Being a fairly methodical person I really wanted to make sure that I had run it through its paces before I passed on my assessment. And I wanted to do a couple of side by side challenges against my Vitamix to see how my two machines compared.
I can make soup pretty much instantly as the friction from the super-fast, six-prong blade heats the contents the longer it blends. But thirty seconds of blending is perfect for cold soups and soups where you are adding warm stock (it heats further as it blends). Anything else is ready in 30 seconds: dips, creams, flours, butters – you name it. Can you believe you can make chickpea flour – or any flour – in just a few seconds?
And it doesn’t just pulverise things to perfect smoothness: if you want to keep something nubbly – say nuts to top Pad Thai noodles – just pulse the pulse button and you get evenly crushed nuts for a restaurant-style finish to your dish. You have complete control.
For my head-to-head challenges I made today’s smoothie, a double batch of beetroot and cashew hummus, some frozen yogurt and sunflower seed butter. Both machines performed very well – as would be expected of high level machines. But there are a few points that may tip the balance in the Froothie’s favour:
- cost
- quietness
- ease of blending
- blending time
The cost difference alone would swing it for me: £599 for the Vitamix Pro 500 versus £329 for the Froothie Optimum 9400.
Plus the Froothie is that much more powerful “under the bonnet”: 1492 watts for the Vitamix Pro 500 versus a whopping 2238 watts for the Optimum 9400. That explains the quickness and thoroughness of blending. The Vitamix took 45 seconds to make this smoothie super smooth, while the Froothie took 35 seconds. Not too shabby for either, especially when you consider I deliberately choose tough-to-blend ingredients.
It really is quite amazing. Although it has both a tamper and a scraper I have only used the tamper once, and this was really because I put too little into the generously proportioned (and BPA-free) jug. My mistake. Silly me. The Froothie is also stunningly quiet for something that can blend rocks, if you are in to that kind of thing. Here is a comparison chart with the Vitamix Pro 500 (from the Froothie website): 
Other practicalities: although not for the dishwasher, all you do to get it clean is add a few drops of washing up liquid to the jug, a little water and pop it back onto the machine to blend on High for 10 seconds. That’s it. No waiting around for the dishwasher to run its cycle. And the jug is very easy to fit onto the base, sitting just over the four rubber prongs. With my Vitamix I was never quite sure if it was on correctly.
The Optimum 9400 also comes with a really good, very health-oriented cookbook (mainly raw foods). If you prefer your recipes and advice to be online, they have a Facebook page; and FroothieTV has loads and loads of recipes, advice and videos to peruse. Their head-to-head challenges are good to watch, too. And the rock crushing video. 🙂
If you already have a high speed blender it would be silly to upgrade to the Froothie Optimum 9400 – unless yours breaks. But if you are anything like me and want to get as much goodness into your diet and your family’s diet as possible – and quickly! – this machine might be for you. It comes with a generous 10 year international warranty, upgradeable to 12 years if you order via this link. Plus they ship worldwide at UK delivery prices (i.e. the same price to Sweden as it would be to Swansea).
Do you want to see it in action?
I am an ambassador for Froothie and some links in this article may be affiliate links. However, as always, all product reviews are based on my honest opinion. If you’d like to know more about Froothie health products, or this machine in particular, please visit the Froothie website for more details. Any purchases made through this/these link(s) are at no extra cost to you but give Food To Glow a small bit of money to keep the site afloat and developing healthy recipes to share. Thanks!
Green Passion Smoothie
5 ice cubes
Double fistful of chopped kale (even the ribs are fine if using the Froothie)
1 passionfruit – seeds and gooey flesh
1 nectarine or mango – roughly chopped
1 carrot, trimmed – roughly chopped
1 pear – roughly chopped
½ “thumb” of root ginger – peeled
½ lemon, peel removed and flesh roughly chopped
1 tbsp chia seeds or flax seeds
Put the ingredients into the jug, press on the lid and blend on low for a couple of seconds and then gradually turn up to 10, and blend for about 35 seconds. Drink!