach and shake it a bit, reattach, and then keep blending. However, it's so easy and quick to use, even with that the whole blending process takes like 30 seconds. PLUS you drink out of the cup you blended it in so you don't dirty another one, and can even take it on the go with the spill proof lid. BRILLIANT. Who hates dishes? EVERYONE SANE. Another point for the Epica.There are downsides to the cup and they 1. are that you can't fit much in there obviously, but that comes with the territory, and that 2. it's somewhat difficult to clean. Unless you have dainty little Trump hands, its basically impossible to get your hands in there to clean with a sponge, and you would need some special brush or something to clean it really well otherwise. I usually just spray it out, swish some soapy water through, rinse. It's not perfect but it's clean enough for me. So the downsides here are that you can't make margaritas for 4 people at once, which nobody is buying it for, and that its not super easy to clean meticulously well. I can live with that and won't even take a star off for it.One thing is for sure, you wont find a more powerful blender for anything close to what this thing is selling for. I can't speak to longevity, but I've been using it without issue for 8 months consistently, and it's so cheap that it even makes those appliance protection plans a no brainer. I bought a 3yr warranty for a whopping $3.88, so for under $29 I have a little ice-destroying beast blender, guaranteed to last 3 years. Good luck finding another deal like that.