Kitchen Blenders

Our blender just died.

We usually use it for mixing up frozen margaritas or pina coladas. (The frozen Bacardi mixers are excellent, very convenient, and relatively lower calorie vs. other mixers. Half a blender of crushed ice, plop the stuff in, add the liquor, blend, pour… in less than 1 minute.)

We’ve made both from scratch too, but honestly for the work involved, the Bacardi mixers are just way too convenient. It’s all about the liquor anyway — we use good tequilla and a little Triple Sec with the margarita mix, and Captain Morgan for the pinas with a Bermuda rum / Black label Bacardi / coconut rum floater. Simply awesome. For a 2 minute prep time, can’t go wrong.

ANYWAY, we’re ready to go with a good blender. Something that will chop up the ice nice and quickly, is easy to clean, and lasts a long time.

Does anyone have experience with the Cuisinant bar blenders or Kitchenaid "pro" line? I don’t know if we want to spend $100+, only if it’s truly worth it.
We tend to mix them up on the spur of the moment… maybe once every 1 or 2 weeks. So that’s why we tend to avoid from scratch. YES, I know it’s better… but it’s just too much work and too much to keep "on hand" without it spoiling (especially the coconut milk, which gets all coagulated and is a real mess).

Waring is the brand most used in bars for blending drinks. I pasted a couple links below. The first one is more expensive, but if you do as many frozen beverages as you say, it will be worth it to spend the extra $$$ and get one that will last.

If you tend to make one beverage for the evening, there is a new machine out made by Oasis, who also makes a commercial machine for restaurants and bars. It makes larger batches of frozen drinks, like a slushie machine. It also runs about $150+, and I have never used one, so I can’t give you a decent recommendation on it.

I have worked in dozens of different bars and restaurants, so I can recommend the Waring blender.

I bought a Kitchen Mate blender from local roadshow. I need need to replace the blade but I do not know where is the service center. It looks similar to the more famous "magic bullet blender"

I would suggest going to the following site:

http://www.aceappliance.com/appl.html

Click on Part Inquiry and fill out the form. I’ve had good luck with them.