Been trying to figure out how to get more veggies into the bellies of the Philips household. My go-to breakfast is a protein shake with a handful of frozen spinach or broccoli thrown in, but my current KitchenAid blender - though beautiful - just wasn't cutting it in producing Jamba Juice-like consistency. So I started thinking about buying one of those super high-end ones - the kind that can actually blend up raw veggies in a few seconds and make luscious, gorgeous green smoothies... and soups and ice cream and bread dough, oh my.

The two main choices in this space are VitaMix and Blendtec, of the viral video "Will it Blend" fame. (Side note: I am somewhat displeased by those wasteful videos... would rather them get the hottest tech product and auction it off in lieu of pulverizing and donate the money to a worthy cause. But I digress...)

The guy who makes the awesome green smoothie fix at the local Farmer's Market uses a VitaMix so I became fixated on that. I'm an as-seen-ov-tv/informercial type of gal, so I checked their site to find a live demo... nothing scheduled soon in SoCal, but they will be at a State Fair in Massachusetts when I'm visiting the East Coast next week. Thus, plans were made to attend.

But Blendtec would have none of that. Seredipity prevailed during my run to Costco yesterday. With perishables in the cart, I reached the back corner of the warehouse and lo and behold... the Blendtec girl was there showing her wares. LIVE DEMO! I was hooked. I did not move from that spot for at least 90 minutes, jotting down recipes while the cottage cheese and soy milk sitting in my cart spoiled, I'm sure. I did some quick research on the spot with my smartphone to see what others had said about the VitaMix vs Blendtec face-off... and ultimately made my decision. Blendtec.

Both brands are priced similarly and supposedly perform similarly. You can read all about the differences but for me, my main reasons for selecting Blendtec were:

• Height. Can fit on my countertop because it's a few inches shorter than VitaMix (Blendtec is actually same height as my KitchenAid blender). This may not sound like a big deal but those Vitamix inches would've contributed to the blender not clearing the cabinet above and therefore would lived out of sight, out of mind and tucked away in a bottom cabinet. Not ideal since I plan on making this blender part of my daily life.
• Brainless operation. The pre-programed buttons of the Blendtec (soups, ice cream, smoothies, etc) take the guesswork out of operating your blender - controlling not only the various speeds for each cycle, but the time of the cycle. At first I thought I'd prefer the easy dial of the VitaMix until I realized that you could overdo say, crushing ice and blend it too much or too fast and bascially get a snow cone. I'd much prefer to just press a button and walk away... which is exactly what I do as I'm running around the kitchen making breakfast for my boys and packing lunches. It's nice to not have to hover over my blender and try to figure out how to get the consistency right. 
• Versatility. If you want to do stuff like grind your own flour or seeds, you'd need a second "dry" blade for the VitaMix - with Blendtec you don't need a special blade. And while I don't fancy myself Laura Ingalls Wilder in that I'll be milling my own flour, I have already used my Blendtec to grind up flaxseed, which I can add in the green smoothies and a range of other foods without detection by the kiddos. The versatile Blendtec blade makes it so this blender is like a food processor.
• Easier to clean. The Vitamix has a big stick that you can use to get large chunks of food into pulverizing range. Vitamix touts this as an advantage but really, unless you're putting whole apples in the blender (which is probably not a good idea bc apple seeds are poisonous) you don't need the stick in the Blendtec product. The stick, plus the extra dry blade I talked about above would make this a little more complicated to clean and store than the Blendtec.
• Social media prescence. Ok, so this is for the dork factor only, but I tweeted a photo and said I was buying a Blendtec at Costco and soon thereafter someone from @Blendtec wished me well on my purchase... on a Saturday, no less. 'Round the clock Blendtec Twitter people? I think that says a lot. Couple that with the fact these guys proudly emblazen their product with the 800-number and web site for customer service inquiries, I feel good that they will listen when I need them to.

One last thing. I think Vitamix comes with a 7-year warranty and Blendtec comes with a 3-year warranty; however, when I purchased the blender from Costco yesterday, it came with an extended 4-year warranty, making it a 7-year warranty. So I had no reservations about buying this with the full confidence that I was really getting the best blender for me. I've already used the thing 20 times in 30 hours (how do I know this? They have a counter on the front, presumably so you see how many times you use it and don't feel so bad about dropping $400 for a blender) and I have a feeling I'll be sharing more about this new addition to the household.