Okay, I have spent an hour going through all these threads on blenders and am now more confused than ever over what to buy.

I'd like a reasonably priced blender in the $99 to $148 range, plus s/h/tax.

I saw a video where a man makes a soup using broccoli, miso paste, and few other ingredients like olive oil and herbs.

Is broccoli about the hardest thing you would want to blend?

Are the Cuisinart models at Amazon good?

What are those blender wands used for?

You can get a rather decent model by Oster for around $50. I used the Beehive model prior to getting my Vitamix and was very happy with it. My boyfriend has the same Oster and is also very happy with it. I believe that Hamilton Beach makes some decent models in the $50-100 price range too.

I hope this helps.

Patty

The old Chinese saying: "Expensive isn't expensive. Cheap isn't cheap" applies here. What's the warranty period? What do you really want to blend? Will that blender do it well? What if you want to blend other products later, will it do those too? And, if it lasts only as long as the warranty period and warranty conditions allow, will you feel you made a good purchase?

There are horses, and then there are horses. If the objective is just to be able to say that you have a horse, then any old nag will do to stand in your pasture (or in the blender's case: to sit on your counter---and hopefully fit under your cabinets.)

If, on the other hand, you want a horse that will pull the plow in the spring, be ridden by the kids, and win the horse race at the county fair, you will want to be a little more picky.

The tales of households on their third, fourth, and fifth inoperative blender, are probably the households the Chinese had in mind with that old saying.

Manolie

Check out the Breville BJE200XL. You can get them at Amazon.com and they have many excellent reviews by owners on this model. I got it on sale at best Buys yesterday for $86. 700 watts, easy to clean, takes whole apples and tomatoes without cutting up, and makes juice in seconds.