Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender review: Does bigger always mean better when it comes to blenders?

Nutribullet is increasing its offering of powerful motorised blenders even further, with the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender. It’s a large capacity jug style blender which promises to serve up big batches of your favourite party drinks or family breakfast smoothies. But at a relatively low price point, is the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender comparable to other large jug blenders on the market? And can it provide the same, perfectly smooth results as the original Nutribullet?

I put the Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender through its paces with a range of notoriously tough ingredients, noting how well it coped with the textures, how quickly it blended and how smooth the results were when using its low, high and pulse settings. So, if you’re thinking about shelling out on a new Nutribullet appliance, read on to see how the Magic Bullet Blender fared and if it’s the right choice for you.

Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender review: What do you get for the money?

Nutribullet says the Magic Bullet Blender is “everything you love about the original magic bullet, only bigger.” And indeed, it’s a lot bigger. The blending jug holds 1.5l, but the whole appliance is handily just about small enough to fit underneath overhead cupboards when placed on the worktop.

This blender has a 600W motor, making it the most powerful of the magic bullets, but it’s worth noting that this is the same power as the original Nutribullet – and less than the more expensive Nutribullet 900 or Ultra.

The Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender features the same stainless steel sharp cross blade which twists straight onto the pitcher base before locking into place on top of the base unit. They say it is suitable for blending frozen fruit, berries and ice as well as hot ingredients like soups; there is a useful vent on top of the jug which allows you to add liquids and further ingredients during the blending process too.

As with all of the Nutribullet range, this blender is simple to operate, with one dial to choose from low, high or pulse cycles to help you achieve the desired consistency from your blends.

There are no further accessories such as a tamper or travel cups included in the Magic Bullet Blender.

Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender review: What’s good about it?

There’s a lot to like about the Nutribullet Magic Blender: it’s a really good price for a pretty powerful blender, and it does a good job of blending most ingredients. It’s super easy to clean – the jug is dishwasher safe – and it’s a no-brainer to operate.

I made smoothies in seconds with all the usual ingredients like fresh banana, fresh berries, spinach, protein powder and almond milk. It also dealt with frozen fruit and fibrous kale smoothies well, though these took longer to blend to my liking – it’s best to blend tougher ingredients slowly, using the low setting to incorporate everything before blending on high, which took around a minute in all.

It’s very good at blending most ingredients provided there’s plenty of liquid involved, and volume doesn’t affect its timing or results particularly; it took around the same time to blend a smoothie whether it was one third full, or up to capacity.

Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender review: What could be better?

As I mentioned, it’s very good at blending items when there is plenty of liquid involved; this is not always the case for other consistencies. As the jug is quite wide, drier ingredients like a kale pesto are very tricky unless you make vast quantities of the stuff. On my first few attempts, the pine nuts, kale, garlic and parmesan just spattered around the edge of the jug, with the blade not in contact at all. I had to pour in a lot of olive oil, lemon juice and water in order to rescue it and ended up with more of a sauce than the paste I wanted – and pieces of parmesan would not blend even though I’d pre-cut the cheese into chunks.

There are some discrepancies in terms of what the Nutribullet website and pictures on the box claim the Magic Bullet Blender can do, and what is written in the instruction manual. For instance, I’d planned to test its abilities when it comes to blending ice, but the booklet included very clearly states “DO NOT crush ice… [it] is not intended to be used as an ice crusher which may shatter the blending pitcher.” As I was testing the blender on a loan basis, I did not challenge the point.

Similarly, while it claims to be able to blend hot and warm ingredients, like soups and sauces, there is a very clear warning on this in the booklet too: “NEVER BLEND HOT, WARM INGREDIENTS IN THE BLENDING CUP.”

Finally, I’d hoped to test how well it coped with blending nuts into nut butters, (which the original Nutribullet can do with a bit of manual scraping to help it along) but the instructions forbade the use of dry ingredients. Given its performance with the pine nuts in the pesto, I don’t think it would have fared well anyway.

Nutribullet Magic Bullet Blender review: Should you buy it?

All things considered, for £50 this is a good blender. If you plan on primarily using the Magic Bullet Blender for whizzing up shakes and other drinks then I’d highly recommend; especially if you tend to prep several in advance, or want to serve up several at a time.

However, if you’re hoping to use the blender in a more cheffy way then there are higher powered, better equipped machines that would suit your needs better – but expect to pay for the pleasure.